The Festival Center
Servant Leadership School
What is Servant Leadership?
Jesus Christ, through his life and teachings, embodies servant leadership. At the Servant Leadership School, we believe that servant leadership is a journey that enables us to love deeply, embrace suffering, share power, and claim our identity as beloved children of God.As servant leaders, we explore why it is so hard to create loving and just communities and institutions—and why it’s worth the struggle. We rejoice in growing into the likeness of Jesus Christ without ignoring barriers and sacrifices along the way. We are grounded in the power of God’s love. We seek healing and liberation, for ourselves and others, so that all may participate in God’s vision for the world.
Resources
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The Festival Center is a member of The Church of the Saviour “family” of ministries and churches. Following are some links to resources provided by these groups:
A number of small publications related to the ‘inward/outward/ community’ way of the servant leader are available through our publishing arm, Tell the Word. |
About the school
The Servant Leadership School is an ecumenical center for theological reflection and spiritual formation located in Washington, D.C. It is the flagship program of the Festival Center. The School seeks to address the most pressing need of our time – the need for compassionate, spiritually-grounded leadership.
Our society and our institutions are all suffering from the lack of such leadership. The characteristics of poverty are being seen and experienced at an unprecedented level. Everything will be different when we have servant leaders deeply versed in the art of love. We will become caring and our institutions will become caring: the hungry will be fed, the naked will be clothed, and the homeless will have homes.
We believe there are hundreds of thousands of potential servant leaders yearning for a structure and an environment to evoke their call and gifts. We want to provide that structure and environment through the Servant Leadership School.
The New Birth A Person meets Christ – … a new creation begins. The dying of the inner, inauthentic self brings the birthing of the new, authentic self. The movement … from addiction to the culture to life in the Realm of God begins. Acclimation to a totally new set of values begins … and we grow up into “the fullness of the stature of Christ.” The fundamental question: Am I, at this juncture in my life, the person God intended when I was created in God’s image? An Institution is birthed by Christ – Corporately we move from an addiction to culture to being a tangible expression of the Realm of God. Corporately we learn a totally new set of values … and together we grow up into “the fullness of the stature of Christ.” The Servant Leadership School took root over 20 years ago … - to birth and grow individuals for leadership in God’s new Realm and - to birth a new reality … “Thy kingdom come on earth …” … to birth a new Washington … a new nation … a new global society. The fundamental question: Are we, 20 years later, what God intended when God birthed us? Join us as we offer ourselves, individually and corporately, For God’s gift of new birth. by N. Gordon Cosby, Church of the Saviour founder |
Servant Leadership School History
During the early years of The Church of the Saviour, there was much talk about starting a “people’s seminary” modeled after Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “underground seminary.” The original vision was to create an institution that would develop urban ministry leaders, both spiritually and practically. Decades later, in the fall of 1986, the first “servant leadership” class was offered at Christ House, a medical recovery center for the homeless.
Three years later, the Servant Leadership School opened its doors in the heart of the historic Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC. Since 1989, the School has been housed inside the Festival Center, a meeting place and crossroads for many ministries and groups whose roots can be traced to The Church of the Saviour and its traditions.
For two decades now, the Servant Leadership School has been a catalyst for Christian discipleship, theological reflection and social activism. The School maintains the belief that individual and community transformation begins with spiritual formation and personal commitment. True to its original mission, the Servant Leadership School remains a place where people of various backgrounds, interests and life journeys can be equipped to be servant leaders in ways that support justice and community. Our offerings include classes, events and workshops around topics ranging from servant leadership to social analysis, centering prayer to engaging the powers, and anti-racism to addictions recovery.
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