Servant Leadership Literature Review

Furthermore the Researcher would like to highlight leadership theories briefly to see what kind of leadership would be adequate to the leadership structure of the church from the study of literature review.

a. Trait theory: This theory is the earliest theory that the studies of leadership focused on the traits of the person, sometimes it is called the Great Man Theory. This approach assumes that great leaders are born that way (Drury 6).

b. Behavioural theory: This leadership theory focused on the actions of leaders not on mental qualities or internal states. According to this theory, people can learn to become leaders through teaching and observation. The leader’s behaviours came to be called leadership styles (Kumar 5).

c. Contingency theory:

Servant leadership theory: Robert Greenleaf provided with the concept servant leader, a normative theory of leadership, in his book servant leadership: A Journey into the Nature Power and Greatness. Among the distinguish characteristics of the servant leader are service to others and perceptions of trust. According to Greenleaf, the servant leader leads because s/he wants to serve others. He also suggests that people follow servant leaders, accepting their influence because of a high level of trust that gets placed in the leader by their followers (Verrier 32). Characteristics of servant leaders include empathy, stewardship, and commitment to the personal, professional, and spiritual growth of their subordinates (Barnet).

From above study the literature review on leadership structure and style of Leadership. It is important to expound the proper functioning of the New Testament church. Though there are some elements found in the above theories and concepts of Leadership in relation to Church polity. It is important to delineate the proper structure and style of leadership on the basis of scripture. So the Researcher believes the proper structure and style of New Testament church is Pastoral Leadership by plurality of

According to Leiter and Maslach, burnout is one of the biggest occupational hazard of twenty first century “costing the American economy more than 300 billion dollars in “sick time, long-term disability, and excessive job turnover” (“Rowell’s Doctoral Dissertation-Jeren L. Rowell” 17). Actually, it was Roy Oswald in the early 1980s onward, the language of burnout has increasingly been linked to research and writing in the area of clergy attrition (“Rowell’s Doctoral Dissertation-Jeren L. Rowell” 17). Probably burnout could be one of the reasons for church leaders to give up the ministry. Though attrition takes both with church leaders and members of Telugu Baptist churches in Chennai. The most victim among the church leaders is the pastor who is responsible to feed the believers. It is because of the polity of the Telugu Baptist churches in Chennai. The other elders’ board try to overrule and control pastor in every area of ministry. According to literature review the primary causes of pastoral attrition of the pastors who quit or fail morally