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A Missiological Look at Leadership

Explore movement leadership through the life, ministry, and relational network of the Apostle Paul and his co-laborers. Rather than approaching leadership primarily through contemporary organizational theories or personality-centered models, students will examine leadership as participation in the mission of God through Christoform character, Spirit-given gifts, relational collaboration, and the equipping of the whole body for diakonia.


Drawing from Lead Like Paul, the course considers the formation of movement leaders through their calling, character, charismata, confidence, commitments, relationships, and commission. Particular attention is given to Paul’s extensive network of co-laborers and to the communal nature of leadership within the early Christian movement. Students will explore how leadership functions within the relational ecosystem of the ekklēsia, where Christ remains the head and diverse, gifted people participate together in God’s mission.

The course also challenges command-control, personality-centered, and mechanistic understandings of leadership by introducing movemental and chaordic approaches that recognize both the ordered purpose of God’s mission and the dynamic activity of Spirit-gifted people. Paul’s leadership thus becomes not a technique to imitate but a biblical case study in forming, trusting, equipping, and releasing others to participate faithfully in the motus Dei.

  • Explain the biblical and theological foundations of movement leadership

  • Analyze the leadership of Paul and his co-laborers as a relational ecosystem

  • Articulate a Christoform model of leadership

  • Evaluate the role of Spirit-given gifts and APEST in movement leadership

  • Assess leadership practices within diverse cultural and ministry contexts

  • Develop a contextual philosophy and practice of movement leadership

Lead Like Paul

Leadership that equips, releases, and sustains the participation of the whole body in God’s mission.

    1. Key Terms

    2. Pick up the book

    3. Reflection Journal

    1. What to Expect in this Session

    2. Key Concepts

    3. The Transformational Leadership of the Apostle Paul

    4. Embracing Chaord in the Missio Ecclesiae

    5. Contextualized Leadership in Post-Communist Eastern Europe

    6. Session Reflection and Integration

    1. What to Expect in this Session

    2. A Leader's Call - Purpose

    3. Key Concepts

    4. Principles for Discerning God's Plan

    5. Session Reflection and Integration

    1. What to Expect in this Session

    2. A Leader's Character - Pattern

    3. Key Concepts

    4. Making a Godly Person Workbook

    5. Session Reflection and Integration

    1. What to Expect in this Session

    2. A Leader's Charismata - Profession

    3. Key Concepts

    4. APEST Test

    5. Session Reflection and Integration

    1. What to Expect in this Session

    2. A Leader's Confidence - Position

    3. Key Concepts

    4. Session Reflection and Integration

About this course

  • $49.00
  • 52 lessons
  • 10 hours of audio and video presentations
  • Free Downloadable Reflection Journal

The Relational Ecosystem of Movement Leadership

What if the most important lesson from the Apostle Paul’s leadership is not how much he accomplished—but how deeply he invested in people?

In Lead Like Paul: The Relational Ecosystem of Movement Leadership, missiologist Michael T. Cooper draws from decades of study, teaching, and missionary experience to explore the leadership that helped turn the world upside down. Rather than presenting Paul as a heroic, independent leader, Cooper places him within the network of relationships that made the early Christian movement possible. The result is a compelling vision of leadership that is Christ-centered, relational, communal, empowering, and movemental.

Meet Dr. Michael Cooper

Professor of Missiological Theology Michael T. Cooper

Dr. Cooper earned a PhD in Intercultural Studies with a focus on religious movements and a minor in theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He currently serves as a missiologist for a missions agency where he focuses on missiological research and equipping missionaries for effective cultural engagement. He has thirty years of missions experience, including ten years as a pioneer church planter in Romania after the fall of communism and has equipped church planters and leaders in Africa, Europe, North America, South America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. He is a guest faculty at Torch Trinity Graduate University, adjunct faculty at Mission India Theological Seminary, Asia Graduate School of Theology Nepal, and Ebenezer Bible College in Katmandu, and affiliate faculty at Kairos University. He has written and contributed to more than 30 books and academic articles and has presented conference lectures at the London School of Economics, University of Bordeaux, Loyola University, Baylor University, and many others. His recent book, Gods, Emperors, Philosophers, and a New Movement and his signature book Ephesiology: A Study of the Ephesian Movement form the foundations for his understanding of the mission of early Christianity.