Are you a warrior-leader?

Bobby Welch’s book is an impassioned and heartfelt call for Christians, laymen and clergy alike, to adopt a warrior-like approach to Kingdom work and Christian living. One of the later chapters, “Dying Words Of A Warrior Leader,” illustrates the title’s stated desire for a whole-life commitment. In fact, if there were more warrior-leaders in the pulpits and pews, God’s Kingdom today would advance as never before.

The book is organized in four main sections; The Warrior Leader’s Motivation, The Warrior Leader’s Mind, The Warrior Leader’s Mission, and The Warrior Leader’s Maturity. The chapters in these sections provide valuable advice and instruction in Kingdom-building, especially soul-winning. The illustrations and teaching-stories used to support the concepts are all powerful and almost exclusively military in nature.

Motivation

The chapter “You’re a Warrior, Not a CEO,” illustrates Welch’s approach in this work. Welch is quick to state that chief executive officers are a vital part of society, but they are not the model for Christian living or Church management. Christians and the Church are called to loving and careful but assertive, if not aggressive, evangelism and discipleship. Efficiency should take a back seat to effectiveness when it comes to souls. Borrowing from business management practice should be sparing and careful.

Mind

Unconventional Warfare speaks to the common yet unique nature of Christian Kingdom building. Some concepts are universal in strong organizations: “Take care of the people,” or “Achieve the mission.” How do these ideas find practice with Sunday School teachers and youth leaders? God-work is always unique and different, no matter how much it looks like something secular.

Mission

The Twelve Ways To Win is a chapter of valuable insight and good instruction. The twelve principles outlined, used in correct concert, will enable any Church-body to impact its community for Christ. Here Pastor’s Welch unique perspective and experience wins the day. He can speak to leadership “among the troops” that few others can. When he says leaders need to have front-line mentalities, you have to give serious consideration to what he says.

Summary

Despite the many good points and worthy message of You, The Warrior Leader, it is a challenging reading experience. The teaching stories and illustrations tend to be over long in the reviewer’s estimation. There is a jarring effect that calls attention away from from Pastor Welch’s intended message.

As a highly decorated combat veteran, and a high profile Gospel minister, there is much to commend Pastor Welch. This book contains much valuable material and insight. Be prepared to to work hard to draw the God-sent message off the pages and into your life.

Reviewed by Kirk Hunt

The review of this 2004 book was originally published on the Pneuma Foundation (parent organization of PneumaReview.com) website. Later included in the Spring 2026 issue of The Pneuma Review.

“Women can be ordained and preach, but they are not permitted to teach theology.” These were the instructions I heard in a Pastoral Epistles class during my junior year at an Assemblies of God Bible college. I walked away from it confused and frustrated because I sensed a call to teach. As a female, I had heard that I was empowered by the Holy Spirit to minister. However, in that moment, I simultaneously heard both a message of empowerment and disempowerment. It is this paradox Joseph Dutko addresses in The Pentecostal Gender Paradox: Eschatology and the Search for Equality. In this well-researched, thoroughly Pentecostal publication, Dutko beckons Pentecostals to a live out today an equality as imagined in the eschaton—the time when God will be all in all (1 Cor 15:28).

As both a pastor and an academically-trained theologian, Dutko intersects Pentecostal history, eschatology, pneumatology, and biblical texts to form a solid foundation for a praxis of equality. By outward appearances, Dutko’s proposal may seem to some to be strictly theoretical, but it is not. It is a praxis, which, to quote theologian Ray Anderson, is “truth in action.” It is a living out today a biblical theological egalitarianism of the future. While Dutko’s Gender Paradox is academic, church leaders will appreciate how he offers specific ways (praxes) for churches to play with an expression of an eschatological egalitarianism. That is, he puts forth how we as Pentecostals may creatively live out a biblical equality between men and women that is based on our future in the new heaven and the new earth.

