Developing a Curriculum to Implement Christian Servant Leadership Principles in the Hochiminh City, Vietnam Church

This study focused on the need for servant leadership principles to be learned and applied in the Ho Chi Minh Church so that leaders could improve their effectiveness, evangelism, and overall impact in the city. Its purpose was to design a curriculum in the Hochiminh Evangelical Church context to apply the 10 principles of servant leadership. The research questions were designed to get leaders to analyze their current knowledge, skills, and practices in servant leadership, and to get their input on the curriculum. Two-and-a-half years prior to conducting the study, I initiated what would become its transformational strategy. It was the start of the work for building the curriculum. In it, I queried a class of students at the Institute of Bible and Theology who were taking a 90-day course on servant leadership. I then provided them with definitions of the 10 servant leadership principles and challenged them to implement one of those principles in their respective settings. The results were amazing. Many of these leaders
reported instant changes in themselves and in others. Over the next two years, I conducted two focus groups, 21 interviews, and administered 108 surveys among church and local leaders, Institute of Bible and Theology students, and Sunday School teachers in Saigon. I asked them questions regarding the content of the curriculum and assessed their current level of servant leadership. Overwhelmingly, the results from all three data sources indicated the need for a curriculum on servant leadership principles, outstanding recommendations for the content of the curriculum, the challenges they expect to face in implementing these principles, and the skills, strategies, and competencies needed to be an effective servant leader. From the interviews, I also gained the leaders’ perception on servant leadership and assessed their current servant leadership levels.