A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

ntrusted with more power and influence than he could ever wield in a godly way. It is late, but not too late, to radically re- form the 'Cleric Complex.'16 It is ironic-and alarming-that many churches have been drawn to the "pastor as CEO" model at precisely the time when the corporate world is recognizing the inadequacies of centralized autocratic leadership. In the early 1970s Robert Greenleaf s classic, Servant Leadership, advocated a manage- ment style that rings familiar to anyone acquainted with the teachings of Jesus. More recently Max DePree, chair of the Herman Miller furniture manufacturing firm with more than 6,000 employees, gained the ear of Fortune magazine and others with his company's modelling of "covenant relation- ships" between employers and employees. Said DePree: "The worker should participate in management. The chief execu- tive's responsibility is to make that happen-to help each em- ployee to reach his or her potential. . . . The roots of leader- ship are in whether what you say is what you do. You have to be open to people, you have to build quality relationships."17 More and more business corporations are 227 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH finding it profitable to nurture covenant relationships for ef- fective leadership and workplace harmony. Must the church learn from the "world" to understand the importance of the shepherd-sheep paradigm as taught by Christ? Congregations wishing to align their shepherd-sheep rela- tionships with the biblical model would do well to consider the following contemporary expression of Mennonite Brethren polity, presented by Gerry Ediger at a study confer- ence in 1986: Principles of Leading and Following for a Covenant Fellowship The past ten years have yielded extensive Mennonite Brethren literature related to the theology and practice of leadership. In this process of re-examining Scripture for principles of leadership, there has been a strong emphasis on certain central values. For example: We want to agree that leaders are servants, All members of the church are gifted for ministry. Leadership is a role and function rather than an office. Leadership is exercised by a plurali- ty of persons called by the church or congregation for that purpose. These convictions suggest the following princi- ples of leading and following. A. Leaders are qualified first of all through being spiritually mature, gifted and appointed through the congregation/ church; they are not, in the first instance, qualified through their professional training or their designation of office, B. In the New Testament leadership