Follower of Jesus in His
Humility and Love
I have experienced a leadership position for years with different challenges of lows and highs and I have seen and heard leadership styles of many people which are admiring, frustrating, and boring. During the two years of study at Luther Seminary, in my master degree, I have taken again various leadership inventories and worked with specific leadership frameworks about Christian Public Leadership. Who am I as a leader, now? In this writing, I will answer this question with my understanding of how my gifts function within such leadership.
First of all, as a Christian, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I have received life through his grace, and I want to share that life to others “You received without payment; give without payment” (Matthew 10:8 NRSV). As a Christian in this secular age, I value the faith through the union with Christ in theosis by the kenosis, the self-emptying of the ministry, to enter hypostasis through the death experience to the new life. In following Jesus, I learn from his self-dying on the cross and the foot-washing he did to become a servant of others with humility and love. As a Christian public leader, I witness the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in my salvation, healing and freedom. That is why I want to proclaim the Gospel in my teaching and writing, support and heal the brokenhearted through listening, counseling, ministering in praying and laying on hands, and sharing what I have to the needy. I am called to be God’s ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20), and the important thing for me is the salvation and restoration of the world, the humanity and creation. The aim of my degree is not about money, position or promotion, but for the desire to know more the people I am called for and how to serve them with love and humility. Listening to the Holy Spirit and the voice of God are my strengths as a Christian and missionary.
Moreover, I acknowledge that leading change is for my growth first and it starts in leading myself by having self-awareness of who am I, my goal, my fear, and God’s work. Characters and virtues are important in the growth of a leader like the perseverance in my work. The process through the immunity map was helpful for my maturity in the emotion management. Also, I am aware that I am a system leading a system, child of God, beloved, and unique, and God is empowering me in his love and support. In my role as wife, mother, leader, counselor, and writer, I have a loyalty for my family and church in doing my ministry and I need to know my boundaries to make the balance of my well-being and the good of others. The enneagram and IDI tests and the Theological World inventory work in leading me to own responsibility. I am empowered and very confident with the strength of my personality as a perfectionist and value the forgiveness of sin in my Christian life, but I am willing also to grow in my weaknesses in learning from the differences of culture and knowledge. I am more self-differentiated with my boundaries and ready to encounter opposition from others. That is why I think self-care for a leader is also crucial and important for me to strengthen the soul of my leadership. The spiritual disciplines help to maintain my intimacy with God and reinforce my identity, and I use my gift in the guidance of God and the discernment in the Holy Spirit not with a performance.
I have learned that leading is learning through listening to the context as well. In my ministry experience and the context of my work, the four process of Osmer in his practical theology gives strength to me to be a reflective leader in knowing the situation through the questions, (What’s going on? Why is it going on? What ought to be going on? What to do next?), which lead to the pragmatic work necessary for influence. The ability to make a good interpretation is necessary for the appropriate intervention. As leading change is complex, adaptive leadership is the good approach to use, and relationship is important because the process needs the connection with values, beliefs, and anxiety to move people through their adaptive challenges. For that, leading the system in leading self is the practice, to be in the balcony and the dance floor. It means I need to check myself at the same time in observing how the others handle the change. So, in this adaptive leadership my gift is used to serve and built others not to bring a burden for them. I can be humble to cooperate with people and learn to be patient with them. But I need to be confident and determined with my gift.
Before I was thinking to stop learning after reaching my goal and try to focus on my work and life for my joy and happiness. When I came to seminary, I discovered that having strong leadership in my ministry required a lifelong learning through spiritual practice, and I acknowledge this is true because, as a follower of Jesus, in being Christian public leader, I must learn from him every day more and enjoy my growth to reach the maturity in Christ. Then, in doing my ministry, my gifts are working also in building my intimacy with Jesus, which is necessary for my growth as a Christian.
Bibliography
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