This qualitative study investigates the nature of leadership as a social and relational process (Parry, 1998) within Australian Christian Church congregations using grounded theory methodology and critical realism epistemology. Grounded theory contributes toward a more comprehensive and integrative view of the affective mechanism of leadership influence and the leadership influence processes within church congregations. Parry’s description of leadership shifts the focus of investigation from the leader to the context of leadership and the participants. Employing a categorisation of leadership theories based on the two principles of; the locus and mechanism of leadership (Hernandez, Eberly, Avolio & Johnson, 2011), this study will incorporate other loci of leadership, investigate the affective mechanism of transformational leadership, and build on Fogarty’s (2013) concern that an implicit theory of transformational leadership held commonly by congregational volunteers might have inflated ratings of senior pastors’ transformational leadership behaviours. This study will provide a “more comprehensive leadership system” (Hernandez et al., p. 1166, 2011) that informs the theory of where leadership comes from and how that leadership is transmitted.