John Renfro Servant Leadership

My faith tradition informs my theology of pastoral care as that a pastor has an authority in the pastoral care relationship. The pastor’s image in my faith tradition is an advisor, director, and guide. In my faith tradition, the lay people like to have the pastoral care, when they make important decisions. Since my culture is the hierarchal and patriarch system, the lay people believes that pastors are better to know about God’s will. Therefore, the lay people are too much depending on the pastor’s advices, and taking pastor’s perspective, rather than choosing what they want. There is no space to listen their inner voice in the pastoral care in my faith tradition. My theology of pastoral care in my faith tradition was that what Jesus did is what we should do. Because of my traditional ideal of pastoral care, I thought pastors have to know everything and be better than others until becoming like Jesus. However, I realized that the theology can be dangerous to look down the lay people and non-Christians, and is not helpful for the pastors and the lay people as well. I think it is important to remember in my tradition that the head of the church is the only one, Jesus, and we are all the body of Christ. There is the better part in the body of Christ. We are all the same and we need each other.

The foundation of my personal leadership philosophy can be found in the principles of servant leadership as spelled out by Greenleaf (1970, 1977). Leadership is granted to individuals who are by nature servants. An individual emerges as a leader by first becoming a servant. Servant leaders attend to the needs of those they serve and help them become more informed, free, self-sufficient, and like servants themselves. Leaders and those they serve improve, enhance, and develop each other through their connection. A leader must also be conscious of inequalities and social injustices in the organizations they serve and work actively to resolve those issues. Servant leaders rely less on the use of official power and control, but focus on empowering those they

After viewing the videos on Geoff Canada, I was greatly astonished not only by the amount of passion Canada showed towards fulfilling his goal of providing underprivileged children with a quality education, but the level of discipline he took towards achieving it. This is so as Canada displays a strong level of servant leadership by treating each of his students with an equal sense of dignity regardless of their past and views them as an opportunity for greater success. In addition, Canada keeps his ultimate goal of ensuring that every student graduates and succeeds in college at the forefront of his endeavors, which demonstrates his persistence towards achieving it. One instance of this is the fact that Canada would willing to fire teachers

This paper is the final results of my internship ministry practicum II experiences reflection in my church organization work settings and training. My experiences from different areas of exposure sharpened my skills for my professional role of the Doctor of Ministry Program in the theological field of counseling and teaching. My ministry practicum consists of direct involvements with hands-on, real-life interactions under the supervision of my Supervisor, Chaplain Andrea Fletcher. This Comprehensive Written Review analyzes the full spectrum of my observation and participation in tasks from my Ministry Learning Agreement Form. The opportunity allowed me to view other leaders in ministry exercising their gift and in turns

Some of the opportunity and challenges pastor’s facNorth American pastors are challenge in a variety ways, one of the questions that helps a pastor to define his true intentions is figuring out some of the following ideas and awareness.

Nouwen shared that one of the struggles a leader faces in ministry is low self-esteem and even self-depreciation. Many people in the church struggle with seeing the results and feeling like they are making a difference in the world or making an impact. Nouwen said a sad truth that, “Christian leaders feel less and less relevant and more and more marginal” (Page 33). Nouwen encourages however, that when we stop trying to be relevant and we accept that may not be “in the loop”; it is there that God can use us. And it is there that Jesus can be seen. Nouwen advises Christian leaders to be in constant contemplative prayer. That is to say that our prayers should be thoughtful, mindful, and

From the group Biblical Integration Paper, it was understood that servant-leadership is not only a gift of purpose that God places in the hearts of His people, but it is also a calling in one’s life to truly touch the lives of others in need. Living a successful life, as a servant-leader is not one that focuses on self-fulfillment, rather it is in seeking a fulfillment that comes from Christ when one pours him/herself out for the sake of others. It is through servant-leadership that one is able to bring hope into hopeless situations (Group Integration Paper,

This truth escapes many spiritual leaders. Caught up in helping other people maintain their hearts, they frequently ignore or neglect their own.” This is one of many famous quotes from the book, by Reggie McNeal, that was published by Joessey-Bass A Wiley Imprint in 2011. Within the 203 pages and 10 chapters of this book, McNeal writes a succinct, and compassionate collection of essays of sorts, offering a spiritual approach that influences individuals recognize the need for spiritual leaders to develop their hearts. Reggie McNeal is seen as an authority on this topic because of his many published books as well as his twenty years of leadership roles in local congregations, his work over the last decade with thousands of church leaders, and his counsels of local churches, denominational groups, seminaries and colleges, and parachurch organizations in their leadership-development needs. In addition to that, he is also the director of leadership development for Baptist Convention; the South Carolina branch, where he lives, with his wife and two

Among the challenge of understanding the people that you are ministering to or with is the challenge of being able to maintain high standards of moral behavior in a challenging environment (Martin.n.d). There is also the challenge of ever changing volunteers and the lack of volunteers (Martin.,n.d). As a Christian leader, we tend to believe that there will always be an abundance of volunteers to serve God but that is not always the case as I have witnessed personally.

