Leadership in the Church for a People of Hope

This book explores Church leadership in the context of the 21st century and to ask how it must change and adapt while being true to its roots; it bringd together insights from theology, history and the social sciences in a way that will show that it has much to learn from contemporary leadership studies while also being different in important ways. Many leadership studies either ignore the need for leadership to be properly ecclesiologically grounded and hence risk simply uncritically importing secular models, or put forward a simplistic biblical view of leadership which fails to make creative use of what can be learned from secular studies. To ignore the present context of the Church, as some studies do, is to fail to see how previous explorations of Church leadership are based upon assumptions or presuppositions which are no longer valid thus perpetuating anachronistic models of leadership and the Church that hinder its ability to move forward. The book will attempt to redress these imbalances.

Dr Mervyn Davies is Scholar-in-Residence at Sarum College, Salisbury, and honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Bristol University, UK. Canon Dr Graham Dodds is Director of Lay Ministry in the School of Formation, Diocese of Bath Wells, advisor of the Bishop of Bath Wells in adult educational matters, and Canon Treasurer of Wells Cathedral, UK.