Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Project Portfolio

Degree Name

Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspectives (DLd)

Department

Seminary

First Advisor

Jennie Harrop, DMin

Second Advisor

Ekaputra Tupamahu, PhD

Third Advisor

Jason Swan Clark, DMin

Abstract

Ministry leaders increasingly experience burnout and isolation within performance-driven leadership cultures in the United States that fail to cultivate self-awareness, resilience, and spiritual formation. This Need/Problem/Opportunity (NPO) emerged through stakeholder engagement, expert interviews, and academic research, revealing that leaders are not primarily lacking ministry skills but the emotional, spiritual, and relational capacity to sustain those skills in healthy ways.

Several key insights shaped the project. Burnout is less a function of workload than of identity; leaders operating from performance rather than belovedness are spiritually and neurologically vulnerable. Emotional regulation functions as spiritual formation. Concepts such as differentiation, non-anxious presence, undefended leadership, and discernment all describe an integrated inner life rooted in secure attachment to God. Sustainable transformation requires relational safety, guided practices, and embodied rhythms, not merely information. Leaders flourish within ecosystems that integrate neuroscience, attachment theory, spiritual formation, and leadership studies.

My vocational context as a coach, spiritual director, and longtime part-time Music Director offered insight into both the depletion leaders experience and the practices that foster renewal. It also provided the setting to design and deliver a formational pilot.

The Doctoral Project, Wellspring for Renewal and Transformation in Ministry, is a four-month online cohort-based experience integrating monthly large-group sessions, small-group Wellspring Circles, optional spiritual direction, weekly content, and embodied practices. Wellspring models inside-out leadership formation, equipping ministry leaders to cultivate resilience, rediscover joy, deepen identity in Christ, and develop sustainable rhythms of life and leadership.

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