Leland Brown, "The First Pastors: Early Christianity’s Vision for Ministry" (Gorgias Press, 2026)

Apr 5, 2026

Leland Brown, pastor and adjunct professor who studies first- and second-century Christianity, presents his book on early Christian visions for pastoral leadership. He highlights claims about the virtues leaders must show. He describes leaders’ teaching, oversight, caregiving, and charity. He traces continuity with New Testament traditions and the mix of unity and diversity across early communities.

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ANECDOTE

How Pastoral Frustration Sparked a PhD

Leland Brown became interested in early Christian ministry after noticing modern seminary courses rarely covered pre-1900 pastoral writing.
His pastoral experience and PhD at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary led him to study the Apostolic Fathers as sources for historical pastoral theology.

INSIGHT

Reading Apostolic Fathers On Their Own Terms

Scholarship splits between narratives of institutional development and sociocultural readings, but Brown reads Apostolic Fathers in their own words to see their vision of leadership.
He focuses on five central texts (Ignatius, Polycarp, Shepherd of Hermas, Didache, 1 Clement) to identify shared convictions rather than imposing modern ecclesiological categories.

ADVICE

Study Early Leaders By Their Own Claims

When studying early Christian leadership, avoid imposing modern ecclesiological debates and instead read primary texts for their self-presentation about who leaders should be and do.
Focus research on the core five Apostolic Fathers texts to detect consistent pastoral convictions across communities.

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Most accounts of Christian leadership in the first two centuries focus on the diversity of leadership structures and the various cultural influences that impacted it. The First Pastors: Early Christianity’s Vision for Ministry (Gorgias Press, 2026) demonstrates that within these structures and contexts early Christians shared a clear set of theological convictions about pastoral leadership. Through literary and theological analysis of relevant passages in the Apostolic Fathers and New Testament, The First Pastors demonstrates four shared convictions about pastoral ministry: (1) the necessity of a particular kind of virtue for pastoral leaders, (2) the authority of pastoral leaders, (3) the essentials of pastoral work, and (4) the reality of pastoral suffering. These shared convictions emerge from the variety of communities represented by these texts and are so well attested to that they suggest a much greater degree of unity than is presently assumed in the field. Moreover, even with the various dating issues surrounding the Apostolic Fathers and New Testament, the agreement between these sets of texts show second-century Christians carrying forward the convictions of the first century. Finally, they present an interesting example of the coexistence and interaction between unity and diversity in early Christianity: theological unity persisted in diverse communities with varying practices and contexts.

Gorgias Press has generously offered a coupon code for listeners of this podcast. The coupon is valid until the end of 2026 on orders from the publisher’s website here. Use code LAUNCH40%

Leland Brown serves as a pastor in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina and is an adjunct professor at Phoenix Seminary. He studied patristics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and received his PhD with a focus on first- and second-century Christianity. He also serves as an editor for the London Lyceum. His research seeks to exposit how pastoral leadership has been understood and practiced in the history of the church.

Jonathon Lookadoo is Associate Professor at the Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary in Seoul, South Korea. While his interests range widely over the world of early Christianity, he is the author of books on the Epistle of Barnabas, Ignatius of Antioch, and the Shepherd of Hermas, including The Christology of Ignatius of Antioch (Cascade, 2023).

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