Transforming Leadership for Church Goers and Leaders

Transforming leadership is a concept introduced by James MacGregor Burns, and the central claim in transforming leadership is that leadership cannot be separated from followers’ needs and goals. Transforming leaders are able to fuse the followers’ goals with their own and raise the morality of the whole group. Essentially, these leaders are able to transform their followers in relation to how followers live morally. Through my time interning with my church, I have noticed transforming leadership in action. The church in theory functions to provide its followers with purpose and raise their morality. As a follower of a church, the emphasis on morality and having a higher purpose is readily apparent from all church leaders to the followers because of the idea that the church can help people in times of struggle and will ultimately fulfill them or raise their morality.

I have also witnessed transforming leadership within the staff structure at my church. We currently have an interim senior pastor because this church is in the process of hiring a new senior pastor. The senior pastor is in charge of the entire staff, leading them to the higher purpose of administering to the followers of the church’s spiritual and emotional needs. Despite Dr. Clayton’s short time in being with my church, she is still enacting transforming leadership as she leads the staff. As an example, in a Zoom staff meeting this week, Dr. Clayton began the meeting by asking people what they were grateful for despite the challenges of the global pandemic and the concerns over the racial injustice our country needs to address. This set the tone of the meeting to be of a higher morality than perhaps a typical staff meeting because the staff was reminded of the higher purpose they have in ministering to the congregation. The meeting was ended with a prayer where the “meaningful work” of the church was mentioned. This is also an example transforming leadership because the staff was reminded of the meaningful, higher goal they function within.

Overall, the church is a good example of transforming leadership in action because there are many ways that ministry attempts to fuse the goals of people to be more purposeful. Because morality is involved with the church, there is the space for a transforming leader to shine, and I have seen the interim senior pastor do just that.