Date of Award

2005

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Department

Seminary

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to better understand the leadership style of Jesus as it relates to the leadership in the church for the purpose of carrying forth Jesus' mission in today' s setting and developing disciples of Jesus Christ. Traditional anthropocentric, hierarchical, and individualistic leadership styles and structures do not connect with a generation of people in a post-modern era. I intend to clarify the leadership style of Jesus and propose that church leaders return to his style in order to effectively engage the church with a postmodern context. This approach to developing leaders for the church will equip the leader for service and connect the leader to the emerging culture through a learning community. This connection will be forged by reconnecting church leaders to the leadership model of Jesus demonstrated through his journey with the disciples.

In order to expand the kingdom of God and connect with the emerging culture of postmodernism the church must embrace a Christo-centric, collaborative and communal approach to ministry as it seeks to expand the kingdom of God. Chapter one introduces the narrative of Community Presbyterian Church who is challenged with reaching people in the emerging postmodern culture. Chapter two explores Jesus' leadership style by examining Biblical and historical texts. It is established that Jesus' style of leadership was rooted in love and demonstrated through his service of others. Chapter three highlights the early church's apostolic model of leadership, the guiding force of the Holy Spirit in expanding the early church, the relational nature of the Trinity and Paul's idea of community. All of this provides the basis that the early church was Christo-centric, collaborative and communal.

Chapter four highlights the leadership changes in the church. This chapter demonstrates where the church transitioned into a more anthropocentric, hierarchical and individualistic structure through various internal and external threats. Chapter five details the specific understanding of the postmodern culture and the leadership styles within that culture. Chapter six delineates the challenge the church faces in the face of postmodernism by outlining how the church can connect with its surrounding culture through a Christo-centric, collaborative and communal style of leadership. Chapter seven concludes by providing a plausible solution for Community Presbyterian Church as well as a model for church leadership for a postmodern culture within a Caucasian Western suburban setting.

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