Dutko explores the historical pentecostal movement to demonstrate that early Pentecostals (those from 1901-1920s) drew from eschatology to authorize women in ministry. Dutko analyzes women’s stories to see how women and men defended women’s recently discovered liberties. More specifically, he explores how an eschatological approach assisted in formulating early Pentecostals’ rationale concerning gender equality. At the beginning of the Pentecostal movement, early Pentecostal periodicals indicate that men upheld the new liberation of women in ministry, overriding previously held restrictions by drawing from eschatology. Dutko then underscores the stories of Maria Woodworth-Etter, Zelma Argue, and Aimee Semple McPherson in order to determine how they biblically justified their freedom in ministry. He perceives that these women mainly lived out their newfound freedom, but when they were called upon to defend it, they drew from eschatology.

Contrary to the restorative approach’s method of biblical interpretation, whose aim is to return to the New Testament church, Dutko draws from an eschatological lens when interpreting three essential biblical texts. By doing so, he seeks to create a unifying, egalitarian account of Scripture that mirrors early pentecostalism and contemporary Pentecostal scholarship. Dutko uses the following texts to serve as a guide for scriptural interpretation in relation to egalitarianism: Genesis 1—3, Galatians 3:28, and Acts 2:17-18, which are respectively entitled creation, the ministry of Jesus, and Pentecost. For Dutko, these are principal, egalitarian, interconnected, biblical texts that communicate the central narrative of Scripture: “creation, fall, redemption, and restoration” (132). Dutko contends that these texts have priority as they provide a model when confronted with other more culturally bound texts, such as 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-15, which restrict women. His granting privilege to certain biblical texts over others is not unusual since what is clear in Scripture is frequently used to interpret ambiguous texts. That is to say, not every passage of Scripture is regarded equally in Christianity. Pentecostals normally treat Luke-Acts as more important, turning it into a hermeneutical guide when discussing Pentecostal issues and theology. With this in mind, some texts are declared more significant in relation to egalitarianism because they offer an obvious direction eschatologically—one of equality. For Dutko, these texts beckon Pentecostals to picture how they may take part “in eschatological realities” (142).

Participating in eschatological realities leads to a Pentecostal praxis of egalitarianism, liberating women to minister according to God’s call. Dutko puts forth a pre-enactment praxis model rather than a re-enactment one. The latter centers on copying the events of the past while also assuring that a repeat of said events will be genuine. The former, too, is orientated by the past, but it envisions the future and explores ways to live that out in the present. As such, the pre-enactment praxis model is connected to previous, current, and upcoming events. Dutko writes, “Pre-enactment is an exploratory rather than an explanatory model” (180). An example, offered by Dutko, is Sabbath-keeping. A pre-enactment praxis of Sabbath-keeping contains an open inquiry of conceptualizing and testing how to live out an eschatological rest today (exploratory). Re-enactment of Sabbath-keeping is less open and more rigid as it centers on living out a Jewish ritual of the past (explanatory).

Dutko’s Pentecostal eschatological-egalitarian praxis is different from applying a biblical text, which is a linear approach. According to Dutko, an eschatological-egalitarian praxis is a process that is dialectical (back-forth dialogue of opposing/supporting ideas), experiential, and experimental while being firmly grounded in the authority of Scripture. As a Pentecostal community imagines and participates today in the realities of the eschatological biblical texts, it is both experimenting and experiencing the future hope of the texts. As such, the biblical texts become more alive and real as the community perceives more fully the meaning of the text. In this way, the praxis (truth in action) is a continual exploration as the biblical interpretation of an eschatological text is tested and experienced. The more the community experiments with living out an eschatological-equalitarian biblical text, the more they understand the meaning of the text, which leads to increasingly living it out and understanding more, etc. Pre-enactment praxis is a transformative spiral of experimenting, experiencing, and understanding the realities of the eschatological-egalitarian biblical text.

