Appearing on Radio 4's Today programme on New Year's Eve, the Archbishop of Canterbury yet again got people talking positively about the Church of England. One comment stood out, endorsed by the Chief Executive of Barclays (who was guest-editing the programme), as common ground about good leadership: "Where you have a good vicar, you will find growing churches."

You could almost sense the heads around the country nodding sagely in agreement over their morning coffee. Successful organisations are undoubtedly indebted to good leadership. So the ecclesiastical equivalent becomes an apparently simple equation: good vicar = growing church.

While the logic seems straightforward enough, there is a deeper discussion to be had. To start with, good vicars are necessary, but not sufficient alone, for churches to grow. Here in this wonderful part of East London, I have the privilege of working alongside some of the best clerics I have ever come across - yet, while some of their churches are growing, some are not. This is a pattern you will find repeated in areas of urban deprivation across the country.

I find that the "standard" growth formula of expanding suburban churches rarely works in deprived parishes, where confident and able lay leadership is scarce, upward mobility robs churches of asset bases, and the dysfunctionality of everyday living means that congregations contain a disproportionate number of needy individuals. There are numerous well-researched inhibitors to growth in the inner city - even in the most vibrant churches, and even with the best clergy.

Read the rest of the Bishop of Stepney's article at http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2014/10-january/comment/opinion/good-vicar-=-growing-church