Leading the Congregation : Caring for Yourself While Serving Others

Leading the Congregation is a complete and definitive guide to the practice of church leadership. The book describes essential paradigms for the leader that integrate spiritual integrity and service within a "systems" view of the congregation and its ministry.

This revised and updated version focuses on the challenges of congregational leadership in a culture that has fewer ties to Christian faith. The authors lay out the dual contexts in which church leaders must function–within the congregation, and as the congregation’s representative to the community–and they explain the very different skill sets required to flourish in each. Underlying the revised edition is an insistence on the congregational leader’s call from God, and cultivation of her or his relationship with God. Leadership is not the same thing as charisma, they explain; it is rather a set of attitudes and practices that each of us can and must master if we are to be worthy servants of Christ.

Roger Heuser (PhD, New York University) is Professor of Leadership Studies at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, California. He has served as pastor, consultant, retreat guide, and adjunct professor in multiple settings overseas and in the United States, including Fuller Theological Seminary.
Norman Shawchuck (PhD, Northwestern University) has authored over twenty books on the subjects of spirituality, leadership, and conflict. He has led a distinguished career as pastor, consultant, trainer of US Navy and Marine military chaplains, and professor at Garrett Evangelical Seminary, McCormick Theological Seminary, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.