Growing the Servant Heart is a FREE, self paced course developed from Claybury International’s coached leadership development programmes and it is available on-line.Growing the Servant Heart encourages the growth of a Christ-centered character for leaders and goes on to recommend practical approaches to help them live this out in day-to-day leadership situations. The tools have been chosen because they enable Christians, who are leaders, to put into practice the character and attitude that Jesus taught and modelled.
The goal of the Growing the Servant Heart on-line programme is to introduce and explore leadership from the perspectives of Christ-centeredness, examining Jesus, the Servant King, as a model of leadership. It comprises a series of 5 core modules or lessons.
The Growing the Servant Heart programme
The Growing the Servant Heart programme has 5 main sections. It first explores the Biblical context and Kingdom character of Christian leadership as exemplified by Jesus. It then examines key aspects of leadership practice which have a day-to-day impact, investigating approaches that exemplify and build on the Christ-centred servant leadership style discovered from the Bible.
The Jesus Model
The essence of Christian Leadership in the Kingdom of God is to be rooted and grounded in the character, teaching, and example of Christ. This module is in two lessons, which explores Jesus’ character as a leader and his teaching about leadership and, in that light, reflects upon Christian leadership working in an organisational context.
Leading with Insight
Effective Inter-personal relationships are a vital element of servant leadership. This element explores awareness of one’s self and those with whom one interacts and then adjusts our behavior to help the other person. This is called “Emotional Intelligence” and this module explores this dimension of relationships.
Leading Through Others
There are two important dimensions to be considered when a leader leads others. The first is the essential leadership practices that the leader must exhibit, the second is the needs of the people being led. “Leading through Others” examines both these areas form the Christ-centered servant leadership perspective:
Leading Through Relationships
This module concerns itself with effective communications, which are the oil that lubricates cooperation between team members, whether they are the leader or team members. In order for cooperative relationships to work, effective communication skills, focused on the needs of others, are vital for all concerned, especially leaders.
Leading the Journey
Leadership is about the journey. Encouraging others to join the journey requires the development of a shared vision. Leading people on that journey to the destination inevitably means change, which must be sensitively addressed. The servant leader needs to know how to ensure that clear vision is developed and then to inspire others to willingly embark upon the journey that brings it to reality. This lesson examines these skills.
You can learn more about Growing a Servant Heart as a Christian Leader from the video above or go the course home page at the Christian Leadership Academy at academy.christian-leadership.org
There is also companion Growing the Servant Heart white paper which you can download free of charge.
