Transformational Leadership and the God Leaders Serve and Represent
Keywords:
Transformational Leadership, Spiritual LeadershipAbstract
Leaders of male religious congregations are challenged to achieve genuinely transformative leadership as the spiritual leaders of their communities. Contemporary leadership theory helps identify the tasks and advantages of servant or spiritual leadership within religious organizations. As male leaders within the church and their particular communities, these leaders also symbolically represent their particular image of God which may be uncritically rooted in early experiences of childhood. If leaders reflect on how they personally relate to God, they may recognize inadequate images of God through critical reflection. If they allow their own images of God to evolve and mature, as leaders who symbolically represent God, they may offer considerable healing to their members.
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