Comments on: Enter the masochist http://boyinthebands.com/archives/enter-the-masochist/ Scott Wells on the practice of Christian faith Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:41:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Derek http://boyinthebands.com/archives/enter-the-masochist/#comment-13883 Derek Fri, 26 Aug 2005 15:29:24 +0000 http://www.universalistchurch.net/boyinthebands/archives/enter-the-masochist/#comment-13883 -There was a time when I thought that new churches with strong pastoral personalities were a bad thing - too proprietary. But I now think that many of us in the UUA mistake proprietary pastoring for strong leadership. The two are not one and the same. And you may have a strong pastoral personality in your church's leadership, wihtout the church being his/her private kingdom. This is doubly confusing to me, since much of UU culture also sees pastoral leadership as optional. And that is most certainly true. But perhaps the real problem is that we have seldom articulated when it is a good idea for congregations to opt INTO pastoral leadership; and we over articulate the virtues of collective lay leadership? -There was a time when I thought that new churches with strong pastoral personalities were a bad thing - too proprietary. But I now think that many of us in the UUA mistake proprietary pastoring for strong leadership. The two are not one and the same. And you may have a strong pastoral personality in your church’s leadership, wihtout the church being his/her private kingdom.

This is doubly confusing to me, since much of UU culture also sees pastoral leadership as optional. And that is most certainly true. But perhaps the real problem is that we have seldom articulated when it is a good idea for congregations to opt INTO pastoral leadership; and we over articulate the virtues of collective lay leadership?

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