Resumo

LABUSCHAGNE, Frederick J.  e  NEL, Malan. Church leadership as mediator for an impossible reality: a practical theological study of the role of leadership in the transformation of congregations. Herv. teol. stud. [online]. 2010, vol.66, n.2, pp.1-6. ISSN 2072-8050.

The Church finds herself in a complex society, which currently has a destructive impact on the realisation of the Church. To overcome the challenges of our time, leaders must help to shape new realities creatively and innovatively. Church leadership must find an alternative way of dealing with the issues at stake in order to guide congregations on a challenging journey. The challenge for congregational leaders is to let the realisation of the Church take place in a revealing and developing manner. The assumption is that the Church is realised organically rather than mechanically and institutionally. Leadership is a dynamic matter that should be realised in a congregational and ecumenical context. The question to be answered in this article is: What is the role of leaders in a world typified as complex? Because of the complexity of postmodern society, leadership theory and practice have developed beyond the point of planning, organisation and control (acceptable managerial scientific methodology). Leadership in the Church is a collective matter, and, as such, it should be approached and managed holistically with dynamic and relational methods.

Palavras-chave : leadership; management of change; complexity; postmodernism; identity of the church; life-cycle approach; strategic planning; relational.

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