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Rediscovering team leadership for churches

zeroThe secular ethos and post-Christian mindset have been swallowing churches alive in the UK like the mighty Sarlacc pit’s digestive juices slowly eroding Boba Fett’s Mandalorian body armor, according to Peyton Jones in his book Church Zero: Raising 1st Century Churches Out of the Ashes of the 21st Century Church. Churches in the US have started disappearing the same way, and the process will continue unless we can relearn ministry from the foundations up.

The book goes on to discuss the importance of apostles in the early church, and in particular the concept of team ministry with reference to Ephesians 4:11-13 (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers). The author refers to this as FIST leadership, because a fist is made up of five co-operating fingers. As a result of restricting church leadership to the pastor-only model, we have limited functionality and our mission has been compromised.

As the author acknowledges, there is something uncomfortable about having designated “apostles” and “prophets” as part of the church leadership team. Those who proclaim themselves to be “apostles” typically lack the humility expected of a Christian leader, and the most outspoken “prophets” are often those who predict the end of the world and then keep changing the date. Nonetheless, the book makes a convincing argument for team leadership in churches.

The book is replete with references to He-Man, She-Ra, Indiana Jones, Disneyland, the A-Team, Voltron, and a range of other cultural references that suggest the author may have spent too much time watching television in the 1980s. There are also several fascinating insights gleaned from the author’s time spent planting churches in Wales. If you are a current or future church leader wanting to know how you can become more effective, this book is well worth a read.