Bloated self-interest or humble Christian leadership: Reflections from Matthew 23:3–12

Abstract

Peer-review declarationThe publisher (AOSIS) endorses the South African 'National Scholarly Book Publishers Forum Best Practice for Peer-Review of Scholarly Books'. The book proposal form was evaluated by our Theological and Religious Studies editorial board. The manuscript underwent an evaluation to compare the level of originality with other published works and was subjected to rigorous two-step peer-review before publication by two technical expert reviewers who did not include the author(s) or editor(s) and were independent of the author(s) and editor(s), with the identities of the reviewers not revealed to the author(s). The reviewers were independent of the publisher, editor(s) and author(s). The publisher shared feedback on the similarity report and the reviewers' inputs with the manuscript's author(s) and editor(s) to improve the manuscript. Where the reviewers recommended revisions and improvements, the author(s) and editor(s) responded adequately to such recommendations. The reviewers commented positively on the scholarly merits of the manuscript and recommended that the book be published.v Research justificationThis publication advances theological perspectives on the re-imagination of leadership within a post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) African context. Since the effects of COVID-19 are felt on various levels of society, which includes the believing community, a need was identified to provide guidance to leaders on various levels. However, the need for moral, ethical leadership in Africa could be identified even before the pandemic. In many respects, COVID-19 merely enhanced the inherent leadership crisis in Africa. While there are existing publications on the theological understanding of leadership, this book specifically focuses on addressing leadership in this unique time and space. The book consists of eleven chapters, in which the first five chapters provide bibliological perspectives on leadership (one from the Old Testament and four from the New Testament). Chapters 6 and 7 offer practical theological perspectives, Chapters 8 and 9 missiological perspectives and Chapter 10 an ethical perspective. Chapter 11 consists of a summative reflection and synthesis of the various contributions.Contributions in this book are based on original research, each from the field of expertise of each researcher. While the bibliological perspectives provide detail on the character and foundation of biblical leadership, the practical theological and missiological contributions mostly address the desired outcomes of moral and ethical leadership. An ethical perspective on leadership further argues the ethical and moral underpinnings of virtuous leadership. The main thesis of the book is that leadership in Africa should be selfless, just and fair, based on Jesus' example, flowing from a conversion experience and animated by the indwelling Christ, leading to spiritual maturity and, eventually, hope, transformation and emotional restoration.Methodologically, the work can be described as multidisciplinary, drawin...

Default or reset? Missional leadership challenges for church leaders in COVID-19 en route to the new normal

“…Denton 2023;Kotzé 2023). In South Africa, during the pandemic, corruption was the order of the day (Cornelius 2023;Denton 2023;Viljoen 2023), including overpricing, substandard products and services, tender corruption and food parcel corruption (Cornelius 2023). Even the neglect of leaders in delivering the services for which they were appointed can be seen as a form of 'quiet corruption' (Viljoen 2023).…”

“…In South Africa, during the pandemic, corruption was the order of the day (Cornelius 2023;Denton 2023;Viljoen 2023), including overpricing, substandard products and services, tender corruption and food parcel corruption (Cornelius 2023). Even the neglect of leaders in delivering the services for which they were appointed can be seen as a form of 'quiet corruption' (Viljoen 2023). The tendency for leaders to abuse their power can be related to the so-called 'power paradox' in which initial practices of showing empathy, collaboration, open-mindedness, fairness and generosity vanish, leaving leaders vulnerable to impulse, becoming self-serving and having a lack of empathy (Cornelius 2023).…”

“…The tendency for leaders to abuse their power can be related to the so-called 'power paradox' in which initial practices of showing empathy, collaboration, open-mindedness, fairness and generosity vanish, leaving leaders vulnerable to impulse, becoming self-serving and having a lack of empathy (Cornelius 2023). In these instances, leadership is often characterised by cheap opportunism and unrealistic populism, exploiting circumstances for the leaders' own political gain (Viljoen 2023). The latter tendency is not necessarily confined to Africa (cf.…”

“…Kok 2023). The leadership predicament in Africa prompts a rethinking of leadership (Cornelius 2023) in which leadership is undergirded by ethical values such as accountability, responsibility and integrity that lead to good governance and proper service delivery (Viljoen 2023).…”

“…The various scholars who derived leadership principles from Scripture applied them to both church leadership (Coetsee 2023;Du Toit 2023;Viljoen 2023) and leadership in general society (Cornelius 2023;Du Toit 2023;Viljoen 2023).…”