The following is a proposal for a comprehensive program of spiritual and ethical formation centered around "Servant Leadership" at TMI Episcopal. The concept of becoming a Servant Leader is at the center of TMI experience, and is the ultimate goal of the TMI Mission statement:
TMI provides an exceptional education with values based on the teachings of Jesus Christ that challenge motivated students to develop their full potential in service and leadership.
Although we speak of "servant leadership" all the time, and encourage our students to become servants to others, and teach them skills to develop their ability to lead, many of us do not really have a definition of what a "servant leader" is, nor do we know how this can be operationalized in practice. And while we espouse core values that are central to servant leadership, and we have a role model for servant leadership in the person of Jesus Christ, we often struggle to say exactly what qualities we are looking for in the servant leaders we graduate from TMI and send out into the world.
To remedy this, and to give us a "big picture" of the kind of community we are trying to become, and the kind of student we are trying to form, we will define servant leadership as we practice it at TMI, and operationalize this definition in a set of specific resources, values, and skills that we want every TMI graduate to embody. Because service and leadership are such broad topics, and we could go into endless depth in many facets, it will be necessary to limit our definitions to a short, memorable list. This list then can be operationalized through many different kinds of educational philosophies and programs, as the technologies and techniques of education change over time. To do this, we will reach into our foundations in the Episcopal Tradition of the Christian Faith, as well as our heritage as a leader in the San Antonio educational community.
Our Mission Statement focuses on three aspects of the people we are trying to form here at TMI. They are first and foremost "students" who are in the process of growing and developing. These students are challenged to develop their potential first in "service", and then in "leadership". These make up the three dimensions of forming the "whole child" as students, servants, and leaders. With this in mind, we offer a threefold definition of Servant Leadership:
A Servant Leader is a person who is equipped with resources to learn how to develop their full potential, who is guided by values which motivate them to serve others as Christ has served us, and who possesses skills to lead others into full human flourishing.
The Three Dimensions of Servant Leadership can be operationalized in the following way:
1. As Students, they need resources for health and holistic balance, so that they possess the capacities they need to develop their internal character, and grow in leadership skills.
2. As Servants, they need values which will sustain a long term commitment to help others, and motivate them to make a positive difference in their community.
3. As Leaders, they need skills which will enable them to develop vision, set goals, lead teams, and resolve conflict, so they can encourage others develop their potential as well.
We can further dig down and operationalize each of these dimensions in five concrete ways, which we then can develop programs around, to help students grow into our mission.
1. Resources for Student Health and Balance:
Although fads and theories come and go about what makes up the "whole child", the Christian tradition has specific ideas of what makes a fully whole, fully healthy human being. For instance, in 1Thessalonians 5.23, Saint Paul prays for us to be "made whole in body, spirit, and soul". The Body is the physical dimension of the human self, while the Spirit is that aspect of us that can connect with God and our deepest purpose. The Soul is our self-consciousness, and other Scriptural texts speak of the capacities of the "soul" as including a "mind" which thinks, a "heart" which feels, and a "will" which chooses. Thus, the five dimensions of body, spirit, mind, heart, and will, form five kinds of resources our students need to flourish:
1.1. Body: Students need to be provided resources for physical fitness and health, ranging from quality nutrition to physical education.
1.2. Spirit: Students need to be provided time for spiritual depth, including rest and reflection, to connect with their deepest self, and find meaning in life.
1.3. Mind: Students need to be provided academic resources to develop their capacity to understand and think, from challenging classes, to tools to adapt to learning differences.
1.4. Heart: Students need to be provided resources to feel emotionally safe and secure, from personal counseling, to community programs which develop social-emotional skills.
1.5. Will: Students need to be provided clear behavioral boundaries and expectations, and a fair system of redemptive discipline, to help them direct their choices in a positive way.
2. Values for Servanthood and Character Development:
The Mission of TMI states that we are rooted in "values based on the teachings of Jesus Christ". The following five values are central to Christ's teachings, and form the Foundation that the Pillars of TMI are built upon. The purpose of these Core Values is to create a "moral compass" that guides our students to grow W.I.S.E.R. day by day, so we may learn to serve others as Christ has served us. These Core Values include:
2.1. Wisdom: Servants are committed to developing intellectual curiosity, inspiring self-reflection, and challenging each other to strive for academic achievement. cf. Matthew 22.35-40; Luke 24.44-45; John 16.12-15; Romans 12.1-2.
2.2. Integrity: Servants are committed to developing the capacity to know the good, to do the good, and to love the good, so that we embody virtue and character in all we do. cf. Luke 6.43-49; Matthew 5.17-48; Philippians 2.12-16; Colossians 3.1-14.
2.3. Service: Servants are committed to compassion, as we develop empathy for others, and embody this in concrete acts of service in our community. cf. Luke 10.25-37; Matthew 25.31-46; Mark 10.42-45; Philippians 2.1-13.
2.4. Excellence: Servants are committed to continual growth as we develop our full potential throughout our common life, from the classroom, to the athletic field, to the chapel, to the parade ground, to the dormitory. cf. Matthew 5.14-16; Philippians 3.12-16; Ephesians 4.11-16; 1Peter 4.10-11.
2.5. Reverence: Servants are committed to a spiritual vision greater than ourselves, as we grow in our relationship with the Source and Meaning of our existence, revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. cf. Mark 12.28-34; Matthew 6.5-13; Mark 1.14-20; Acts 17.19-31; Matthew 28.16-20.
3. Skills for Leadership and Community Building:
Now that we have the resources that allow our students to flourish and thrive, and we have the values that direct them to use their talents to serve others, we can focus on actionable skills that enable them to enact these values in community. It is not enough to be a virtuous person, if that virtue is not able to be translated into concrete actions that build community and direct that community toward a larger goal. Thus, we focus on developing these five types of skills necessary to lead groups of people:
3.1. Vision: Leaders have the capacity to imagine new possibilities, envision creative solutions, and set goals which enable them to turn their creative vision into reality.
3.2. Planning: Leaders have a firm grasp of the innovation and design process to guide and direct work, step by step, to attain the goals that they envision.
3.3. Communication: Leaders have the ability to clearly communicate their vision, goals, plans, and processes to others in a way that is both inspirational and informational.
3.4. Teamwork: Leaders know the dynamics and roles of teams, can effectively coordinate and delegate tasks, and create feedback loops to maximize team performance.
3.5. Conflict: Leaders know how to manage conflict in teams, can give and receive constructive criticism, and possesses the skills to resolve conflicts with others.
Programming to accomplish Servant Leadership:
With this definition of Servant Leadership which is operationalized into five kinds of resources, five core values, and five leadership practices, we can then intentionally create programs which form students who become servant leaders. We can also use these a criteria to evaluate new education techniques and technologies to see if they will contribute to our mission of forming servant leaders. This will allow us clear criteria to sift the educational "wheat" from the "chaff", and determine if a new program is a gimmick, or a fad, or an educational tool with lasting value. In particular, for any new or existing program, we can ask the following three questions which tie into our three dimensions of Servant Leadership:
1. Resources: What possible benefits and risks does this program bring for student health and wellness and balance?
2. Values: How can this program build up each individual's character, and form the virtues and values which motivate our students to serve others?
3. Skills: How can this program build up the TMI community as a whole, and develop strong leadership skills in our students?
If a program passes these three tests, it is a helpful tool in the toolkit of forming Servant Leaders. If not, we look for something else that works better to accomplish the mission God has given to TMI Episcopal.
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