Emerging Leadership in the Pauline Mission

Synopsis:Where did Paul find leaders for his new churches? How did he instruct and develop them? What processes took place to stabilize the churches and institute their new leadership? This book carves a fresh trail in leadership studies by looking at leadership development from a group-dynamic, social identity perspective. Paul engages the cultural leadership patterns of his key local leaders, publicly affirming, correcting, and improving those patterns to conform to a Christlike pattern of sacrificial service. Paul’s own life and ministry offer a motivational and authoritative model for his followers, because he embodies the leadership style he teaches. As a practical theologian avant la lettre, Paul contextualizes key theological themes to strengthen community and leadership formation, and equips his church leaders as entrepreneurs of Christian identity. A careful comparison of the Corinthian and Ephesian churches demonstrates a similar overall pattern of development. This study engages Pauline scholarship on church office in depth and offers alternative readings of five Pauline epistles, generating new insights to enrich dogmatic and practical theological reflection. In a society where many churches reflect on their missional calling, such input from the NT for contemporary Christian leadership formation is direly needed.Endorsements:'In this highly readably text, Jack Barentsen rises to the challenging task of using the latest thinking on the psychology of leadership to provide a thoroughgoing, fresh, and highly convincing analysis of leadership in early Pauline communities. The result is not only an excellent theological monograph, but also a model of integrative scholarship that is much more than the sum of its theological and psychological parts. Indeed, as a forensic case study of leadership this is very hard to beat--and there is more to be learned from this volume than in the greater part of the vast managerial literature on this topic.'--Alexander HaslamSchool of PsychologyUniversity of Exeter'This volume offers a thorough account of the history of Pauline scholarship of local church leadership, together with the most extensive and detailed investigation into the development of such leadership across two ancient cities associated with the Pauline mission: Corinth and Ephesus. It concludes by offering a consistent portrait of leadership development, together with some wide-ranging implications both for this very important historical field, but also for modern-day church leaders. This is a most welcome study.'--Andrew ClarkeDivinity and Religious StudiesUniversity of Aberdeen'Jack Barentsen’s Emerging Leadership in the Pauline Mission fills a large gap in our current understanding of the organizational arrangements and leadership models utilized by the first followers of Jesus. This impressive monograph is well researched, erudite in formulation, and provocative in its conclusions. I believe that it will become a standard text for students of organizational leadership in the early Church.'--Corné J. BekkerProfessor of Biblical and Ecclesial LeadershipRegent UniversityAuthor Biography:Jack Barentsen, born and raised in the Netherlands, served as missionary church planter in his native country and now serves as Assistant Professor of Practical Theology and New Testament at the Evangelische Theologische Faculteit at Leuven, Belgium (www.etf.edu). He also serves as Secretary of the Institute of Leadership and Ethics at ETF, speaking on leadership and offering consulting services to church leadership teams.