Historical Development of the Pattern of Leadership in the Early Christian Movement in the Book of Acts

The paper discusses important aspects of leadership in the Early Christian movement as described in the book of Acts. The major focus is the type of leadership exhibited by Jesus, who, influenced by the Jewish model of a horizontal form of government, did not predict any vertical method of government, which influenced His disciples to develop a pattern of leadership that served all the people equally. The ascension of Jesus and the delay of the parousia presented new challenges to the disciples that led them to create a leadership structure different than the Jewish model for the survival of the group and the maintenance of their Christian identity. They used Jerusalem not as a symbolic reference of religiosity, but as a headquarters to administer their missionary activities, while still having the decisions made by a group and not by one person