Graham Handscomb offers a new vision of church leadership

‘Who, me? A leader? You must be joking!’ For most of us, leaders are other people, not ourselves. This is also reflected in our church lives. We hear people saying: ‘I’m happy to help with the minibus rota/coordinate Christian Aid week/help with room lettings/sort out the church garden.’

In making all these contributions people seldom see themselves as leaders or being part of church leadership. The reflection of one person who recently took part in a Stepwise lay training programme is typical of this reticence about the L word: ‘I don’t have a “leadership position” but I am willing to contribute ideas and input into services when asked.’

For many, ‘leader’ is an offputting, even scary word. We may be very active in the church and so connect with many people and influence them, but we would baulk at being called a leader. It would make us feel uncomfortable and that perhaps we are in some way bigging ourselves up. We would feel like an impostor, trying to be something that we are not…

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This is an extract from an article published in the June 2022 edition of Reform

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