What would an emergent leadership structure look like? Our corporate mindset has often associated leadership with delegation, demanding, hierarchy, etc. If you disagree, notice on the Apprentice who is considered a "good leader." The church unfortunately has fallen into the same trap.
A good senior pastor would be able to "The head of staff will lead and support a multi-talented staff...This person will be caring and compassionate with a sensitivity to group dynamics and the ability to accept opinions from diverse groups of persons; will be a good communicator/listener with a sense of humor and a desire to relate to all members of the congregation; and will be a dynamic, inspiring preacher who leads us in meaningful and relevant corporate worship. Our head of staff will be an experienced person with the desire to relate to and coordinate our multi-person staff, making use of the many talents of our staff and people. This person will be a visionary with the ability to delegate responsibility and to lead our congregation in ministry and mission." Not gonna tell you what church I got this from, but as you can imagine--this would be an apt description of any senior pastor in a multistaffed congregation.
Here is the question again, emergent implies fluidness, however, as soon as a name/leader/visionary becomes attached to the fluidness it starts to congeal. Therefore, what will the emerging leadership structure look like?
I return to my favorite new word..."Convergence."
A leader needs to become a convergence of ideas, vision, tradition, and most important voices. Not to decipher which is best and make a decision, but to create a space for those ideas to converge.
So basically, this is what I have discovered--emergent leadership, if it wants to remain fluid, must discard the top-down structure for a powerfully-weak leader, that is one who can lead by not leading. Impassable tension.