While The Pentecostal Gender Paradox mainly centers on the USA and Canada, the question remains whether or not Dutko’s proposal transfers to other races, ethnicities, and cultures, a question Dutko also asks. If it does, what characteristics or elements does it embrace that are similar or different to a Western expression? One possible varying factor is the independent revivals around the world that were separate from the Azusa Street revival, such as in India and Korea. In this light, one must inquire if the experiences of early Pentecostals in Asia were similar or different from those in the Azusa Street revival while considering the possible ways to live out eschatological realities in non-Western contexts.

Dutko’s approach is thoroughly Pentecostal in that it mirrors early Pentecostalism; provides strong biblical support; involves reflections on a theology of the Holy Spirit; and stresses a praxis that participates right now with the Holy Spirit in Christ’s ministry in the world. As I reflect today on that undergraduate lecture in Pastoral Epistles, I am greatly encouraged and hopeful by Dutko’s liberating Pentecostal theological praxis of egalitarianism. It departs from a concentration on self-agency by orienting Pentecostals to participate in the movement of the Spirit toward the renewal of all creation. Thus, may it be said of Pentecostals that our beliefs about the eschaton direct our lives today, particularly in relation to egalitarianism.

Reviewed by Pam Engelbert

Publisher’s page: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/pentecostal-gender-paradox-9780567713650/

Preview this book: https://books.google.com/books?id=y8DREAAAQBAJ

In case you missed it: Janet Epp Buckingham, “Ban the Mob, Not the Bible: Christians are the victims of hate in some places and the targets of hate speech laws in others. How can believers advocate for nations to address both threats in a consistent, principled way?” Christianity Today (June 6, 2024).

Dony Donev, “Theological Framework Centered on Neo-primitivism” Cup & Cross (October 25, 2025).

Mark D. Bjelland, “Charity Begins with Zoning Reforms” Christianity Today (November/December 2025).

This online article has the subtitle, “Stewarding our neighborhoods is part of Christian hospitality” and appeared in the print issue with the title, “Erasing Red Lines.”

In case you missed it: Hazel Southam, “The Quiet Revival: Gen Z leads rise in church attendance” Bible Society (April 7, 2025).

This report opens with this byline: “Church decline in England and Wales has not only stopped, but the Church is growing, as Gen Z leads an exciting turnaround in church attendance.” 50% growth in church attendance in 6 years? Yes, this is a quiet revival.

In case you missed it: “How adults are rediscovering Christianity through baptism” YouTube (September 30, 2025).

This special report from CBS Mornings about Gen Z men turning to Christianity is introduced: “In her series ‘The State of Spirituality,’ Lisa Ling looks at the rise in adult baptisms after the pandemic. At a time when many are leaving organized religion, some Americans are choosing to deepen their Christian faith.” One PneumaReview.com editor commented, “What is happening is so significant that even the secular press is taking note of it.”

David Livermore, “Which of the Six Global Leadership Types Best Describes You?” DavidLivermore.com (November 6, 2025).

Thought leader in Cultural Intelligence and PneumaReview.com author, David Livermore, introduces this article on global leader archetypes with this: “90 percent of leadership literature is biased toward one kind of leader—decisive, assertive, fast-paced, and individualistic. Yet most of the world prefers a different kind of leadership style.”

Image: Johannes Plenio

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One thing that troubles me when I see churches become larger is that the communities in which they serve don’t seem to change much. I’ve been asking myself why? Am I just idealistic? Perhaps even naive? I don’t think so. But if I am, I will remain that way with hopes of seeing the church truly reform the communities in which we live.

Image: FreeImages.com/Harrison Keely

Actually I think I’m a realist, with a positive attitude. I don’t think my church will change the world. But I must believe it can change my community. If God is who He says He is, and Jesus did what the Bible says He did, we can change the areas where we live! And together we can change the world.

At first I thought it was the difference between a small town, and a large city. It made sense that in smaller towns the churches might have more influence on the culture. It also seemed like the large cities were just not conquerable. But culture in general, independent of church influence, reveals that many small towns change slower (if at all) than large cities, especially during crisis. For example in Florida, when a hurricane comes through and destroys entire trailer parks, they rebuild them exactly like they were, right in the same place. In contrast, large cities like New York after 9/11, the community has been changed forever. They live different, think different and will never be the same.

