Issues Facing Missions Today 24: Some Methodological Questions for Leadership Studies Introduction In the following essay, I would like to ask three questions related to the study of ministry and challenge the idea that ‘leadership’ helps us in this study. The questions are: (1) How should Christian ministry appropriate the social sciences? (2) Is ‘leadership’ an appropriate concept for Christian ministry?, and (3) What exactly are terms for ministry in the Church, and do they involve the notion of leadership? Three Questions First, ‘ How should Christian ministry appropriate the social sciences?’ The issue here is not whether the social sciences are worth investigating, but how they should be engaged. One approach might be to adopt a theory from the social sciences as a starting point. Another, opposite approach might be to try to derive a theory from Scripture. For example, methodologically one might begin with pedagogical theory from the field of education or