The servant leader must develop himself as a leader and as a servant so that together both he and his people can flourish and achieve their full potential in the service of a common, higher purpose.
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The Servant Leader’s Garden: Without Change There’s No Growth
This article focuses on some key realities about the growth of people and the Christian servant leader’s role in its facilitation. First it’s the recognition that growth in organizations is as dependent upon God as is growth in a garden. However, growth needs to be fostered; it requires sufficient room for the individual to grow but excessive growth on the part of one can constrain and deprive another. Even then the difficult process of “pruning” is required to help shape and direct people, increasing their fruitfulness. But perhaps the most uncomfortable aspect of growth is change. This is inevitable.
The Servant Leader’s Garden: Grass Doesn’t Grow Faster If You Pull It
In many aspects, the task of the gardener in a garden is similar to the task of the Christian servant leader modelled on Jesus Both will study the environment, define a specific purpose, prepare a place that is conducive for growth, get the right plants/people in to be able to fulfil the purpose, and tend to the individual plants/people to help them grow and bear fruit. A garden is made up of single plants and much additional insight can be gained from considering the role of a single plant – or even parts of a plant – in the garden, and applying those insights to the role of a leader in an organization.
Jesus: The Role Model for Christian Leaders
There is a lot that is said and written about Christian leadership. Much of it is not actually about leadership at all, but is focused on theological, expositional, hermeneutical, worship facilitation and communications skills. It’s also sad to say that Christian leadership today seems frequently to get confused with the modern concept of celebrity. Where consideration is given to the vital skills of people and organizational leadership, the Christian world so often seems to call upon secular, worldly models, passing over the one role model who should be in focus – Jesus Christ.
7 Tips to Reduce Project Management Stress for Christian Leaders
At some point every Christian leader will end up being called upon to lead some kind of project. They may be short and quick or they might be large and challenging. Many Christian leaders have no training or experience of running a project and that in itself can be an enormous stress factor. Whilst natural organisational ability is enormously helpful, in itself it is no guarantee of any project being both successful and low stress. This Article provide budding project managers with a practical guide
Understanding Personality Questionnaires for Christian Leaders : The Key to Solving Your People Puzzles Quickly and Effectively?
Using questionnaires to increase self-awareness and create an understanding of personality differences can help Christian Leaders and team members understand how they interrelate. Armed with this knowledge, and a little guidance, they can adjust how they work together to achieve their full potential.
The Christian Servant Leader’s Role Model: How to Develop People like Jesus
Often as Christian leaders we look to Jesus only as a spiritual role model and then we look to the world for our models of leadership. Whilst the world’s models are not always bad, many aspects of them are poor from a Christian perspective or need to be tempered with the Gospel. Because Jesus, amongst other things, is the role model for the whole of the Christian’s life we can, if we look, learn from him how to be Christ-like Christian leaders.
Stress – Tips for the Servant Leader Part 5: 5 Tips to Avoid and Reduce Personal Stress
This series on stress has been focusing on organisational stress and we have looked at the role that the Christian servant leader has to play by adopting strategies that help reduce stress for the people in his team or organisation. So far we have not considered what you can do if, through reading these articles, you identify high levels of occupational stress in yourself. Colin Buckland shared some more tips with me.
If you are in the ministry or on the mission field you may find our series on ministry stress helpful as well.
Stress – Tips for the Servant Leader Part 2: 6 Signs That Your People are Highly Stressed
Stress is part of life and to some extent stress, or at least benign stress (let’s call it pressure), helps to motivate us to perform well. To that extent it can be considered positive. With too little pressure performance is sub-optimum. Witness the difficulties and boredom generated by too little work as well as insubstantial work that you can’t “get your teeth into”. The problem is that as the pressure increases performance peaks and then declines as the pressure turns to high level stress.
Stress – Tips for the Servant Leader Part 1: The Cost of Stress to Your Team
“The truth is we should minimize negative stress in the workplace if we want to maximize productivity. If you really want to get the best with your people, from your people, then actually minimizing work-related or occupational stress is really something worth looking at.” Colin Buckland
Getaway Guide 2012
HOLIDAY DESTINATIONS FOR CHRISTIAN WORKERS
The 2012 edition of the Getaway Guide is now available here
Christian Leadership Books
Freedom to Lead
by Colin Buckland
Price: £8.99
(Postage and packaging extra: UK £2.41, International £5.62) details....
This book (originally published under the title of Liberated to Lead) is for any Christian in a position of leadership in the Church. Many leaders struggle with the nature of their role – trying to do the impossible for God, rather than doing their best and leaving the rest to the God of the impossible.
Colin helps readers to:
- Balance family life and the pressures of ministry
- Set realistic expectations in ministry
- Understand one’s calling to Christian service
- Avoid or overcome burnout.
Freedom to Lead is an invaluable tool for leaders who want to learn more about themselves and the role God has called them to.
You can download a sample chapter from here....
Culture Craft (eBook version)
By Rick Sessoms & Colin Buckland
Price £3.99
Many committed, capable, next-generation leaders are confused and frustrated in their current organisations. They cannot reconcile the evident chasm between the Jesus way of leadership and their own organisations’ dysfunctional cultures.
Rick and Colin have written this book to clear the confusion. They ask tough questions that reveal any organisation’s culture. They also offer practical, proven tools to build a ‘healthy’ organisation, one whose members demonstrate real values that are consistent with the teaching and example of Jesus.
This is a must-read book for ‘culture crafters’, those leaders who want to influence their organisations toward better health.
Please refer to the eBook licence
