As we researched what should go into LEADERSHIP, one concern we often heard was, "Don't forget the small church!" In the future we'll publish case studies and various articles for leaders in smaller congregations. But the person we turned to for this first issue was Ben Patterson. He pastors a small church and is also unusually gifted as a writer and thinker. We asked him to address himself to the issue of power and authority as viewed by the pastor of a small congregation. He hasn't come up with a lot of nuts-and-bolts advice-but with something perhaps much more vital to the person struggling with the problems of a small congregation. He talks about how to view ourselves, how to gain a perspective. We all need that. As a pastor, Ben writes with an eloquence and biblical insight which have practical applications indeed.

German historians have a word for a particular way of writing history. Roughly translated, it describes history written from the point of view ...