Church leadership is about more than who’s in charge

In these democratic and synodal times, church leadership is always a hot topic.

As those well-known theologians Gilbert and Sullivan taught us, “When everyone is somebody, then no-one’s anybody.”

As the Synod on Synodality does its thing, we can expect ideas to bubble up about who should be in charge of what, and why.

I’ve been reading and enjoying Professor Tracey Rowland’s new collection of essays Unconformed to the Age, which is a good chaser to the synod.

In her first essay, she unpacks Hans Urs von Balthasar’s ideas of church leadership. Balthasar identified Peter, John, James, and Paul as four different types of church leader.

They also reveal to us four different styles of church leadership style that are still with us today.

Peter’s leadership, or the Petrine ministry, focuses on governing the church. John’s leadership, or Johannine ministry, rules the contemplative life.

The Jacobean ministry—James was a fierce and feisty character—guards the traditional teaching of the church.

The Pauline ministry of evangelising the pagan world is associated with church renewal, which is constant and necessary.

These four always exist together, and they’re always in tension, holding the church together. They have to work harmoniously, or we’re all in trouble.

If one of them takes over and tries to dismiss or shut down any of the other three, then the whole church suffers.

What does it look like when one of these leadership styles goes rogue? If the Johannine ministry goes wrong, we can lose our focus on eternity and try to build the kingdom of God in this world.

We get sentimental instead of spiritual. We start to prioritise the warm inner glow type of social justice activity.

The church becomes less about saving souls and more about helping the poor and redistributing wealth.

What about feisty James? If we cling too much to the old church furniture and get into fights over peripheral matters of liturgical form, we might be falling into this trap.

When things like this become more important than spreading the Gospel, we need to self-correct.

Otherwise, we end up with dozens of splinter groups who each claim to be more traditional than each other.

Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles—being all things to all men—can also get distorted. This is when the church becomes very accommodating of “all men” because it doesn’t want to risk alienating anyone.

We water down our unfashionable teachings. We try to be smooth and diplomatic and palatable to a world that actually needs our salt and our light.

We can also become addicted to what we call “reform” but which is actually throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

And that leaves the Petrine leadership model. If you want to know about abuses of papal power, you don’t have to look very far back in church history.

We need Peter as our rock, but the 266 men who have sat in his chair have been extremely human and at times extremely sinful.

Some of them have been vindictive, violent, spiteful, aggressive, petty, proud, and very unwise.

And some of them have been saints whose lives and teachings are like lighthouses in a very dark world.

Really, it’s a miracle any of them were saints at all, given the temptations of the office, but God is good.

The church often teaches us about ourselves as well. We each have these four leaders inside of us.

But again, they should work in harmony. If one has taken over, then it’s likely you’ve become a less effective Catholic.

Have you become a strident and distorted James, spending too much time on YouTube in a rage about the state of the church?

Perhaps a smooth liberal version of St Paul, who can’t bring yourself to tell the truth about the faith to a workmate who’s got some very weird ideas about Catholics?

Or a too-groovy John, who’s at the head of every protest march, but never at Mass on Sundays?

Or worst of all, a vindictive Peter, who abuses their authority to settle scores and play games with people?

It’s probably a good idea to do an internal check of these four in the light of the gospel and with the help of the Blessed Sacrament.

Church leadership is important. It really matters, just as much as self-leadership, which means self-control and personal sacrifice. And yes, it’s a hierarchy.

Professor Rowland’s book is a fantastic read, and reminds us that there’s more to leadership than just who’s in charge.