“Kingdom
Leadership in the Postmodern Era” is an article written by Leonard Hjalmarson
for The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada online. Hjalmarson argues that churches
need to build cultures of leadership rather than individual leaders. Instead of
traditional, top-down leadership structures with one isolated leader at the
top, leadership in the future will move from the fear and compliance demanded
by hierarchies to diverse individuals and teams who share the responsibilities
for leadership. Further, some basic tenants of postmodern leadership includes a
rejection of authority in position, rejecting titles and labels as divisive to
communities, leading by wisdom and example rather than knowledge and authority,
co-traveling and sharing the journey with others, and utilizing fluid and
organic metaphors when discussing leadership and community.
While
I am appreciative of this article and its fresh way of looking at leadership, I
find that postmoderns often expose the abuses of traditional leadership and reject
them as a result. However, simply because something has been abused does not
make it incorrect or inefficient. One cracked egg in the carton does not mean
they are all cracked. Also, Hjalmarson says things that actually hurt his
argument against traditional structures. For example, Hjalmarson claims that
postmoderns “tend to assign authority only when it is earned.” I do not believe
Jesus assigned authority to the disciples simply because at some point in their
lives they earned it. Finally, if we strip away modern distortions in order to
recover the ancient faith, as Hjalmarson calls for, we would probably find not postmodern
leadership but councils, deacons, bishops, and apostles.
Hjalmarson argument has some merit. I do think that as much as possible leadership responsibilities should be decentralized. Leaders should lead by example, however; leaders should also have knowledge, and in order to effectively lead a leader must have authority. Hjalmarson argues the postmodern world rejects authority, position, and title. The fact is that even if there is no formal position or title you cannot have leadership without authority. As much as society might try to move away from individual or hierarchical leadership to more team oriented leadership. The fact is that in most cases people will have a tendency to turn to a single person for decision making. Even in leadership groups there is often a first among equals. To try to totally get rid of the individual leader or the leadership hierarchy is to try to go against human nature.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your assessment that postmoders are trying to expose the abuses of traditional leadership without recognizing the strengths of traditional leadership. They also do not seem to see the weaknesses of the new kind of leadership. Leadership in the 21st century will be a melding of the traditional forms of leadership along with some new postmodern approaches.