Does it help at all to think of ‘leadership’, if we need to retain that label, in terms of ‘influence’ rather than ‘authority’? This shifts the emphasis away from the external or formal status of the leader towards effectiveness and character. It is also difficult to separate the idea of authority from hierarchy or organizational structure. To the extent that this ‘solid’ aspect of church life (to use Pete Ward’s metaphor) becomes less important in emerging church, ‘influence’, both within the body of Christ and as an expression of mission, may seem a much more appropriate way of thinking about that role or function which has traditionally been understood as leadership. It certainly seems a good idea to me to blur the distinction between leaders and followers, push the responsibility for being effectively Christ-like back out into the believing community, and develop a unified category of influencers, catalysts, agents of change within the kingdom of God. This sort of activity will still need organizing, but that organization will be secondary and supportive, not the be-all-and-end-all of Christian ministry.