SERVANT LEADERSHIP

Definition for Servant Leadership

“The student models servant leadership and equips others in a God-given direction through Christlike character, leadership capability, and love.”

Servant Leadership Goal

I will lead a team of interns throughout the summer not just in tasks, but spiritually.

Strategies

I will press into the relationships with my interns over the course of the summer to develop a strong foundation for the team.

My ministry mentor and field evaluators will assist me in evaluating my communication and leadership of my team.

I will seek consistent and honest feedback from my interns in regards to my communication, shepherding, and people (vs. task) orientation.

I will disciple a national youth worship leader throughout my internship.

I will review leadership material provided by my ministry mentor throughout the internship.

Resources

I will review the DISC profiles of each of my interns to better learn how to love, communicate, and serve them in effective ways.

I will meet weekly with the national youth worship leader and use Josiah Venture’s WIC-5 program to assist in our discipleship relationship.

Measures

I will see marked growth in my mentee, whether in his personal relationship with Christ, his attitude towards missions in his home country, etc.

I will develop in my ability to love and communicate with other personalities, shown by a strong team dynamic, healthy conflict resolution, and growing together spiritually.

Overall Reflection Statement

For my competence in servant leadership, I am submitting reflections from my field evaluators and photos of my team throughout the internship. My personal primary focus in this internship experience was to grow in relationally serving and shepherding other people. I was stretched in this process, and there were certainly bumps and bruises along the way, but as I hope the comments from my field evaluators show, God challenged and grew me in this area. Ultimately my team lived and served well together as we travelled throughout Poland serving local churches and youth leaders, as the pictures show.

Artifacts

“Elliott is a very responsible, hardworking and trustworthy person. He is quite confident which has added a lot of peace to the whole team of interns Elliott was responsible for. I have also observed him being very honest about the deeper things happening within him as well as very teachable. He has been actively reaching out when he needed support or when his other teammates needed it…Elliott is great with tasks and very easy with people.” – Sara Kominek, Ministry Site Leader and Field Evaluator

“Based on his beliefs, his faith and bible knowledge he interacted with people he met, keeping in mind what is the goal, that is sharing the gospel.” – Marek Oleksy, Field Evaluator

“He cares about others and invests where he is positioned…His attitude is “can do” and participating wholeheartedly, and he is responsive as a listener giving good feedback and encouraging others.” – Nathan Jordan, Spiritual Formation Leader and Field Evaluator

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Learning Reflection

As I developed and demonstrated servant leadership, I have learned that I need to break out of my own relational comfort zone to serve others – especially if I am responsible for leading them. It quickly became painfully obvious that, while it’s easy for me to pursue depth of relationship with people that I have personal chemistry with, it is unhealthy, painful, and a poor demonstration of leadership to not push for that same depth with team members with whom I lack the same level of chemistry. I worked to push past the tension with these people this throughout the summer and invest in their lives, but still have lots of room to grow in this area.

Lifelong Development Statement

As a result of the experiences documented by these artifacts, I will continue to develop in servant leadership by striving to be more others-focused, especially in new relationships. I need to learn to push past my own relational insecurities and selfish preferences in every situation, not just when pressured by the responsibilities of leadership or by others. I got a small taste of the good that comes from this during my internship, and pray that God will continue to develop my character in this area as I seek to better love those that I lead.