I’ve also thought it might be a small church, large church issue. I do think there is substantial truth to the potentially greater impact of larger churches because of their resources, but there doesn’t seem to be enough evidence to make a case for this.

It is tempting to say it’s all about leadership, but it’s not that simple. There are great leaders who are not reaching their community, and average leaders who are.

You may find what seem like hair-splitting ideas in this article, but read it through in order to think with me about the differences between growing a church and impacting a community. I will admit this can seem like nuance and spin, but I believe that at the core there is something to this idea. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile and I’m convinced that it is something worth a few minutes of consideration through your leadership eyes. If you have time, send me your thoughts. If nothing else, join me in my passion to change lives and truly impact communities.

You grow a church with talent and leadership. You impact a community with compassion. Churches that are blessed with talent (musical or otherwise) and great leadership are likely to grow. Most of these churches are considered good churches and in many ways they are. But that doesn’t mean the community has been changed – which for me is the mark of a great church. In my thinking, it is impact that matters. This does not discount the huge significance and eternal value of growing churches that are big because of new converts. I’m talking about a kind of impact that not only wins people to Christ, but that does so with such impact that the community takes notice and is changed.Now let me dance on thin ice. First, know that I have and will continue to give my life to Great Commission ministry. I’m all about people coming to Christ. But there is a corporate force that will enable us to ultimately win more to Christ if we have better served our communities. This means we must get involved in things that the community values, not just what we care about.

I believe this all begins with compassion. Churches who reach out with servant oriented efforts that will not ultimately result in anyone coming to their church demonstrate compassion that has true impact. I believe that the best way to do this is to prayerfully think through the various services in your community that did not originate from your church, and choose to serve and financially resource them.

Skyline Church, led by Pastor Jim Garlow did just that. About a year ago there were severe and devastating fires in San Diego County. Hundreds of people from Skyline (and other churches) jumped in to help. By actually fighting fires, and providing food and housing, they dropped what they were doing and jumped in with all their hearts. Dozens of testimonies chimed in the same way: “We can’t believe that church did so much for us.” That is community impact.

You grow a church on your terms. You reach a community on their terms. I love movies where the “bad guys” are in complex and suspenseful negotiations with the “good guys”. One such movie was The Rock with Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage. Mercenaries had hostages on Alcatraz Island and there were bombs aimed at San Francisco. The FBI, and everyone else imaginable, was involved to negotiate the demands. The suspense and tension grew as the negotiations determined who was really in control of the terms.Who sets the terms matters. If your church insists that everyone you connect with must do so on your terms, you may grow your church, but you won’t impact the community. This is not about sloppy theology, going “liberal”, or abusing grace. It’s about a willingness to adapt your church’s attitudes and behaviors, including receptivity to people who aren’t like you, in order that more un-churched people may be willing to try you out and even come back.

Editor’s note: Much has happened since Professor King wrote this article in March 2000. The principles he outlines, however, are as applicable today as when it was first published on the Pneuma Foundation website.

Public leadership has greatly diminished in societal value, primarily because it is based less upon moral and religious foundations of civil society, and more upon political expediency of policy issues. Institutionalized civil leadership has suffered because many public leaders, even within the highest elected offices of the nation, have all but abdicated social responsibility and moral rectitude in favor of political advantage and personal gain. When this occurs—and it has happened many times over the course of human events—political crises inevitably result, and the consequences generally rock the foundations of civil society. Today more than ever moral leadership is captured within the tantalizing grip of political seduction.

