Servant Leader Reading Group
In my time as a Pastor in the Evangelical Church, I have noticed the principles of Servant Leadership in practice in many ways. I have also experienced a lack of an understanding of Servant Leadership as a leadership practice that has a wide breadth of learning materials. During my time in the Masters in Organizational Leadership program at Gonzaga University, this juxtaposition between lived experience and learning in the church has become more and more evident. The goal of the Servant Leadership Reading Group is to expose evangelical church leaders to the study of Servant Leadership as a leadership discipline and provide an avenue for growth of their leadership skills.
This 10 month reading group will follow the 10 practices of Servant Leadership as laid out by Larry Spears. Each month will be focused on one of the practices and learning will happen individually, in a mentoring relationship, as well as in a group discussion setting. This format will allow the participants to read and learn individually, gain guidance, experience, and input from a more experienced servant leader mentor, and learn from and contribute to group learning on each practice.
Each month will have 5 elements that each participant will be involved in. The 5 elements are:
Featured Reading - Each month will showcase a reading that covers and relates to the practice being focused on. Sometimes those readings are overtly about the topic, sometimes they contain guidance on the practice. Reading should be completed before the Mentor & Group Meetings happen each month.
Individual Reflection - Each practice will have a guided individual reflection time that each participant will do daily for that month. The purpose of the individual reflection time is to build self awareness about who we are and what we do as a leader in relation to the individual practice being focused on.
Mentoring Relationships - At the start of the reading group, each participant will be paired with a more experienced servant leader to act as a mentor for the entirety of the program. Each month, the participant and mentor will meet together at least one time to have a one on one discussion about the individual practice being focused on. This time can also be used for coaching on specific situations the participant might be facing in their relationships or organization.
Group Discussion - Once per month the reading group will assemble to discuss both the featured reading as well as the focused practice of the month. There will be a set of questions to get the discussion going. The group can then take the discussion forward from there into the areas the practices applies to their own lives and organizations.
Peer one on one meeting - Once a month, participants will have a one on one meeting with one of the other participants in their group. These are unguided but can be about any of the practices or just simply a conversation about life. The point of these meetings is to build connection with other group members. Throughout the program each participant should meet with every other participant at least one time.
The 10 Practices of Servant Leadership
Click on a practice to see the reading group plan
