Dr Truls Åkerlund: Perspectives on Pentecostal Leadership

Описание: This recording is an academic presentation from the Europe-Asia Pentecostal Summit 2025, held in Singapore at City Harvest Church.

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Scholar:
Dr Truls Åkerlund (Professor in Leadership, Norwegian School of Leadership & Theology)

Paper Title:
Perspectives on Pentecostal Leadership: Contextuality, Complexity, and Constructiveness

Paper Précis:
Leadership is a complex phenomenon that cannot be easily defined as a single concept. Still, it is often understood as a set of social processes that influence people towards common goals—an approach that I will follow in this study. Drawing from general leadership theory and research on Pentecostal leadership, I will emphasise the interaction between leaders, followers, and the spiritual dimension, leading to a constructivist perspective on leader-follower relationships. The article will first address leadership in various settings, emphasising the need to contextualise leadership in different cultures, but also keeping an analytical distance to avoid dominating discourses that break with Christian perspectives. Second, I will discuss the complexity in Pentecostal leadership, especially the collaboration between divine and human interventions, the dialectic connection between agency and structure, and the ambivalence and tension between leaders and followers in ecclesial settings. Finally, I will highlight the constructive relations between leaders and followers. While leaders hold a formal position, leadership is also a social phenomenon effective only if it makes sense to church members, implying that the leader’s task is not to create everything from scratch but to build relationships and draw from the resources and spirituality present within the congregation.

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