One hallmark of the Bible is that it paints its heroes with brutally honest strokes. Nothing is held back. In a style that is most often painfully abrupt, it neither minces words nor waxes eloquent about its protagonists, but presents them with all the faults and foibles inherent in the human condition. Take, for example, the Biblical character David, the archetypal king and Messianic prototype. Scripture makes no apology for depicting not only his triumphs but also his dark side. Yet the Bible goes on to call him “a man after God’s own heart.” To be sure, the Biblical David was a fundamentally flawed, occasionally pathetic individual who vacillated between lust, megalomania, mental instability, and eventually personal misery. David is a case study in the socio-religious and political consequences of serious weakness of character and faulty judgment, as well as an example of a truly repentant leader, who suffered through the severe personal, social, and political problems resulting from his commission of sin.

This essay will illustrate a leader who was both a man and a king; the honor and prestige of the latter was susceptible to the avarices of the former, including the events leading up to and going beyond the adulterous affair with Bathsheba (henceforth known as ‘Bathshebagate’). Bathshebagate represents a direct and telling crisis both in his “personal” as well as his “public” life, in which the inability or unwillingness to control his actions in the “personal” realm ultimately unleashed a torrent of problems upon David in the “public” environment. The same story—that of the pompous elected “king” abusing and misusing his political authority—has been retold many times, in various and sometimes differing degrees, such as with Richard Nixon and Watergate and more recently with Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Only because of David’s humility, ultimately his willingness to listen to his trusted confidant and courageous prophet, Nathan, and his personal love for God did David survive the onslaught of negative repercussions, including decreased public support and internal political conspiracies by trusted advisors to strip him of his kingship. How have our modern leaders fared? Do the lessons of King David and Bathshebagate tell us anything about the political seduction of power, and how to avoid its tentacles of deception? If so, have we heeded the warning? If we have not, are we prepared for the consequences?

David’s early successes as king may first be attributable to the contention that he served not only as king or ruler, but also as judge. According to Jewish standards, a judge is one who dispenses justice based upon absolute principles of right and wrong, principles indelibly marked in the heart of man and codified in the Mosaic law. In I Samuel 8, the people demanded a king, one who rightly performs the principal function of the king: to judge righteously. With Saul, the people endured a ruthless despot, one who consistently and malevolently used the army for military retribution. David, however, was both a “victorious redeemer,” aided by God, and a dispenser of justice and righteousness to all the people, including such actions as the restoration of Mephibosheth, Saul’s crippled grandson, to the king’s house, and the use of capital punishment against two siblings for wrongly taking the life of Ish-Bosheth. So, David’s propensity for distributing justice included performing ethical and moral-based deeds for particular individuals, to meting out international justice through his military successes, and generally dispensing judicial, social, and even economic righteousness.

Many negatives can distract leaders daily. Consequently, they may fall prey to these external influences, lose their vision and become spiritually powerless. But leaders can regain power over their lives by focusing on their main goals and ordering everything else around those goals. Then they can succeed in their ministries or personal lives. But that is only the beginning. To truly be influential, leaders should duplicate their successes in church members’ lives by improving their “serve.” Serving may cause leaders to feel like slaves, not realizing how church members perceive them. But, often, church members perceive such leaders as heroes. It is the art of serving that makes leaders out of ordinary people. Spiritual leadership teaches the art of serving, which is really the art of helping others succeed and fulfill their dreams.

Servanthood begins with identifying customers and then attending to them. Leaders should see, not only church members, but also everyone within their spheres of influence as their customers. A customer is anyone with whom a leader comes into contact. This outlook facilitates these three things: expanding one’s sphere of influence for Christ, being charismatic, and developing a spiritual edge. These things attract new church members and opportunities to serve. The best customers are repeat customers. And the best church services are those that attract repeat customers. Spiritual leadership empowers church members to develop their own customer base through offering outstanding services to those within their own sphere of influence and expanding their sphere of influence in the body of Christ.

When I attended Southern California College from 1975-1979, Mario Murillo was our guest chapel speaker one morning. Afterward, as he greeted students outside the chapel doors, I asked him, “What is the greatest way one can glorify God—through witnessing, or other ways?” Mario replies, “The greatest way to glorify God is in your heart.” I took this to heart. I believed and received it, and have been acting on it to this day. That truth impacted my life and made a difference in me, my ministries, and all I do.

