robert greenleaf, in his book servant leadership, presents the latin term primus inter pares – first or senior amongst equals. although we have embraced the concept of servant leadership, the notion of primus inter pares seems to have gone by the wayside. we continue to hold tightly to our traditional hierarchical governance structures.
as we progress further into this rapidly changing century requiring organizational flexibility and the ability to adjust quickly, we may need to take a second look at our polity. for builders and boomers, we have known nothing but the hierarchical structure and have fully embraced this in the church. especially for lead/senior pastors who are entrenched in this model, rethinking ‘how we structure church’ is painful. it threatens our position.
we have attempted to migrate towards a more relevant model by using the term ‘team.’ however, i wonder if this term is just laced over a structure that has not changed? is the ‘team leader’ serving as a team coach, team owner, or team captain? there is a huge difference. and, are team members really ‘equals’ or just hirelings?