The leadership challenges of Paul’s collection for the saints in Jerusalem: Part II: Overcoming the obstacles on the side of the recipients and of Paul

Abstract

Paul tried to convince the predominantly Gentile Christian churches to contribute to a collection for the impoverished Jewish Christians of Jerusalem. While Paul is best known as a theologian, missionary and pastor, his collection project also shows his skills as an early Christian leader. Part II of this article describes what obstacles Paul had to overcome on the side of the Jewish Christian recipients of the collection, how he did so and how he proceeded in preparing and organising the actual collection, the transport and presentation of the funds in Jerusalem. It also discusses what obstacles were involved for Paul personally in this project and how he dealt with them. In closing, the article relates the portrait of Paul the leader as it emerges in this enterprise to modern leadership theory. Paul’s leadership evinces elements of servant leadership, authentic leadership and adaptive leadership.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article indicates to what extent early Christianity was affected by and had to interact with the political situation of its day. It also shows the complexities of Paul‘s life and ministry and his relations to the church in Jerusalem. It also provides an example of how Paul can be related to current leadership theory and suggests that awareness of this discourse sheds fresh light on Paul.