Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Project Portfolio

Degree Name

Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspectives (DLd)

Department

Seminary

First Advisor

Kristin Hamilton, DLd

Second Advisor

Christine Roush, DMin

Abstract

In the modern quest for competency, efficiency, and production, humility seems to have been forgotten as a key component to what Christ-like leadership looks like in churches and in ministry. Biblical humility requires one to consider one’s relationship with God2 and one’s relationship with others, as Paul details in Philippians. In interviews with Chinese-Americans in Chinese heritage church contexts, multicultural church contexts, and non-church contexts, the cultural divide between older and younger generations (exacerbated by power dynamics)3 was often highlighted as a main reason they did not feel seen or heard. The need, then, was for church and ministry leaders to be equipped to handle the ever-changing cultural landscape of their communities and churches. To tackle this in a dynamic way, humility is needed from these leaders. As models for this were explored, it was discovered that the Biblical humility that considers others’ perspectives overlaps with the push in medicine for practitioners to approach their work with cultural humility. Currently cultural humility is not a focus in most of the education and training dedicated toward producing ministry leaders.4 While the common metaphor of churches being hospitals is a little flawed, perhaps we can borrow from some of the things the medical field has learned regarding cultural humility.

Download

Share

COinS