In his latest missional journal, David Dunbar addresses “Missional Antibodies.” After a discussion of shifts in leadership practice and theory, he pulls in Roxburgh’s perspective:

Alan Roxburgh discusses the anxiety over marginalization that has led pastors in late modernity to “the continual search for ways to reconfigure pastoral identity.”   This has resulted in three common images, all of which he argues, remain within the paradigm of modernity.

1.   the therapeutic – pastor as counselor

2.   the technical-rational – pastor as CEO/manager/entrepreneur

3.   the creator of community – pastor as facilitator of body-life [4]

Less is more

These critiques highlight two important issues that need to be addressed by leaders in the missional church.  The first is the tendency toward elitism in current models of leadership.  The pastor as scholar/teacher and as technician/professional reinforces a strong top-down understanding of spiritual authority and ministry.  The expectation is that ministry leaders can (or should) know it all and do it all. This of course puts more pressure on pastors to “prove” themselves in a culture of rising leadership expectations.

Read Dunbar’s whole article here.