"
Business corporations are the special case in society. It's unlike almost every other type of social system -- it's a concentrated executive power. If you look in government and social systems there's a more diffuse power model where no one person has the concentrated power of a CEO. What we see then is an interesting asymmetry and a sobering one. No single leader can make a great company, but the wrong [leader] invested with power can do a lot of damage"
Now, substitute for the value 'leader' the value 'christian minister' and you'll see how corrupt and unbiblical is the common reflexive and ill considered application of that concept in church circles.
"concentrated executive power": in the church? I don't think so! At least not amongst praying and serving communities.
"power model": power? Where does this concept gain any ground in the church; a society of cooperation, mutual support and loving commitment, self-sacrificial loving commitment (opps, I don't see that too much in churches I've known...although I have seen it, I must say, in churches in less well off areas)? Unfortunately it does, to the detriment of the church and the poor fellow who is usually looked to (without much practical or effective discouragement in many cases) as "the leader".
The most pointed observation for churches that find the 'one person leader' model (even if couched in that oxymoronic 'servant-leader' term) applicable to themselves is the final observation: "no single leader can make a great [church?], but the wrong [one] can do a lot of damage."
I think most Christians will have seen that in spades.
When I was young I was much interested in anarchic politics, particularly as described by Murray Bookchin; the use of consensual decision and planning models, where power, if it existed was diffused appealed to me.
Now, I think that anarchism is probably unworkable and impractical, but ironically, it is just the model that I would think that a praying community, dependent upon the Spirit of God, would most readily fall to. Not a power structure, but a serving/ministering structure. No leaders, just ministers of various gifts.
