Indigenous Christian leadership represents a distinctive form of leadership that operates through what is here called translational authority—the capacity to mediate between Indigenous and Christian knowledge systems whilst sustaining the integrity of both traditions. It emerges at the intersection of Indigenous ways of being, organizing, and relating with Christian theological frameworks, creating hybrid forms of leadership and organization. The history of Aotearoa New Zealand illustrates this dynamic: Early Māori evangelists drew on kinship networks to spread Christianity; colonial entanglement subordinated Māori leadership to settler structures; and later reforms, culminating in the 1992 Three Tikanga constitution, established a relational polity that recognized Māori and Pasefika authority alongside Pākehā. Theoretically, Indigenous Christian leadership is grounded in the 4Rs of relationship, responsibility, reciprocity, and redistribution, expressed through Te Ao Māori concepts such as mana, tapu, hau, and whakapapa, and integrated with Christian organizational symbols like koinōnia. These concepts show that Indigenous leadership is not merely functional but symbolic, grounding authority in values that sustain relational and spiritual legitimacy. This perspective extends adaptive leadership and organizational symbolism theories by demonstrating how leaders navigate ontological tensions between complete cosmological systems. Contemporary practice is seen in governance, where the Three Tikanga Church enacts covenantal partnership, and in liturgy, where the Affirmation of Faith in He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa re-expresses Christian confession through Māori categories. This case contributes to global understandings of Indigenous Christian leadership by showing how translational authority sustains legitimacy across cultural and institutional boundaries in contexts of decolonization and cultural resurgence.