GUEST POST BY BOB WILSON
For much of its history, the church has largely disregarded Jesus’ teaching in Luke 22:24-30 to lead differently from the Gentiles. Instead, it has “established and embraced the leadership models of ‘the Gentiles'”, leading to church history being “replete with examples of leaders actively accumulating, protecting, and abusing power, frequently at the expense of those with less status and influence”. However, there is a powerful alternative: polycentric leadership. This approach offers a way for the church to remain faithful to Jesus’ teachings, rejecting hierarchical structures for a leadership model characterized by mutuality, trust, and cruciformity.
What Polycentric Leadership Is
Polycentric leadership proposes a model where leadership is dispersed among a community of leaders rather than concentrated within a hierarchical structure. This model “arises from within an existing community and is collaborative by its very nature”. Instead of a single priest or pastor at the head, a polycentric structure involves multiple centers of leadership. It is defined as “the concept of allowing for self-regulating centres of influence within a singular structure,” where “there are many centres of power or importance within a political, cultural, or socio-economic system”. This dissertation explores polycentrism operating as “a team of teams,” with each leadership center consisting of a group rather than a single individual. Essentially, polycentrism is a shift from “solo leadership to team leadership”. It fosters “collaboration, mutual submission and trust” within the church.
What Polycentric Leadership Is Not
It is crucial to understand that polycentric leadership is neither centralised nor decentralised. Instead, it functions with multiple interconnected centers and is “guided by a common vision held by the community”. In this model, leadership and decision-making still occur, but they are “no longer be the domain of a few, nor will they occur at a distance from the larger community”.
In contrast to flat leadership, which often leads to an abdication of responsibility, the polycentric model acknowledges the importance of leadership. Within a polycentric model, “leadership is shared, permitting specific individuals the opportunity to lead when the situation matches their giftings and abilities while allowing them to move into a support role as the circumstances call for those with different expertise to assume leadership”. While polycentrism widens the scope of leadership within a community, it does not mean everyone will have leadership responsibility.
The Benefits of a Polycentric Leadership Model
Successfully implementing a polycentric model presents multiple potential benefits:
- Focus on Strengths: Polycentrism allows leaders to focus on their areas of strength rather than becoming generalists.
- Enhanced Decision-Making: Critical decisions involve multiple centers and viewpoints, meaning decisions would not be subject to the blind spots of a single decision-maker. Instead, they would “naturally draw upon the diverse wisdom and giftings latent within the organisation”.
- Fosters Followership: At its heart, polycentrism involves “a relational group of people who learn to share responsibility, engaging in both leading and following”. This directly addresses the concern that leaders often fail to model for the community how to be a follower.
- Sustainability and Unity: Polycentric models aid in developing “long-term sustainable organisations and effectively address the tribalism rampant in today’s world”.
- Biblical Reflection: Polycentrism “reflects the biblical idea from Romans 12:4-5 that we are all members of the body, yet with different gifts and functions and therefore emphasises the need for all to contribute”.
- Local Relevance: For a network of churches in diverse locations or distinct neighborhoods within a city-wide congregation, a polycentric model “brings local knowledge and understanding to the decision-making process”.
- Addresses Clergy-Laity Divide: This model “confronts the clergy-laity dyad by extending leadership and allowing multiple individuals to contribute at every level”. By intentionally creating “interconnected communities,” there is an opportunity to learn from a broader range of people, “especially those from within the margins”.
- Challenges Status and Power: The issue of “status and power is confronted within this model as every member will have the opportunity to lead but must be willing to step out of leadership, submit to the rest of the community, and follow when another assumes leadership”. In a relational team where mutual submission is practiced, “attempts to usurp authority would be less likely”. This model emphasizes function over titles, whose use should be avoided to prevent inserting status.
What is Necessary for Polycentric Leadership to Function?
Leading polycentrically represents a paradigm shift for most, requiring individuals to “unlearn familiar habits and patterns and relearn new ones”. For a leader to be effective in this model, they “must be collaborative in our approach, willing to work in a team-centred manner where no one is above another, and all serve together toward the goals of their particular mission”. It also requires each leader to practise mutual submission.
This leadership approach is a recognition that “one individual cannot adequately address all matters within the community and models how leaders relate and work together for the common good”. It must be “built on enduring relationships and grounded in a foundation of deep trust” and requires leaders with the capacity and willingness “to empower others more than themselves”. Ultimately, “polycentric leadership requires maturity within a community that has developed strong relationships”. Due to most individuals having experienced only hierarchical leadership, establishing a leadership culture that is “truly collaborative and dispersed” often “requires the initial work of an experienced and capable leader who establishes the groundwork on which this model can be built”.
