Tonight I will begin teaching a course entitle "Leaders and the Early Church" through the Antioch School of Church Planting and Leadership Development (Check it out). The stated purpose of the course is "...to bring leadership back to the center of the local church in a way that will empower churches to participate in the expansion of the gospel with the same vision and effectiveness as the first church at Antioch." Yeesh! Feels like a tall order. At the end of the day my intent is to look more closely at the early church and evaluate what forms of leadership were exercised and how those forms served the expansion of the Gospel. Our contemporary expression of church leadership is often culturally bound rather than scripturally based. We build hierarchies and job descriptions with a ear tuned to corporate structures and efficiency when the church is more closely associated with a family. We've lost sight of apostles, prophets, and evangelists for the one size fits all pastor who is expected to do it all. I think there is a better way.
Tonight we are going to explore the roles and functions of New Testament leadership, wrestle with the relationship of church and mission in Paul, and use big words like "Sodality" and "Modality." To top it all off we have a great group of people taking the class! Should be tons of fun.
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