So, I would like to challenge spiritual leaders to deepen their walk with the Holy Spirit, and see what Christ will do for you and those you impact.

“The Relatable Zeal of Puritan Women: They were extremely into religion without being extreme” Christianity Today (January 3, 2023).

Catherine Parks interviews Pneuma Review author Jenny-Lyn de Klerk about Puritan spirituality.

Max Lucado, “Help, Wisdom & Strength for You Right Now” Charisma (Jan-Feb 2023).

In this excerpt from Help Is Here: Finding Fresh Strength and Purpose in the Power of the Holy Spirit (Thomas Nelson, 2022), Max Lucado describes his early struggles with burnout and how to move past four common misunderstanding about the gifts of the Spirit and keep growing.

From the archives: Tim Stafford, “The Pentecostal Gold Standard: After 50 years in ministry, Jack Hayford continues to confound stereotypes—all to the good” Christianity Today (July 2005).

John Lathrop suggested this significant article, the cover story from Christianity Today’s July 2005 issue, as another way of marking the passing of Jack Hayford.

Kyle Duncan, “Just Call Me Jack: Pastor Hayford’s heart, humility & authenticity allowed the Holy Spirit to shine through” Charisma (February 20, 2023).

Wolfgang Vondey, “Pentecostal Theology” St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology (January 25, 2023).

Thanks to Rick Wadholm Jr for this recommendation by PneumaReview.com author Wolfgang Vondey. This entry includes recommended further reading and works cited.

Image: Jeremy Thomas

Craig Keener, “Opinion: What is Revival—and is it Happening at Asbury?” Roys Report (February 16, 2023).

John K. Jenkins Sr., “The Apostle Paul’s Secret to Preaching” Outreach (March 14, 2023).

“This article is adapted from a talk John K. Jenkins Sr., pastor of First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Maryland, gave at the 2022 Amplify Outreach Conference.”

David Livermore, “Leadership Advice You Should Ignore” DavidLivermore.com (March 16, 2023).

Global pioneer in Cultural Intelligence, PneumaReview.com author David Livermore writes to business leaders, emphasizing principles that also speak to the world our parishioners live in: “So much advice to leaders and entrepreneurs is ill suited to leading in a digital, diverse world. It often includes kernels of truth; but if we’re committed to being an effective global leader, we need to rethink a lot of what passes as essential leadership advice …”

Kelsey Kramer McGinnis, “Company that Trademarked ‘Worship Leader’ Makes Others Drop the Term” Christianity Today (March 20, 2023).

Subtitle of the article reads: “Popular meme accounts lose social media pages after being reported by Authentic Media, which says it coined the phrase.”

Stanford E. Linzey, Jr., “Is Speaking in Tongues Just Gibberish?” CharismaNews.com (March 25, 2023).

Does speaking in tongues seem foolish? The late Stanford Linzey wrote: “So when speaking in tongues, if it sounds foolish, silly or like gibberish, and one does not think it is a language, he should remember this: There is nothing one can utter that does not have meaning as far as God is concerned.”

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Dr. Katherine Shaner, in a revised form of her Harvard Divinity School dissertation, asks a provocative question. What role, if any, did enslaved persons embody in the congregation of the early church? Shaner’s response to this enticing question offers readers not only a cogent account of the life of enslaved people in early antiquity, but also an incisive lesson for how one ought to conduct historical investigations altogether. For the lay person or pastor, Shaner provides a new vantage point through which to understand the complex roles of figures like Onesimus or the roles of women and enslaved persons in the Pastoral Epistles. One also gleans invaluable tools for exploring ancient history beyond well-trodden literary avenues, which can exaggerate details or worse, deliberately neglect traces of lower-class populations, through archaeological and material avenues as well. The upshot is a commendable lesson in “ambiguity” (the term appears 30 times in the 109-page manuscript body): laying aside one’s assumptions about what a biblical passage should say to discover what the biblical text does (and, in some cases, does not) say.