Polycentrism Reflects the Relationship of the Trinity
A critical theological framework for understanding leadership within the church is the nature of the Trinity. Polycentrism “reflects “the interrelations of the Trinity, an interdependent, communal, relational, participatory, self-surrendering and self-giving approach to leadership””. Indeed, “if leadership within the church is viewed through the lens of the Trinity, hierarchical leadership will be rejected”. The Trinity is characterized not by subordination, “but instead by “a polycentric and symmetrical reciprocity””. Handley (2021, pp. 2-3) contends that “the members of the Trinity lead polycentrically and model trust, mutuality, respect, and shared life,” which are essential for a polycentric form of leadership. It is “in their Trinitarian example that this polycentric model draws its greatest strength”.
Challenges to Leading Polycentrically
One fundamental challenge to leading polycentrically is, as referenced previously, that it is a paradigm shift in how most perceive leadership. When encountering pressure or stress, “it is natural to revert to what is known and comfortable”. As such, “Polycentric leadership is uncharted territory for most, and as such, there will be a tendency to jettison it for the familiarity of hierarchy when under stress”.
Another danger for organizations attempting to implement a polycentric model is that if roles are not clearly defined “in practical terms,” the model will “lack the processes necessary for implementation, resulting in leaders tending to “make up the rules as they go along””. This can lead to a concept aimed at redistributing power becoming “another form of centralizing power” if not clearly defined. Lastly, “shared leadership is commonly dismissed as unworkable,” with some arguing that a church “must have a primary leader, or the organisation risks descending into “chaos and anarchy””.
Polycentric Leadership, APEST, and Mutual Submission
A key aspect of this model is its integration with the APEST paradigm from Ephesians 4. The APEST model, representing the five gifts of Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd/Pastor, and Teacher, is presented as a remedy for hierarchical models. These five gifts, when “practised in “mutual submission to one another”” under the authority of the Lord, provide the answer to how God’s people can function without hierarchy. New Testament leadership “is based on the cruciform model of Jesus and is therefore meant to be radically non-hierarchical and polycentric”.
The initial step in establishing this model is to form a leadership community, ideally with five distinct teams representing the five APEST gifts. In communal discernment, “each APEST role approaches the question before the community from their gifting”. This structure addresses the clergy/laity division and the issue of status by basing individuals’ participation on their gifts and responsibilities rather than an office or title. This polycentric model, rooted in the APEST paradigm and lived out through mutuality, can “empower the church to lead in the servant model Jesus demonstrated and modelled”.
Conclusion
For too long, the church has largely disregarded Jesus’ clear teaching regarding how leadership would function within his kingdom. The Christian ideal of non-hierarchical church leadership has been “found difficult; and left untried” for over 1500 years due to the pervasive influence of Christendom and its hierarchical ethos. However, a polycentric model, fostering collaboration, mutual submission, and trust, offers a viable path for implementing a non-hierarchical structure utilizing the APEST paradigm. While no model can eliminate status issues or abuse of power, these are “unquestionably features of hierarchical leadership”. This approach offers a roadmap enabling church communities to thrive within their culture and adapt amidst society’s continuing evolution, truly reflecting Jesus’ example of servant leadership.
Bob Wilson
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BOB WILSON grew up in Western New York and became involved in campus ministry as a university student. After graduating, he planted university ministries at the University at Albany and Cornell University, where he also served as a University Chaplain from 1994 to 2012. In 1999, he and his wife worked with a team of Cornell students to plant the Vineyard Church of Ithaca, which he pastored until 2012. During this time, he also served as Vineyard Church Planting Coordinator for Upstate New York. In 2012, Bob and his family moved to Dublin, Ireland, to assist in church planting. He is currently part of the leadership community at The Table, a neighbourhood-based church in Dublin, and works with a Christian charity that helps unemployed people return to meaningful work. In his free time, he performs with an improv comedy team. Bob writes about leadership, community, and life beyond Christendom on his Substack, [A Journey in Liminal Space] (https://bobwilson.substack.com), with a particular interest in exploring more collaborative and polycentric expressions of church.
More Information
- See Bob’s full thesis: A Polycentric Alternative to Hierarchical Church Leadership here: https://www.academia.edu/92485568/A_Polycentric_Alternative_to_Hierarchical_Church_Leadership
- Read Bob Wilson’s Substack articles here: https://bobwilson.substack.com
- Watch Bob explain these concepts from his thesis:
