Leadership and Authority: Bula Matari and Life-Community Ecclesiology in Congo

This book proposes that Christian theology in Africa can have a significant impact if a critical understanding of the sociopolitical situation in contemporary Africa is taken seriously. The Christian leadership in post-colonial Africa has cloned its understanding and use of authority on the Bula Matari model, which issued from the brutality of colonialism and political absolutism in post-colonial Africa. This model has caused many problems in churches, including dysfunction, conflicts, division, and lack of prophetic ministry. The book proposes that Life-Community ecclesiology can liberate authority, where leadership is a function, not a status, and where "apostolic succession" belongs to all the people of God.