One constant theme of Shaner’s project is her via media approach to slavery in the ancient world vis-à-vis Christianity. In chapter three, for instance, Shaner turns to the apostle Paul to discuss his endlessly debated position on slavery. Shaner presents a refreshingly nuanced situation in which Paul, as a creature of his time, is caught up in analogous debates present within his Jewish and Greco-Roman setting. In this scheme, Paul neither fully “advocated systemic abolition, since his social milieu accepted slavery” (p. 47) nor did he fully reinforce slave/free dynamics. Instead of giving into the urge to lump Paul into one camp or the other, Shaner presses her readers “to keep in tension the exclusionary logic of slavery and the multiple subject positions that enslaved persons held in early Christian communities” (p. 61). In another example, Shaner considers the artifact of the Southern Market Gate on the Triodos in Ephesos. On the one hand, a stone pillar adjacent to the Market Gate contains an inscription of the Persicus decree—a decree that functioned to subordinate public slaves’ participation in the Artemis cult. The net result is a public attempt to ensure “only the right sort of people will hold leadership positions in the cult” (p. 23). On the other hand, at this same location, we have evidence of the “two freedpersons, Mithridates and Mazaeus, [who] built and dedicated the gate to Livia and Augustus, their former owners” (p. 29). In this remarkable example, overlording imperial tactics coexist with a case of civic benefaction by two formerly enslaved persons in the public marketplace. In this way, the politics of reading require the historian to consider not simply what a text states but what a text does. Just as the Persicus decree aims to silence and subjugate, the adjacent dedication by Mithridates and Mazaeus testify to freedom and participation. In Paul’s case, the history of interpretation tends to focus on what Paul states rather than on the more hidden or performative dimensions of his letters. Destabilizing this “Paul-centered framework” (p. 59) draws attention to the polyvalent features of Onesimus, for example, who is described as a “minister” (diakonē) with Paul (Phlm 13)—a terminus technicus for cultic workers in Ephesos as well as early Christian groups (p. 59). Shaner’s project exposes how the same ambiguous tensions within the biblical text are operative in the surrounding Roman cultural.

Review by JP O’Connor

Publisher’s page: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/enslaved-leadership-in-early-christianity-9780190275068

I love the local church, and at God’s invitation, I have given my life to it. Overall it continues to be the most rewarding endeavor I could possibly imagine. When the church is working as God designed it, there is nothing quite like it. There are other times, however, when the church is a mess. Personally, I’m highly motivated either way. Success or mess, I love the church, and I’m fired up to help strengthen it any way I can.

This article is written to leaders who find themselves in a mess of crisis proportion. First, let me say take heart. You can navigate through tough times no matter what is happening. Keep these four things in mind.

1. It’s not your church. It belongs to God, and He cares even more than you do.
2. Set your vision on the long haul, not the short run.
3. Don’t panic. God isn’t panicking and remember He’s the owner.
4. Think much and pray more.

So let’s take a more dramatic case, since the topic is Leadership Crisis. A church in San Antonio, Texas wanted to sell their property, relocate and build a new building. More accurately stated, the Pastor, staff and board wanted to relocate. It was a congregational government so a vote was taken. The membership was split nearly 50-50. The older generation wanted to stay, and they controlled the money. The younger generation wanted to go and they controlled the volunteer power. This is overstated, but accurate enough to paint a picture of what happened. So the pastor and board made the call, it was time to sell and relocate.

No one would have guessed what happened next. The tension got so thick, and the infighting became so all-consuming that the Senior Pastor took it as a sign from God to resign. He delivered his final message, packed up his office and left. No fuss, no muss. No drama. Just gone. He had been there for 9 years and the people loved him.

When: Saturday, June 2, 2018, 7 to 8:30 am.

Where: Ikthus Church Mangdalagan, Bacolod City, Philippines.

For more information about Jim Linzey’s itinerary, visit: www.JimLinzey.com