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Leading by example

Peter's way for the church today

Lording it over the flock?

LEADING BY EXAMPLE
Peter’s way for the Church today
By Graham Houston
Paternoster. 198 pages. £11.99
ISBN 978-1-84227-604-4

If authoritarian leadership is or may become a problem in your church, then Leading by Example is a book for you. Graham Houston believes that the ‘lording it over others’ style of leadership is as much a problem in the 21st century as it was in the first. He is worried that church leaders have imbibed too much from secular management and leadership models and seeks to take us back to the Bible, and to the apostle Peter in particular. In Peter, Graham Houston believes we have, modelled and taught, leadership by example.

It’s a book that manages to combine a scholarly approach with readability. He is very firmly and clearly biblical in his approach, and will help any reader become a more biblical and so better leader. That can’t be bad. But it’s not all wonderful. If there is a general weakness, I would think it lies in the step from excellent exegesis to practical outworking. Some more examples would have been helpful too. I just got the impression that when the rubber needed to hit the road, he was more of a hovercraft.

I was also disappointed when he unnecessarily pointed the finger at specific Christian leaders as examples of those who ‘lord it over’ those they lead.

I would like to have seen a greater depth and breadth in his critique of secular models of leadership and management, but his succinct analysis of Stephen Covey in chapter 9 was very helpful and should be read by all those Christians who have read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People uncritically. Graham Houston also (rightly in my view) gives a clear explanation as to why he is cautious about unthinkingly seeking to apply the latest offering from across the Atlantic to our culture here. Rick Warren (Purpose Driven…) comes in for some stick with his ‘self evidently universally valid principles’. I hope Houston doesn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater though.

If you want to lead with authority but without being authoritarian, Leading by Example will help you do that, and give you a good biblical basis for changing the way you think about leadership, and then changing the way you lead. And if you have a problem with authoritarian leadership in your church, and you’re not very subtle, you could buy it for your pastor for Christmas.

Phil Moon,
vicar of Bishop Hannington Church, Hove