dissertation

13
be described as helping to show and spread – by inspiration of the Spirit – the kingdom
(‘reign’) of God as proclaimed and brought about by Jesus of Nazareth. In order to
serve this mission, interpersonal relationships and conversations within the church
should receive more emphasis than programs, and teamwork more than committee
meetings. Moreover, the structures that are chosen should help increase the adaptability
and flexibility of the community in regard to their missional environment, and they
should stimulate and facilitate the responsibility of groups and individuals. The aim,
therefore, is to share and distribute leadership. The role of leaders in a missional framework
is to facilitate the processes that are involved in missional leadership, while being
involved in leadership development as well.
Views on leadership within the EMC are connected with those on leadership education.
Seminary administrators and faculty in the United States are urged, among other
things, to be “agents of transformation, on the forefront of innovative pedagogies, online
and ‘hybrid’ programs, and praxis-based education.” 63 Moreover, they are to be more
alert to missional theology, to seek out more conversation with leaders in the Emerging-
Missional milieu and to offer these leaders a greater voice in shaping theological education
in the twenty-first century. 64
In our opinion, these are interesting and pertinent suggestions, also for protestant 65
theological educators in the Low Countries. This is why we incorporate the topic of leader
66 education in our research, as will be explained next.
63
See Philip Clayton, comment on “An Emergent Seminary for an Emerging Church,” Patheos, comment
posted October 17, 2011, http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Emergent-Seminaryfor-an-Emerging-Church-Philip-Clayton-10-17-2011?offset=1&max=1
(accessed December 19, 2011).
64
Cf. David W. Boshart, Becoming Missional: Denominations and New Church Development in Complex Social
Contexts (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011), 147.
65
We focus on Protestantism, because this is the tradition we are most familiar with. This is not to deny
that these suggestions may be pertinent for Roman Catholics as well, because the Roman Catholic Church
faces comparable challenges, as the Dutch priest Ad Verest has recently pointed out in his plea for a paradigm
shift from a volkskerk (‘people’s church’) to a missionaire gemeenschap (‘missional community’). See Ad
Verest, “Vele bloemen in één tuin. Randvoorwaarden en kansen voor small Christian communities binnen de
gemeenschap van de ‘nieuwe’ parochie,” [Many flowers in one garden: Preconditions and chances for small
Christian communities within the community of the ‘new’ parish] in Kees Slijkerman en Fred van Iersel, eds.,
Kleine geloofsgroepen. Wegen naar een vitale parochie [Small faith communities: Ways toward a vital parish]
(Heeswijk: Abdij van Berne, 2011), 21, cf. 34.
66
Often the terms ‘leader’ and ‘leadership’ are used interchangeably. In this thesis, however, a distinction is
made between leader education (or development) and leadership education. Leader education can be described
as the acquisition or development of within-individual attributes such as knowledge, knowledge structures,
skills, abilities, and competencies, while leadership education may be seen as the expansion of the organization’s
capacity to enact the basic leadership tasks needed for collective work: setting direction, creating
alignment, and maintaining commitment. In other words, leader development refers to the enhancing of
human capital; leadership development to the stimulation of social capital. See David V. Day, Michelle M.
Harrison, Stanley M. Halpin, An Integrative Approach to Leader Development: Connecting Adult Development,
Identity, and Expertise (New York: Psychology Press, 2009), 159; Cynthia D. McCauley and Ellen Van Velsor,
“Our View of Leader Development,” in Cynthia D. McCauley and Ellen Van Velsor, eds., The Center for
Creative Leadership Handbook of Leader Development (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004), 18. The reasoning
behind this distinction is the insight that sending a changed person (say, a young theology graduate) back