“Kavin Rowe approaches leadership with the convictions that there’s nothing inherently different about today from the challenges faced by the early church, that the Holy Spirit through Scripture and tradition has given us everything we need to thrive amid today’s predicaments, and that being the body of Christ is the most exciting and rewarding adventure any of us could wish for. These assurances make for compelling reading and healthy renewal.” 
—Samuel Wells  
vicar, St Martin-in-the-Fields 
visiting professor of Christian ethics, King’s College London

“This wonderful book brings Kavin Rowe’s brilliant exegesis to bear on crucial questions of Christian leadership. These concise, highly readable essays stir our imagination and inspire us to more faithful and noble engagement.” 
—L. Gregory Jones  
president, Belmont University

“Kavin Rowe, one of our finest theological interpreters of Scripture, now gives us our best theological justification for specifically Christian leadership. Beginning with the Acts of the Apostles as authorization for our leadership, Leading Christian Communities is a lively, practical, contemporary exploration of the theological rationale for church leadership. Rowe encourages Christian leaders to lead as if God matters. It makes all the difference to innovative, transformative leaders that Jesus Christ is God with us (Christmas) and has risen for us (Easter). Even amid the challenges of the present moment, Christian leaders can be hopeful and bold because, as Rowe repeatedly reminds us, we’re not working alone.” 
—Will Willimon 
retired United Methodist bishop 
professor of the practice of Christian ministry, Duke University 
author of Leading with the Sermon: Preaching as Leadership

C. Kavin Rowe is the George Washington Ivey Distinguished Professor of New Testament and vice dean for faculty at Duke Divinity School. His previous books include Early Narrative Christology, World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age, One True Life: The Stoics and Early Christians as Rival Traditions, and Christianity's Surprise: A Sure and Certain Hope.

Table of Contents

Preface
Part 1: The Acts of the Apostles and Thriving Communities 
          The Pattern of Life in Thriving Communities 
          Networking—a Feature of Thriving Communities  
          Visibility—a Feature of Thriving Communities 
          Room for the Weak in a Thriving Community 
          Incorporating Disagreement in a Thriving Community 
          Why Does Your Community Exist? 
          Suffering Is Part of Thriving 
Part 2: Christian Leadership  
          Humor as a Mark of Life-Giving Leadership 
          Becoming a Christ-Shaped Leader 
          The Formation of a Scriptural Imagination 
          Cultivating Resilience 
          Failure as Christ-Shaped Leadership 
          Making the Connections 
          Leadership and the Discipline of Silence 
          Christian Success 
          Listening Well 
          Orienting Hierarchies toward the Good 
          Our Most Significant Experiences Are in Institutions 
          “Power” in the Christian Sense Is the Concrete Shape of Hope 
          Leading in the Age of the Image 
          The Church and the Vanishing Neighbor 
Part 3: Traditioned Innovation 
          Traditioned Innovation—a Biblical Way of Thinking 
          Pentecost as Traditioned Innovation 
          Navigating the Differences in the Gospels 
          The New Testament as an Innovation of the Old 
          King Jesus 
Part 4: Christmas and Easter 
          Why Christmas Needs Easter 
          Why Easter Needs Christmas 
Notes
Index