09: Leading Lights

Leadership is an inescapable issue for fresh expressions of church. Are we making good decisions about who is deployed to lead them? How do they fare? Does the wider system encourage or constrain?

The kind of leadership found in fresh expressions of church is varied. Many wish to avoid the very language of leader altogether, feeling it is too directive and potentially exploitative, whereas others rely on the leader possessing specialised skills. Some churches are more effective led by someone ordained whereas others flourish under lay leadership. Across this bewildering diversity, we learn that matching the mission resource (of which the leader is one key resource) to the mission task is the most important dynamic.

This issue looks at the particular dynamics involved in new churches led by lay leaders. Three stories of flourishing lay-led churches are told as the questions - Can a lay led venture be a church? Can part-time leadership work? What about sacramental provision? – are examined in depth.