The Missional LeaderA friend of mine helped me out with publishing a table, so here are the Pastoral and Missional Models of Leadership once again–this time side-by-side. Makes it so much easier to compare the two, wouldn’t you say? As I mentioned before, this is from The Missional Leader by Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk.

You can see my original post here.

Pastoral Model of Leadership: Missional Model of Leadership:
Expectation that an ordained pastor must be present at every meeting and event or else it is not validated or important. Ministry staff operate as coaches and mentors within a system that is not dependent on them to validate the importance and function of every group by being present.
Ordained ministry staff functions to give attention to and take care of people in the church by being present for people as they are needed (if care and attention are given by people other than ordained clergy, it may be more appropriate and effective but is deemed “second-class”). Time, energy, and focus shaped by people’s “need” and “pain” agendas. Pastor provides solutions. Ordained clergy equip and release the multiple ministries of the people of God throughout the church.
Pastor provides solutions. Pastor asks questions that cultivate an environment that engages the imagination, creativity, and gifts of God’s people in order to discern solutions.
Preaching and teaching offer answers and tell people what is right and wrong.

  • Telling
  • Didactic
  • Reinforcing assumptions
  • Principles for living
 Preaching and teaching invite the people of God to engage Scripture as a living word that confronts them with questions and draws them into adistinctive world.

  • Metaphor and stories
  • Asks new questions
“Professional” Christians “Pastoring” must be part of the mix, but not the sum total.
Celebrity (must be “home run hitter”)  
“Peacemaker” Make tension OK.
Conflict suppressor or “fixer” Conflict facilitator.
Keep playing the whole game as though we are still the major league team and the major league players. Continue the mythology that “this staff is the New York Yankees of the Church world!” Indwell the local and contextual; cultivate the capacity for the congregation to ask imaginative questions about its present and its next stages.
“Recovery” expert (”make it like it used to be”) Cultivator of imagination and creativity.
Function as the manager, maintainer, or resource agent of a series of centralized ministries focused in and around the building that everyone must support. Always be seen as the champion and primary support agent for everyone’s specific ministry. Create an environment that releases and nourishes the missional imagination of all people through diverse ministries and missional teams that affect their various communities, the city, nation, and world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.