Church for a changing culture: an introduction to alternative worship

7: Leadership

Dictators cannot bully themselves to the front when leadership is valued by character instead of rank, and is distributed out to the right people for the right moment. Like ducks flying in formation, until the change, when another duck takes the lead for the present direction. Ducks have leadership. Just not the One Leader who leads all the time. And for every thing. And every direction.
[Andrew Jones]

Alternative Worship groups generally lack hierarchy or formal structure.

The emphasis is that anybody can contribute at any level. Most services are put together by a regular team, but membership will be open to any who wish to get involved. Each part of the worship is seen as a gift from the person or persons creating it to God and to the rest of the worshippers, so there is a high level of openness to new contributions. This also requires a trust that people will play their part with care and appropriateness, a trust which seldom proves misplaced.

In worship the team will not be separated from the congregation in any way, or the congregation reduced to an audience.

The space may be arranged so that there is no specific 'front', the focus of activity may move from one part of the church to another, or may be in many places at once. Direction proceeds by invitation, with no obligation to take part or to all do the same thing at the same time. The elements of the service are usually all built carefully around a theme, so teaching occurs through everything that happens, rather than being concentrated in a sermon given by a single authoritative voice. There is room for discussion and sharing, in small groups or with the whole congregation.

Many people in Alternative Worship are refugees from churches where they have been sat on by heavy leaderships for asking the wrong questions. Some indeed have been victims of religious abuse and have found out the hard way that authority figures don't always have divine credentials. The movement is very wary of people who claim authority or special inspiration. NOS was unusual among Alternative Worship groups in having a large and elaborate leadership structure centred around one such person, and the abuse that this enabled only confirmed other groups in their aversion to such things. The movement tends to operate as overlapping and open-ended groups of friends.