We hope that you are enjoying Leaving Egypt. We would invite you to join the Leaving Egypt community on Substack by becoming a paid subscriber: https://leavingegyptpodcast.substack.com/subscribe In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair meet for a second time with Mark Lau Branson about how his church is working out the nature of leadership. A small, multicultural congregation in Los Angeles, they comprise a cross section of America - from university professors to immigrant day workers. Following the catastrophic urban wildfires of 2025 and amidst ongoing immigration issues that confront them daily, this community is undergoing a profound reorientation. Embracing a new imagination, they are allowing the gifts that the Spirit has given them through one another to shape them as a people. Shifting from an inward focus on the life of the church, towards the outward-facing question of how to join with God in their broken and shattered communities, they are seeing a more “bottom-up”, shared leadership emerging, and from this, meaningful relationships of solidarity in the neighbourhood. In the context of Luigino Bruni’s episode #60 it is clear that what is happening here is the discerning of “charism” among the people. Mark’s story describes a form of leadership quite different from the usual approaches of those with oversight of a congregation. Rather than “vision casting” and “strategizing” from above, this empowering, shared approach is about listening, prayer, and discernment, calling forth, naming and supporting the gifts of the people in liturgy, formation and worship - and especially outside church in their communities. Mark Lau Branson has been the Homer L. Goddard Senior Professor of the Ministry of the Laity and has taught at Fuller since 2000. His current work focuses on Ph.D. students. Ordained at San Francisco Christian Center, an African American Pentecostal church, he has served on the pastoral teams in United Methodist and Presbyterian churches and has written many books. Mark has worked with several agencies active in education, community development, and community organizing, and continues to serve as a consultant and speaker. He is a member of the national Advisory Board of the nonprofit CHERP Solar Power, and has served on the boards of the Institute of Urban Initiatives, the Ekklesia Project, and the Academy of Religious Leadership. He is active at La Fuente Ministries, a bi-lingual, multicultural church in Pasadena, California, USA. For Mark Lau Branson: https://www.fuller.edu/faculty/mark-lau-branson/ Churches, Cultures, and Leadership: A Practical Theology of Congregations and Ethnicities (with Juan Martínez) Leadership, God’s Agency and Disruptions: Confronting Modernity’s Wager (with Alan Roxburgh) Memories, Hopes, and Conversations: Appreciative Inquiry, Missional Engagement, and Congregational Change Starting Missional Churches For Alan J Roxburgh: http://alanroxburgh.com/about Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork Books Forming Communities of Hope in the Great Unravelling: Leadership in a Changing World (with Roy Searle) Joining God in the Great Unravelling Leadership, God’s Agency and Disruptions Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our Time For Jenny Sinclair: Substack: https://t4cg.substack.com/s/from-jenny-sinclair Website: https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/from-jenny-sinclair LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-sinclair-0589783b/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/T4CG Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TogetherForTheCommonGoodUK Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/t4cg_insta/ Get full access to Leaving Egypt at leavingegyptpodcast.substack.com/subscribe
