scholarly journals The Akan Traditional Leadership Formation: Some Lessons for Christian Leadership Formation

2021 ◽  
pp. 75-91
Author(s):  
Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Women In Leadership ◽  
Christian Leadership ◽  
Indigenous Leadership ◽  
Leadership Formation ◽  
Mission Schools ◽  
Traditional Leadership ◽  
Identity Crises ◽  
Christian Leaders ◽  
The Church

Traditional and Christian leaders in Akan communities in Ghana provide leadership services for the same Akan people. For proper internal harmony and identity devoid of identity crises, the two leadership systems should not only understand each other but must be willing to learn relevant values and lessons from each other. The integration which has already taken place among Akan traditional leaders as they have over the years learnt Christian leadership values and lessons from churches and mission schools is yet to take place properly in Christian leadership formation. This article seeks to analyse the values and lessons in Akan traditional leadership formation and its significance for Christian leadership formation. Observation and interviews of the Akan traditional leadership institution at Akuapim, Akyem and Asante and examination of secondary materials on early interpreters of the interaction between the Akan traditional leadership institution with the Christian faith are used to gather qualitative data. Akan traditional leadership formation pays much attention to matters of royal consciousness, leadership as service, mentoring, the celebration of the Adae festival and oath swearing. Christian leadership formation that seeks to avoid the church being alien on Akan cultural soil will need to pay attention to the indigenous leadership formation when addressing issues on institutional memory, stewardship, women in leadership, leadership as service and accountability in Christian leadership. Keywords: Akan, Christian, Traditional Leadership, Leadership Formation.

scholarly journals African and Western approaches to the moral formation of Christian leaders: The role of spiritual disciplines in counteracting moral deficiencies

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Kretzschmar
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Disciplines ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Theological Ethics ◽  
Moral Formation ◽  
Leadership Formation ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Christian Leaders ◽  
The Church

This article begins with a brief outline of current African and Western contexts, and the moral predicaments in which leaders in South Africa find themselves. The research problem addressed is how the spiritual maturity and moral excellence of Christian leaders can be advanced. The methodology employed draws on African and Western cultural and Christian traditions of moral formation. Whilst some common means of moral formation are discussed, particular attention is given to the role of spiritual disciplines. The article aims to address the following question: ‘how do leaders become the kind of people who will make good and right decisions, live moral lives, contribute to the life and work of the church, care for others and the environment, and pursue social justice?’ Three clusters of moral deficiencies are discussed, including pride, vainglory (self-glorification or narcissism) and greed, together with the spiritual disciplines that can counteract them. The central argument is that spiritually mature and morally excellent leaders can address more effectively the moral challenges facing the church and South African society.Contribution: This transdisciplinary article contributes to the HTS’s theological research by combining the academic disciplines of Christian Spirituality and Theological Ethics with particular reference to leadership formation. It further contributes to academic contextual discourse by evaluating African and Western traditions of moral formation and advancing practical means of addressing leadership deficiencies.

scholarly journals Christian leadership in a South African township community: A reflection on nepotism and its impact on society

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kasebwe T.L. Kabongo
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Christian Leadership ◽  
Church And Society ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Christian Leaders ◽  
South African Township ◽  
The Church

The author reflects on the reality of nepotism in Christian leadership as he has observed in the township of Soshanguve and many other African poverty-stricken communities he has lived in. The leadership of churches in those areas seems to run in the family. This model tends to have a disempowering effect on the other church members in terms of taking responsibility or initiating projects that could expand the impact of the church beyond the borders of its walls. This article recognises the positive impact of nepotism, but it mostly stresses on the negative impact of nepotism on the democratisation of power in the church and society. It uses music, a critical vehicle of knowledge acquisition in Africa, to stress upon the fact that Christian leaders should be equipped to participate in the common good, help in the empowerment of ordinary people around them, starting with their members and be altruistic, like Jesus, and work beyond the boundaries of their families.

scholarly journals Tugas Pemimpin Muda Kristen Masa Kini Sebagai Gembala Menurut 1 Timotius 4

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-97
Author(s):  
Santy Sahartian ◽  
Samuel Brian Septiadi
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Young Age ◽  
Youth Leadership ◽  
Christian Leadership ◽  
God's People ◽  
God's Word ◽  
Great Responsibility ◽  
Christian Leaders ◽  
The Church

