Metaphors of Ministry:
biblical images for leaders and followers
By David W. Bennett. Paternoster Press. 207 pages. £10.99
ISBN 0 85364 719 4
What does the New Testament teach about leadership? What sort of patterns of leadership did Jesus teach in the Gospels? Why did he never use the word 'leader'? Should a leader be a commander, a supervisor or a manager? Should a leader aim to have mastered certain skills?
These are the sorts of questions David Bennett seeks to answer in this wide-ranging book. He examines over 30 terms used in the Gospels to describe his disciples; terms such as servant, worker, friend, witness, sheep and child. He then proposes a taxonomy for the various terms and draws out some overall themes that characterise Jesus' teachings about patterns of leadership. In the second part of the book, he considers how these terms are used and developed in the rest of the New Testament, as well as some new images used by Peter, Paul and others.
