In the last section of this book, Hellerman is talking about the challenge of social context in regards to the church leadership, including relationships among church staff. He states the fact that so many come into the church with dysfunctional understandings of leadership as well as corporate solutions for mananging the local church. He then criticizes the CEO pastor model (in contrast to the thesis of his book (Shared Leadership) and states,

As it turns out, a hierarchical model of ministry – where the pastor functions as a CEO, supported by theologically unsophisticated corporate board of directors (elders or deacons), who are more interested in the numerical growth and financial solvency and healthy staff relations – proves to be a breeding ground for ….unhealthy, narcissistic leadership (253).

Categories: Church, Pastoring, Uncategorized