Contextualizing faith-based leadership models: A competency approach to Pastoral leadership

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to derive a pastoral leadership model for a congregation or parish context that benefits from the intersection of leadership and practical theology outcomes. It is well documented that leadership is context-specific, yet the ability to recognize both valuable and unfavourable consequences of business-derived models applied to the faith-based sector remains a challenge. First, a brief review of the leadership construct illustrates the relevance of context and the landscape of possible modeling for pastoral leadership. Next is a content analysis of secondary data of pastoral experiences that yields seven competencies. Finally, the trustworthiness of these competencies is tested against five other pastoral leadership models from the literature. Developing a competency model for a congregation or a parish setting incentivizes further research on the significance of pastoral leadership for other institutional and community settings within the faith-based sector.