Pastoral leadership as creativity and resilience

Contemporary trends in American culture like the de-centering of the church from public consciousness and the weakening of institutions in general provide an occasion to reflect on a new theology of pastoral leadership. This article proposes that pastors function best as community leaders when they are maximally creative in seeing possibilities, rather than functioning as spokespersons for an institution. God's creative activity involves both foresight and improvisation, and therefore a pastoral theology modeled on God's creative work must also include those elements.