Transformative spirituality and missional leadership

Abstract

The importance of transformative spirituality for missional leadership is explored. Missional leadership is defined as the transformation of people and institutions to participate, through meaningful relations and in the power of the Spirit, in God’s mission. Missional spirituality is discussed in the context of the missional church, focusing on what the church is, does, how the church organizes what it does, the appropriate leadership, and missional spirituality. This article brings together ideas from the missional church movement and the World Council of Churches (Together Towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes), with its emphasis on a ‘transformative spirituality’ an approach that states that ‘mission spirituality is always transformative’. These ideas are applied to missional leadership. The research applies the following dimensions of personal leadership virtues to transformative missional spirituality and missional leadership: transcendence (which includes appreciation of beauty, gratitude, hope, humor, and religiousness), humanity (which includes the social competencies of kindness, love, and social intelligence), wisdom and knowledge (which include the cognitive competencies of creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, and love of learning), justice (associated with fairness, leadership, and teamwork), courage (including the personal and emotional competencies of bravery, persistence, and zest), and finally temperance (which includes the competencies of forgiveness, modesty, prudence, and self-regulation).