The late 20th and early 21st century have brought us fresh understandings of leadership, authority, creativity, and the nurturing of compassion. The church’s habits (in liturgy and beyond) have tended to reinforce a top-down hierarchical leadership and forms of organization that repeatedly and routinely limit participant’s power and increase the authority and responsibility of the leader. By contrast, the Synoptic Gospels portray Jesus as a teacher ‘with authority’ whose methods and teaching enhanced and built up the authority of others. Applying contemporary leadership theory and ancient sources and traditions to church life, we encourage congregations to grow into an experience of leadership patterned on the images of Jesus the teacher.