Servant Leadership and the Viatorian Community

In early February the Provincial Council met for three days in Las Vegas at St. Viator Parish to discuss relevant business, but especially to share with one another our vision and hopes for the leadership we have been called on to provide to the Province over the next four years. We have known one another for many years as brothers in community, but this meeting gave us the opportunity to reflect on how we plan to work together, taking into consideration each one’s talents and how those talents can best serve the Viatorian Community.

The first morning of our meeting we spent some time considering what the Community and the Church was asking from us as we begin this ministry of leadership. While the Viatorian mission and charism were front and center in our minds, we began by looking at Vatican II’s document on religious life, Perfectae Caritatis. The “job description” was clearly defined. … to strive to build a community of brothers or sisters in Christ, in which God is sought and loved before all things — solicitously to care for and visit the sick, to correct the restless, to console the faint of heart, and to be patient toward all. (PC 2)

As with all ministry the “patience” part of this job description is perhaps the most challenging, and it is important to remember as we become involved with the many personalities in the Community as well as with those working with us in the mission.

One of the helpful sources for inspiration for leadership that I have found is what is now a classic book by Robert Greenleaf called Servant Leadership. After analyzing various models of leadership in both the secular world and the Church, Greenleaf proposes “servant leadership” as the most effective way of inspiring people to work together and realize the mission of a particular group. Not surprisingly, he based this model on Jesus’ teaching on leadership contained in the Gospels. How do you know if a leader is really embracing this form of leadership? Greenleaf contends that … the best test, and the most difficult to administer, is this: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?

The council then considered the various personalities that modeled leadership in the early Christian Community in the Acts of the Apostles. As members of the Provincial Council we pledged ourselves to a kind of leadership to which Jesus called his disciples. Because of our own weaknesses and limitations, it is not that we will always successfully be servant leaders. But this is the ideal toward which we will strive, taking seriously Jesus’ admonition to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42-45).

Provincial:

Fr. Mark Francis, CSV

Editor: Fr. Thomas Long, CSV

Director of Communications:

Eileen O’Grady Daday

Editorial Board:

Eileen O’Grady Daday

Br. John Eustice, CSV

Mr. Daniel Masterton

Mrs. Rebecca Skirvin

Layout and Design: Dianna Ehrenfried, Visualedge, Inc

Email: news@viatorians.com