Leadership can be a precarious journey for individuals to pursue; hidden behind every decision is the potential to derail everything the leader has worked towards. The potential hazards of leadership are also true for church leaders. Just as road signs serve to assist drivers down unfamiliar highways, George Wood presents mileposts that will assist church leaders to navigate the leadership roadway. By following Wood’s leadership mileposts, a leader can potentially avoid many pitfalls found in the ministry.

“I grew up with extended family being in Ministry”. Pastor Daniel’s grandfather retired after 52 years of pastoring in Mississippi, “which molded my understanding and willingness to receive the call of ministry”. At 17 I Pastor Daniel received the call to ministry. He was “in the alters” at his church, seeking direction from God in his life and God reminded him of his

Dr. Galindo’s approach to leading us was very open and reflective, his feed back was light and cautious, which had elements of revelation, education and healing. I believe he pushed us to self-awareness, causing us to have an introspective view of who we are and why we are. Reading our online post the first two weeks, I realized that I was very proficient in analyzing the working and dynamics of the church, however there was not a lot of contemplation about my intricate part as a cog in congregational machine. Dr. Galindo gave enough feed-back that inevitably caused me to ask bigger questions or dig deeper into the books and other sources to satisfy my many questions. It made we realize that I am interested in systematic theology. I love to uncover dynamics and unashamedly talk about the hard stuff because it is necessary for healing — I love to share the stories of God and love to find the systemic workings of organizations as well as individuals. Knowledge is

This paper will discuss my reflection to the interview session that I had with Pastor Stephen Paulsen. Stephen Paulsen is the high school Pastor at Venture Christian Church. He has been a high school Pastor for about 13 years. Stephen has started his ministry at Venture Christian Church since August 2014. Before working at Venture, He began his first ministry in serving the high school students in South Carolina. He has four kids (three boys and one daughter) and a beautiful wife. This paper will reflect on the answers that I got during the interview, according to his experience in his ministry.

As a young Christian and junior military officer in the early 1990s, I often wondered whether I resembled Joshua or Timothy in terms of responding to the call of ministry. At times I felt like Timothy; young in the gospel, aided by the prayers of relatives, anointed by elders, and growing under the stewardship of a mentor like Paul. At other times I felt more like Joshua; a trusted and faithful combat veteran who served alongside his mentor and found courage in the knowledge that God would never forsake him. During those years, I answered God’s call to ministry, and exercised my God-given gifts and abilities to achieve God’s purpose. I also developed and grew as a disciple of Jesus Christ, learning significantly from key mentors and exposure to military based ministries. As a minister with over 25 years of ministry leadership experience and over 30 years of military leadership experience, I benefitted from studying the art and science of leadership, participating in formal leadership development training, progressing through structured levels of leadership experiences, and learning from both the very effective and not so effective church leaders. The purpose of this paper is to explore and reflect on these learning experiences that made me the Christian leader that I am today.

Pastors, also commonly referred to as ministers, or clergy, entering the church ministry profession largely attribute their vocational choice to a sense of calling (Beebe, 2007; Dodd, 2012; Lee, 2010; Meek, McKinn, Brower, Burnett, 2003; Oleson, 2011). Calling within a pastoral context can be defined as an obligation to live out a mission, set by God, to work for a purpose other than one’s own (Dodd, 2012). Evidently, regardless of the preceding foundational objective to their professional choice, studies show a high attrition rate amongst pastors, due to stress and burnout (Beebe, 2007; Dodds, 2012; Krejcir, 2007). Stress is an “event or a series of events that lead to strain, which can result in physical and psychological health problems” (Corey, et al., 2015, p. 58). Burnout is “a state of physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual depletion characterized by feelings of helplessness and hopelessness” (Corey, et al., 2015, p. 60). A study by Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development of 1,050 pastors revealed telling statistics. For example, 100% of pastors surveyed attested to personally knowing at least one colleague who left the pastorate due to either burnout, moral failure, or church conflict related stress. Additionally, 90% surveyed stated being