The Leadership Mind by Teddy A. Jones

Membership in a   service   organization like the   Kiwanis Club   provides regular   opportunities   for   service   to others, regular reminders of the call to think more of others and less of self.  It would perhaps seem redundant to address such an august body as this at a time of thanksgiving on matters of servant   leadership   and humility. It is however also true that as humans our propensity to lose sight of our core values, the temptation to dilute our core ethos will forever be with us and therefore reminders are never to be spurned.  Someone  has rightly said that the greatest of all faults is to imagine you have none.  The first of our two Gospel readings espouses us to a deep rooted humility and invites us to question our motivation for doing good deeds.  The second is a bit more problematic, perhaps may even have a repelling effect on some.   “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or ...

Practicing servant leadership is a massive challenge to the Christian community globally. By using examples in your cultural context why would you say is it such a huge challenge and what are the obstacles in the way to live or practice servant leadership in your community? During the last quarter of 2008, I was approached by the director of spiritual affairs at the Jamaica Theological Seminary with a question that caused me to reflect deeply for many days. The resulting reflection troubled me immensely. The theme chosen for Seminary for the academic year 2008 – 2009 was “Servant Leadership: The way up is down.” I was asked by him to help him identify local pastors who embodied servant leadership to be invited to speak at the chapel sessions throughout the year. Immediately I realized that I had been asked a very difficult question because by all stretches of the imagination I was hard pressed to identify such leaders. This led me to seriously ponder why is it that ...