one fails to know who would be chosen.‛32 This hesitation in view of a collectively elected leader is also expressed in a document pertaining to a certain foundation – the Lewi Pethrus’ Foundation for Philanthropic Work which received legal status on 13 October, 1959. In this document we read in paragraph 6 that Lewi Pethrus shall ‚be a self appointed member and its chairman and after him the one he (Lewi Pethrus) in his will has appointed to that position.‛33 On the 25 June, 1968 this stipulation was changed to the following wording ‚the one the board appoints.‛34 It is characteristic for Pethrus’ opinion as to leadership and indirectly to his own leadership, which he stated in an editorial in Dagen in February, 1973 in connection with the election of a new Pastor in the Philadelphia Church in Stockholm ‚one more thing which is a special demand for the Philadelphia Church in Stockholm refers to its chairman or elder. He will be the natural leader of the Swedish Pentecostal Movement, since this Church is one of the first Pentecostal congregations in the country. It has later become the largest and is the mother Church to many of the others. Its Pastor has automatically received a leading position for the whole Pentecostal Revival. If he is a strong personality he will certainly represent the Swedish Pentecostal Movement to be called chairman in Europe’s largest free Church which reveals an expression of great confidence.‛35
4.5 A leader’s personality What characteristics does Lewi Pethrus then ascribe to a spiritual leader? The answers have partly been given in the quoted passages. He must have ‚an extremely high calling‛. He must have ‚a spiritual capacity for initiative‛, be ‚the strongest man‛, the ‚one who has come to take power‛, yes, be such a man ‚to whom God gives a responsibility‛, ‚a dynamic personality‛. At the time when a new chief editor should be elected for Dagen in the mid 60's, Pethrus remarked, ‚I think it is dangerous to have a leader who must report everything to the board. A leader must act independently. A man who _________________ 32 Beijbom & Gustafson 1968, p. 112. Compare Pethrus 1969, p. 148, 149. 33 Regulations, ’’Lewi Pethrus Stiftelse för Filantropisk Verksamhet’’, 13.10.59. 34 Regulations, ‘Lewi Pethrus Stiftelse för Filantropisk Verksamhet’, 25.6.68. 35 Dagen 14.2.73, Lewi Pethrus, ‛Karl-Erik Heinerborg till Stockholm‛.
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