Church Followership and Power

Abstract

This article investigates followers’ influence on the leadership process in congregations. A working hypothesis is that in church, people without formal leadership roles have considerable power. The main question in this article asks: What are characteristics of follower influence on the leadership process in local congregations? The article is a theoretical discussion of the problem guided by three questions: How are followers influencing leadership? What is a follower in church? What characterizes the leadership process in congregations? The theoretical perspectives applied in the first part are on followership and upward influence, seeking to understand how followers exercise influence. The second part of the article asks what a follower in the church is and what characterizes the leadership process in congregations. I have identified three characteristics relevant to the leader-follower relationship in congregations, i.e., voluntarism, an egalitarian push, and a commitment to theological values and purposes. These characteristics I have structured as organizational, cultural, and theological. In the discussion, I have related these identified characteristics of congregations to the theories of how followers influence leaders. The findings in the discussions suggest that the identified characteristics of congregations increase follower influence on the leadership process.