Abstract: The church is God's people who need guidance and leadership so that people can know God. Therefore the Church needs a leader who understands his duties as a leader. But there are still church leaders who do not understand their duties as leaders based on Bible principles. The church is less prepared for the younger generation as leaders. This we can see in the church in general does not provide opportunities for young people to develop their potential to lead. This church's disbelief in youth leadership is increasingly apparent because of the life of the Christian youth itself. Aside from not being able to be considered capable, the church is reluctant to entrust great responsibility to the youth because the lives of Christian youth are often considered far from God's word. Today's young Christian leaders are those who carry out Christian leadership duties at a relatively young age. Today's young leaders have so many weaknesses that young leaders are less accepted and respected by many people, so that Christian youths are trusted they must carry out the duties of young Christian leaders today according to 1 Timothy 4 namely young Christian leaders should remind the congregation of the word, teach the truth of the word , be an example for God's people who are led, grow in service, supervise themselves and teachings. So that the Christian Young leaders can be respected by everyone.Keywords: Task, Young Leaders, I Timothy 4Abstrak: Gereja merupakan umat Allah  yang memerlukan pembinaan dan kepemimpinan sehingga umat dapat mengenal Allah. Maka dari itu Gereja membutuhkan sosok pemimpin yang memahami tugasnya sebagai pemimpin. Namun masih ditemukan pemimpin gereja yang kurang memahami tugasnya sebagai pemimpin berdasarkan prinsip-prinsip Alkitab. Gereja kurang mempersiapkan generasi muda sebagai pemimpin. Hal ini dapat kita lihat di dalam gereja secara umum tidak memberikan kesempatan bagi pemuda untuk mengembangkan potensinya dalam memimpin. Ketidak pecayaan gereja terhadap kepemimpinan pemuda ini semakin nyata karena kehidupan pemuda Kristen itu sendiri. Selain karena kurang di anggap mampu, gereja enggan mempercayakan tanggung jawab yang besar kepada pemuda karena kehidupan pemuda Kristen yang sering kali dianggap jauh dari firman Tuhan.  Pemimpin muda Kristen masa kini adalah seorang yang menjalankan tugas kepemimpinan Kristen dalam usia yang relative muda. Pemimpin muda masa kini memiliki banyak sekali kelemahan sehingga pemimpin muda kurang diterima dan dihargai oleh orang banyak, agar pemuda kristen dipercayai maka harus menjalankan tugas pemimpin muda Kristen masa kini t menurut 1 Timotius 4 yaitu  pemimpin muda kristen seharusnya mengingatkan jemaat akan firman, mengajarkan kebenaran firman, menjadi teladan bagi umat Tuhan yang dipimpin, bertumbuh dalam pelayanan, mengawasi diri dan ajaran. Sehingga pemimpin Muda Kristen dapat dihargai seiap orang.Kata- kata kunci: Tugas, Pemimpin Muda, I Timotius 4

scholarly journals Kepemimpinan Kristen Berdasarkan 1 Timotius 3:1-7

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Ezra Tari ◽  
Ermin Alperiana Mosooli ◽  
Elsye Evasolina Tulaka
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Role Model ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Christian Leadership ◽  
Leadership Model ◽  
Christian Leaders ◽  
The Church

This article examines Christian leadership with integrity based on 1 Timothy 3: 1-7. This study departs from the condition of the leaders, both church leaders and leaders in general. Some leaders are no longer a figure or role model for their own families, people they lead and even society in general. With that problem, the authors describe the leader who is an example for everyone. The method used is a qualitative method. Based on the study conducted by the author, there are two important things that need to be learned, namely Leadership Model is without blemish, husband of one wife, can hold back, polite, wise, likes to give a ride, and inspires many people including the servants in Church. Furthermore, the leader has a good name inside and outside the congregation. This is evident from the activities of the leader himself. Therefore, this paper is a study of Christian leadership that highlights all aspects of the life of Christian leaders not only in the Church but in society. Abstrak Artikel ini mengkaji tentang kepemimpinan Kristen yang berintegritas berdasarkan 1 Timotius 3:1-7. Kajian ini berangkat dari kondisi para pemimpin, baik pemimpin gereja maupun pemimpin pada umumnya. Beberapa pemimpin tidak lagi menjadi figur atau teladan bagi keluarganya sendiri, orang yang dipimpinnya bahkan masyarakat pada umumnya. Dengan persoalan itu maka, penulis memaparkan tentang pemimpin yang menjadi teladan bagi semua orang. Metode yang digunakan adalah metode kualitatif. Berdasarkan kajian yang dilakukan oleh penulis, maka ada dua hal penting yang perlu dipelajari, yakni Keteladanan pemimpin itu tidak bercacat, suami dari satu istri, dapat menahan diri, sopan, bijaksana, suka memberi tumpangan, dan menginspirasi banyak orang termasuk para pelayan-pelayan di Gereja. Selanjutanya, pemimpin itu memiliki nama baik di dalam dan di luar jemaat. Hal ini nampak dari aktiftas pemimpin itu sendiri. Oleh karena itu, tulisan ini merupakan studi kepemimpinan Kristen yang menyoroti seluruh aspek kehidupan pemimpin Kristen bukan hanya di dalam Gereja tetapi dalam masyarakat.

Dilema Kepemimpinan Kristen, Tuhan atau atasan?

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Rannu Sanderan
Keyword(s):  
Essential Elements ◽  
Christian Leadership ◽  
Government Employee ◽  
Authoritarian Leadership ◽  
The Core ◽  
Christian Leaders ◽  
The Church ◽  
Basic Substances ◽  
Leadership Discourse

This paper aims to examine and describe the nature of dedicated Christian leadership and to explore the essential elements of servanthood leadership. To serve is one of the most basic substances of Jesus' work. The problem of Christian leadership today is when leaders lose the character of Christ and are trapped in manipulating the name of Christianity or the church for the sake of his/her power. Methodically, this research refers to the leadership patterns of figures in the Old and New Testaments, with the support of literature studies that discuss Christian leadership discourse.  Jesus displaying his leadership as a critique towards the misgovern leader who can only tells order, same as the authoritarian leadership, those who reigning over the official or government employee by own wish or merely by his/her desire. If so, it means that the leader's character humiliates even corrupts his/her own leadership. In all conscience, the leader is a minister to his/her follower's needs; to serve with love, humility, and forgiveness. The result of this study emphasizes that Christian leaders who want to grow up should simply be like Jesus, great leaders originally ought to serve others first, thus in plain reality, the core of his/her leadership will be visible in greatness.   Tulisan ini hendak mengkaji dan menguraikan hakikat kepemimpinan Kristen yang mengabdi, dan mencari tahu unsur esensial dari kepemimpinan yang mengabdi. Mengabdi/melayani adalah sebuah unsur yang sangat mendasar dalam kepemimpinan Yesus. Problem kepemimpinan Kristen masa kini adalah ketika pemimpin kehilangan karakter Kristus, dan justru terjebak mengatasnamakan kekristenan dan gereja untuk kepentingan kekuasaan. Secara metodik, penelitian ini merujuk pola kepemimpinan tokoh dalam Perjanjian Lama dan Perjanjian Baru, dengan dukungan studi kepustakaan yang membahas wacana kepemimpinan Kristen. Yesus memberikan kritik pada kepemimpinan yang bersifat memerintah pengikut, menempatkan pimpinan sebagai bos yang harus selalu diikuti perkataan dan kehendaknya dan tidak memberikan teladan benar. Karakter pemimpin yang demikian merusak dan merendahkan wibawa eksistensi dari kepemimpinan. Seorang pemimpin adalah pelayan bagi pengikutnya. Melayani dgn kasih dan pengampunan. Hasil pengkajian ini menandaskan bahwa seharusnya pemimpin Kristen yang mau besar, mula-mula harus melayani orang lain, dan bahwa kenyataan yg sederhana ini merupakan inti kebesaran-Nya sebagai seorang pemimpin

Christian Radicalism and the Enactment of Secular Theology

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Brewitt-Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Religious Organization ◽  
Secular Theology ◽  
The World ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Student Christian Movement ◽  
Christian Leaders ◽  
The Church

This chapter outlines three examples of how secular theology was put into practice in the 1960s: Nick Stacey’s innovations in the parish of Woolwich; the radicalization of the ‘Parish and People’ organization; and the radicalization of Britain’s Student Christian Movement, which during the 1950s was the largest student religious organization in the country. The chapter argues that secular theology contained an inherent dynamic of ever-increasing radicalization, which irresistibly propelled its adherents from the ecclesiastical radicalism of the early 1960s to the more secular Christian radicalism of the late 1960s. Secular theology promised that the reunification of the church and the world would produce nothing less than the transformative healing of society. As the 1960s went on, this vision pushed radical Christian leaders to sacrifice more and more of their ecclesiastical culture as they pursued their goal of social transformation.

scholarly journals Exploring the characteristic of prophetic-liminality in ministerial leadership: A necessary ethic for contemporary South Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
J. Slater
Keyword(s):  
Church And State ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Visionary Leadership ◽  
Christian Leadership ◽  
Social Conventions ◽  
Innovative Leadership ◽  
Women Abuse ◽  
Ministerial Leadership ◽  
Problematic Situations ◽  
The Church

This article explores the prophetic liminality of Christian leadership as it is practiced against the contextual backdrop of social, ecclesial and ethical upheavals such as secularism, relativism, sexism, corruption, violence, crime, women abuse, xenophobia, disbelief and disillusionment in authority both in church and state. It argues for an up-to-date and leading-edge church-ministerial response to modern-day situations. It proposes liminal and innovative leadership for both church and state. However, the liminal quality is specifically aligned with the prophetic dimension of leadership. A prophet's leadership is here understood as visionary leadership that challenges and directs people beyond the ordinary, and confronts that which is unethical in society. Liminal here implies being and functioning at the cutting-edge of events, trailbracing and by steering away from the conventional approaches. Sadly, because leadership had become enmeshed with the systemic designs of the church, society, economics, culture or tribe, it demands to be interjected with an exceptional characteristic to minister both directly and at the same time indirectly to problematic situations. In the words of Diarmud O’Murchu, for a leader to function liminally s/he needs to be on the doorstep or on the horizon of everything contemporary. For leaders to stay in force and relevant implies living with innovative freedom, with human-divine recklessness and with honest integrity. In turn for liminality to be an effective quality in leadership, it involves being spiritually and morally courageous and particularly attuned to a transcendent capacity. This enables the leader to move with the ever changing circumstances of our times, into different situations and cultures, thus devising and applying different responses that constantly accommodate new possibilities The article carves out a theological and a directional itinerary for ministerial leadership that offers a liminal-prophetic liminal–transcendent challenge to leadership today. Liminal transcendent leadership pleads not to be dictated by ecclesial or social conventions and neither by personal conventions. Liminal leadership is by nature a painful search for an appropriate response to what is new, for that which is different in contemporary scenarios.

scholarly journals Building Enthusiasm and Overcoming ‘Fear’: Engaging with Christian Leaders in an Age of Science

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia Reid
Keyword(s):  
Science And Religion ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Christian Leadership ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ministerial Training ◽  
Lay Reader ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Christian Leaders

In popular culture the relationship between science and religion has often been portrayed as one of conflict. The impact of the conflict thesis can be observed in church leaders’ hesitancy in talking about science and religion in the public domain. It was this finding that led Revd Professor David Wilkinson (cosmologist and theologian) and Professor Tom McLeish (physicist and Anglican lay reader) to form the project ‘Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science’ funded by The Templeton World Charity Foundation. The data presented in this article (collected during 2015-2018) is derived from two discreet pieces of research. The first consisting of a survey of over 1,000 church leaders and interviews with 20 senior church leaders and, the second, with a strategic focus on ministerial training comprised of 12 interviews with church educationalists. This paper reflects on the findings from both pieces of research – covering topics such as church leaders’ enthusiasm towards science, how church leaders view the relationship between science and religion and the role of compartmentalisation in ministerial training. The article is unique in providing sociological analysis on the relevant data and including a personal reflection by David Wilkinson – the project’s director – on the implications of the research for ministerial training and science.

scholarly journals Leaders on ladders: the power of story in John’s Gospel

Perichoresis ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
Amy L. Crider
Keyword(s):  
Culture Time ◽  
Effective Leaders ◽  
The Future ◽  
Power Of Story ◽  
John's Gospel ◽  
To Come ◽  
Narrative Techniques ◽  
Christian Leaders ◽  
The Church

Abstract In his Gospel, John reveals this key leadership principle: effective leaders harness the power of narrative to illuminate the metanarrative and connect people to it. John uses narrative techniques to make invisible spiritual realities visible and thus succeeds in connecting people to the metanarrative. John forges a link between people and the metanarrative by showing individuals how their own stories fit into the biblical metanarrative, fulfilling his purpose: ‘These are written that you may believe…’ (20:31). The church is transmitted through the ages by leaders who write. Because the metanarrative is a story and story is accessible to all audiences, the biblical metanarrative is not dependent on culture, time, or context; it transcends the ages, enabling John to lead and write from the present as well as for the future. Thus, John illuminates the metanarrative not only for the infant church but for all Christians to come. Christian leaders today also need to communicate so their people can see their place in the metanarrative of Scripture.

Does Theology Belong in the University? Schleiermacherian Reflections from an Australian Context

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 484-495
Author(s):  
Ben Myers
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Christian Leadership ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Practical Science ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
The University ◽  
Academic Theology ◽  
The Church

Abstract This article argues that theology belongs in the university not because of its relationship to the other disciplines but because of its relationship to the church. It discusses Schleiermacher’s understanding of theology as a practical science oriented towards Christian leadership in society. It argues that Schleiermacher’s account provides an illuminating perspective on the history of academic theology in Australia. Theology belongs in the university not for any internal methodological reasons but because of specific contextual conditions in societies like Australia where Christianity has exerted a large historical influence. The article concludes by arguing that the ecclesial orientation of university theology is compatible with the aims of public theology, given that service to the Christian community is a means by which the common flourishing of society can be promoted.

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