nurturing servant leaders in religious education - Scholarly ...

that family members then do everything to serve the matai does not translate to
effective servant leadership. Rather, he pointed out “a good matai with servant
leadership skills should mean the families are served by this person by teaching them
some principles of life” (DB). This director went on to speak of his ecclesiastical
responsibilities,
When I was first called as a bishop, the ward gathered together in one of the
functions. They have separate tables for the bishop and the wife and the
counsellors and their wives, and what they do is they serve them, give them food.
So what I have done, as an application of this principle, I said to the ward I don’t
want any head table, any more head table in any function of the ward. Wherever
the bishop is sitting is the head of the table. Wherever he sits, in any corner of the
hall, that’s the head of the table. And there are a lot of things where I serve them
first. I help the activity committee to serve the people, serve the ward. I am the
last person to eat. And those are the things, it was really hard for the ward
members to accept it the first time, but now, they understand my rule as a leader
(DB).
The participants identified various ways in which the “true servant leader” was made
visible in their lives. When asked how they applied servant leadership outside of the
CES setting, participants offered examples from positions they held in organisations,
i.e. church, school, work and family. Overall, answers indicated that participants felt
like servant leaders when they were able to see the impact they were making in other
people’s lives. Feedback, often given after extended periods of time, was one way in
which they were able to gauge their effectiveness as servant leaders. The next level,
that of seeing others becoming servants as well, was also seen and acknowledged in
the findings. One participant shared an experience in which he made this connection,
I conducted the devotional that evening for our troop and I gave a lesson on the
Atonement and we had a closing prayer. And I tried to have the Spirit come in as
much as I could to teach, but it was still pretty hard. But after, it wouldn’t have
been until about, just this year, one of those Youth, now a Young Single Adult,
and she came up to me and she goes, remember the TFY was about two years
before that. And she says remember that devotional that you took? And you did
the lesson on the Atonement? She goes yeah, I think that was one of the things I
remember from the whole weekend, and I went and I taught that, as a student she
taught it to her seminary peers as a spiritual thought, and she shared it with them.
And afterwards I just sat back and thought out of the whole weekend she came up
to me and she just, the thing she spoke about to me about that weekend was that
lesson that I taught that night. And it just really touched me that what I was able to
75