There has been a pattern within “big Eva” of celebrity-type pastors imploding due to a variety of issues (immorality, financial impropriety, just being an overall jerk, etc). To be fair, this is not a trend exclusive to the churches that practice a corporate model of leadership (many of us were deeply saddened by Steven Lawson having to step out of ministry recently). However, it seems like there is a certain type of leadership that promotes and builds towards these types of falls. Many churches are not looking for a pastor in the biblical sense of the term, but a CEO, visionary, charismatic leader, prophetic guide, or simply someone who is an excellent communicator and looks good in tight jeans.
In their book, Expositional Leadership, Scott Pace and Jim Shaddix give us a better way, a more biblical way. They argue for “expositional leadership” from pastors. They define expositional leadership as “the pastoral process of shepherding God’s people through the faithful exposition of his word to conform them to the image of his Son by the power of his Spirit.” Expositional Leadership fits a gap in the scholarship on preaching and leadership by essentially bridging the gap between them. Much as Hershael York’s book Preaching with Bold Assurance bridged a gap between the sermon and communication principles, Pace and Shaddix seek to give pastors a theology of leadership based on a theology of preaching. This model immediately discounts most of the secular concepts of leadership that are imported into the church by tying it directly to expository peaching, a model of preaching that is missing from almost every church that holds to these concepts of leadership.
Throughout the book, the authors argue that from the pulpit the pastor leads his people by showing them how to interpret and apply the Word of God, grow spiritually, and think strategically. They add three more chapters on “Servant Leadership,” “Situational Leadership,” and “Sensible Leadership.” The book is short and easy to read. And while it is general in nature (if you read a steady diet of preaching books, you won’t find much here you haven’t read ten times), there is value. The authors succeed in shifting the paradigm of how we as pastors view leadership. For me, it goes from an extra thing I have to do each week to a joyfully integrated part of what I love doing preaching the Word of God. We are reminded that our primary task is the ministry of Word, not some concept of “strategic leadership” that requires an MBA to implement.
If you’re looking for a detailed manual on preaching or a detailed book on leadership, this isn’t it. But if you want an introduction to how being a Scripture-saturated, Spirit-filled expository preaching can also lead your congregation in a truly biblical fashion, this book will get you well along the way.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
