Fall 2025

One of the great crises in the church today isn’t just the fallout of leadership failures—it’s the growing disbelief that pastors can still embody Jesus’ good and cruciform authority. Most pastors aren’t building empires. They’re proclaiming the Word, seeking the kingdom, and quietly laboring for lives to change and the gospel to advance. In this issue, Michael Keller encourages and equips those who pastor and preach to the institutional skeptic. Matthew Z. Capps makes a case for a healthy vision of church membership wherein shepherds can actually shepherd their people. Pastors Hannah Miller King (ACNA), Jonathan Leeman (9Marks), Gabriel Saguero (Assemblies of God) and Hershael W. York (SBC) talk about what makes their church governance models work. Walter R. Strickland II writes on the current state of Black evangelicalism and the institutional tensions of discipleship. Tailored mental and emotional health insights—for the pastor and the congregation—come from Dan Allender, Carey Nieuwhof, James Sells, and Curt Thompson. The theme of this issue is anchored with an essay from Taylor Combs on why we venerate and vilify leaders, written through the lens of Acts 14, along with a conversation between Rich Villodas and Richard Foster on the role of the pastor’s own discipleship in the health of a ministry. A pastor shares his account of how, by God’s grace, something beautiful was replanted out of the ashes of Mars Hill Church. Last, there is a robust books section, complete with a practical excerpt and a roundup of pastors sharing the must-haves in their personal libraries. This issue of Leadership Journal will strengthen weary hands, offer timely wisdom, and cast a vision for ministry that is both grounded and hopeful—one that reaches the disillusioned and points to the ultimate authority worth trusting: the crucified and risen Christ.