I have written before that I believe the critical ingredient of effective missional communities is the leadership.

This is something we have been working on over the last couple of months and now we are at the point of acting on what we believe the scriptures to be saying.

Listed below is our distilled summary of what we see the NT saying about leadership (in no particular order):

• Leaders in scripture seem to have a sense of calling to the task of leading
• Biblical leaders must be servants
• Character/integrity is an essential quality of biblical leaders
• There is a gift of leadership and also the function of leadership
• Leaders are usually teachers / communicators of vision/direction
• Biblical leadership is about empowering and equipping others
• Leadership is plural
• Regards APEPT we would see that there is a need for a balance of orientation within a leadership team
• Leaders need to have a clear mission focus

As we talked tonight we agreed that the type of leadership we need right now is leadership that:
* keeps the group focused on the key calling of being missionaries in this community
* oversights the direction of the group and ensures we do what we say we are going to do
* protects the theological DNA of the group and ensures we are faithful to scripture in all we do

The next step is for us to appoint a leadership team. This week we will be praying about that issue and then coming together on Tuesday to see what we feel God saying.

At this stage we don’t have a specific process in place (making it up as we go!) but we are looking to hear God and see where it heads.

I will really value having a small team of people to chew the fat with and pray with regularly.