Servant Leadership

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"A good leader motivates and mobilizes others to accomplish a task or to think in a certain way that is for the benefit of all concerned. A good servant-leader is one whose primary purpose for leading is to serve others by investing in their development and well-being for the benefit of the common good. A good Christian servant-leader serves God through investing in others who together accomplish a task for Gods glory."

"The leadership about which Jesus speaks is of a radically different kind from the leadership offered by the world. It is a servant leadership-to use Robert Greenleafs term-in which the leader is a vulnerable servant who needs the people as much as they need him or her. . . a leadership which is not modeled on the power games of the world, but on the servant-leader, Jesus, who came to give his life for the salvation of many." ~ Henri J. M. Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus.

The academic Deans from Christian colleges and universities, who were attending the 1997 Executive Leadership Development Institute, developed the following definition for servant-leadership in Christian higher education: "Intentional stewardship of ones influence to enable and empower other people to identify and achieve the goals of the community in the service of God."

"To aspire to leadership is an honourable ambition." -1 Timothy 3:1