‘What does it mean to be a servant leader?’
Inaugural UKirk Leadership Retreat prepares students for ministry on campus and beyond
DECATUR, Georgia — "Being a servant leader is being the person that helps everyone flourish, so they can be the best version of themselves” said Meredith Welfare, at a recent retreat for student leaders of campus ministires. Welfare, a junior at Wofford College, founded a Presbyterian ministry on campus last year when she saw a need for a Christian student group that would be welcoming and inclusive to queer students and celebrate the wisdom and depth of the Presbyterian tradition.
The three-day retreat hosted by Columbia Theological Seminary in partnership with UKirk Collegiate Ministries opened on Aug. 13 with a keynote from the seminary’s president, the Rev. Dr. Victor Aloyo, Jr., and featured workshops by its academic deans and distinguished professors.
The seminary’s vice president for enrollment management and vocational outreach, the Rev. Ann-Henley Nicholson, said the retreat grew out of planning conversations that began last fall with UKirk leaders and continued over Zoom into the early spring, always centering the question, “What do their students need, and how might Columbia meet that need?” Nicholson said there was a shared desire to recenter vocational discernment for young people in the denomination. According to Nicholson, this retreat was meant to plant “seeds earlier for the many, the vast and varied vocational possibilities that lie ahead of these college students, whether they feel called to professional ministry or not.”
As explained by Miatta Wilson, associate for Christian Formation in the Office of Leader Development in Presbyterian Life & Witness, UKirk campus ministers recognized a growing need for intentional space to “support and train their student leaders as they discern how their gifts will shape their professions, communities, churches and calls.” That need led to the creation of the UKirk Student Leadership Retreat, with servant leadership chosen as the theme because it names the kind of discipleship they hope to cultivate — leaders whose ministry extends beyond campus into every aspect of their lives.
The retreat also featured Columbia professors Dr. Christine Roy Yoder, Dr. Jenn Carlier and Dr. Mark Douglas, alongside UKirk campus ministers from William and Mary, Clemson University, Presbyterian College and Furman University. Individual students who heard about the retreat through their presbyteries attended from campuses including the University of Louisville, Rochester Institute of Technology and Wofford College.
On Aug. 14, UKirk Collegiate Ministries’ executive director, the Rev. Dr. Gini Norris-Lane, led a lively workshop on spiritual gifts and strengths in team leadership. Using a playful assessment that grouped participants as lions, otters, golden retrievers and beavers, Norris-Lane invited students to name both their natural strengths and the gifts they need from others. Diversity in vocation and temperament, she said, is essential to the life of the church: “Who you are and what you offer is needed in the community of faith, and who other people are and what they offer is also needed — because we’re creating a feast, not just a snack.”
Pushing back against narrow models of Christian leadership, Norris-Lane told students that social media and culture often insist that “If you’re going to be a leader, then this is what it looks like, or you’ve got to fit into this mold.” She countered, “That’s actually not true. It’s not true biblically. It’s not true theologically. But it’s also not true practically.”
Nagwa Fokunang, a student participant who has served as a leader in her mid council and the national church as a Young Adult Advisory Delegate at the 225th General Assembly (2022), as a member of the Special Committee to Write a New Confession and as an intern for the Presbytery of Utah focusing on fundraising and digital record-keeping, summed up the insights gained from the workshops offered by Norris-Lane and others. “Servant leadership is not perfect, but it’s genuine and its vulnerable,” said Fokunang.
Several student leader participants like Fokunang and Meredith Welfare, shared video reels of their take-aways on what it means to be a servant leader on YouTube. (Reels produced by Beth Waltemath and Victoria Shircliffe).
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