Alain Emerson: ‘Paul would be appalled with the razzmatazz of Christian conferences’

The leader of Emmanuel Church, Lurgan and 24-7 Prayer Ireland speaks to Emma Fowle about why the Church needs a wholesale rethink when it comes to leadership models, leading through grief and why the Apostle Paul would turn tables in many Christian conference green rooms

Church leadership is in crisis. A litany of scandals – some of them very high profile – have left people traumatised, wounded and distrustful. A role that has traditionally drawn people towards churches has become one that has kept many away.

It’s into this moment that Alain Emerson’s new book The Cruciform Leader (Muddy Pearl) arrives – and how timely it is. Its message is epitomised in the terrifically alliterated title for the book’s introduction: “Calling forth the hungry, the holy and the humble”. Church leadership is a calling – and a costly one that.

Alain is particularly passionate to see leadership modelled first and foremost on Jesus and the early Church, not on the leadership gurus of the world. He offers eye-opening insights from the New Testament that are so easily missed – like Jesus’ reluctance to be called king before he’s gone to the cross, and Paul stressing the importance of leaders being proved before being platformed.