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Understanding Christian Leadership
Understanding Christian Leadership
Ian Parkinson
SCM Press, 2020, 304pp., pbk, £19.99
Ian Parkinson’s Understanding Christian Leadership seeks to cross several boundaries in existing literature by focusing on practice while also providing a strong theoretical foundation; critically exploring the gifts the church can receive from ‘secular’ leadership models and vice versa; and recognising the particular role leaders play within an expansive understanding of leadership. In Part One, Parkinson focuses on the theory by exploring both theological and biblical perspectives on leadership, as well as those from philosophy and business. In Chapter 1 the author reviews some of the existing leadership frameworks in order to demonstrate why leadership is important. This is all undergirded by an awareness of the complex combination of desire and resistance which marks the postmodern response to leadership. Chapter 2 explores various definitions of leadership in order to settle on a working definition which is taken forward through the rest of the book, namely: ‘A relational process of social influence through which people are inspired, enabled and mobilised to act in positive new ways, towards the achievement of shared goals’ (47). In Chapters 3 and 4, the author looks to the Old and New Testaments respectively to explore biblical models for styles of leadership. Chapter 5 deals with one of the most pressing matters for leaders in all sectors: the culture of distrust towards people in leadership. Rather than being dismissive of such concerns, Parkinson engages with them fairly, addressing what he calls ‘philosophical and moral reservations’ (though these are often experienced in real terms, of course) as well as theological reservations, from the perspective that ‘the antidote to bad leadership is not no leadership but good leadership’ (112).
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