As we enter the second quarter of this twenty first century, there is a crisis of leadership in church and society. In every sphere of life it should go without saying that we need leaders who take responsibility and serve kindheartedly, leading humbly yet bravely, strategically yet adaptively. But most of all, and particularly in the church, we need leaders who are wise and prayerful – what Bishop Jill Duff calls ‘spiritual leaders.’

Church leaders

It’s normally assumed that church leaders offer this kind of spiritual leadership, but as I listen to leadership conversations, I’m not hearing much talk of spirituality and few are calling us to seek God in prayer and fasting. Shamed by high-profile safeguarding failures, uncertain about sexuality and gender, and reticent in proclaiming Christ, the church of our day is struggling to find its voice and lacking in missional confidence. Of course we need bishops, clergy, and local leaders who are compassionate, emotionally intelligent and mindful, but at its core, the church as the body of Christ needs leadership that is deeply spiritual. 

Spiritual leaders understand they while serving people, they are first and foremost called by God. They know that one day they will stand before the Lord and be required to give an account for their life and decisions. They recognise not only their own weaknesses but also the immense missional challenge of our day, all of which requires a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit, which causes them to fall on their knees in prayer. In short, spiritual leaders are godly, sacred, prayerful leaders. They are the leaders required in this cultural moment.

In history

Those who know their history will of course realise that this has always been the case, for in every season and in each generation we require spiritual leadership; it’s just that there are times when the need is particularly apparent. Such a time is now.

Spiritual leadership was offered in the seventh and eighth centuries by Aidan, Hilda and Cuthbert, who brought a new prayerful way of living and loving, challenging the cruel paganism of the day. It was the kind of leadership the monastic tradition gave to the people of the Middle Ages, and helpfully describes the leadership of the Methodist movement of Wesley, Whitefield and others that transformed our lands in the eighteenth century. In today’s world, with so many searching for identity, confused over purpose, concerned for injustice and anxious about climate change, the need for spiritual leadership is as great as ever.

2005 and 2025

In 2005, Eugene Peterson launched a series of books to the American church that he described as ‘spiritual theology.’ The series sought to root spirituality in Scripture and prayer, taking seriously the traditions of the church and the need for faith to speak into the everyday life of ordinary people. Twenty years later, the church in the United Kingdom needs a similarly ‘spiritual’ approach not just to theology, but to leadership. We need spiritual leaders.

Peterson’s use of the word ‘spiritual’ for his theology was not an attempt to introduce an unhelpful sacred-secular divide into the theological world. He knew that the God who loves the world has decisively entered into it by becoming human in Jesus, which means that spirituality is intrinsic and essential to every aspect of life. Rather, Peterson was wanting to restate that theology is, and should be, a spiritual task. Similarly, the phrase ‘spiritual’ leadership does not mean that some forms of leadership are spiritual and others are not; it’s simply a way of describing leadership where Christ is not excluded but welcomed, with Scriptural and creedal faith at its heart and prayer prioritised. This kind of leadership is needed in every sector of society. To a culture where the sacred is often dismissed as irrelevant to contemporary life, ‘spiritual leadership’ is refreshingly rooted and real, and offers holy hope to a fragile church and a lost and lonely society.

This blog

As a bishop in God’s church, all-be-it still with my ‘L’ plates on, I recognise the challenge this brings to leaders, including me. We need to rise to the opportunity and lead well in these days. We need to step up, not down. Step forward, not back. This is one reason why I’ve decided to restart blogging, merging my two previous blogs into one, into this matthewporter.blog site. It’s one way that I can play a part, however small, in offering a contribution to the spiritual leadership that our church and society desperately needs. Along side my book-writing, I hope I may offer here some helpful, thoughtful leadership that is encouraging, challenging and genuinely spiritual.

Marks of Spiritual Leadership

While this blog will, over time, explore in much greater depth what spiritual leadership looks like, in essence spiritual leaders are marked by a love for Christ; they cherish Scripture, prioritise prayer, practice spiritual disciplines like fasting, and welcome the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit. They value the church’s traditions and particularly honour the church fathers, while also immersing themselves in contemporary culture so they understand life today, speaking people’s language and courageously engaging in a breadth of missional activities, being especially passionate about evangelism and church planting.

Impact

I write as a bishop not only with responsibility for evangelism and church planting in the Diocese of Manchester but also now having been tasked to lead the College of Archbishops’ Evangelists in the Church of England. As we present Christ and invite people to follow him for life, the task of seeing our nation re-evangelised and church revitalised is immense. The task is indeed a spiritual one. I know it. I sense it. We need greater spiritual leadership in today’s church so that many may be won for Christ, and society greatly impacted.

This is why I am praying and working for greater spiritual leadership in 2025 and beyond, for the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. We really do need to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest field (Matthew 9:27).