This course has helped me form habits of leadership shaped by grace and the gospel, rather than just drifting into patterns set by the culture around me.
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I chose to study the MA in Contemporary Christian Leadership because I’ve seen how damaging poor leadership can be in Christian contexts. Over the last few years especially, we’ve all seen examples of leadership that has caused real harm. Being quite early on in my career and just beginning to step into leadership, I really wanted to lay good foundations - patterns of healthy, Christlike leadership that will shape the cultures of the organisations and churches I’m part of now and in the future.
The course has been incredibly helpful in my day-to-day ministry. One of the biggest things it’s given me is tools for reflection—on myself, my character, my strengths and weaknesses—but also on the contexts I’m working in.
The first module gave us a really strong biblical framework for leadership. We spent time asking what Christlike leadership actually looks like in the Bible, and how leadership fits within God’s bigger purposes. That big picture has really shaped how I think about leading and relating to others—particularly the question of whether I’m willing to lay down power for the sake of others, rather than defaulting to patterns I’ve absorbed from the world.
That’s fed directly into my work with student leaders. I spend a lot of time supporting students who are stepping into leadership for the first time, and recently I’ve been teaching on leading from grace. Many of them feel pressure to be the “hero leader” who fixes everything, but that’s not Jesus’ pattern. Having a clearer, biblical vision of leadership has helped me pass something healthier on to them as they lead their CUs and student groups.
Being part of a cohort has also been a real gift. I’m one of the younger people on the course, and I’ve loved learning alongside pastors and leaders from very different contexts—schools, churches, charities. It’s a safe space to talk honestly about what’s hard and what’s joyful in ministry, in a way that often isn’t possible in your own setting.
Ultimately, leaders shape culture. The way we lead affects everyone around us. Doing this study early has helped me form habits of leadership shaped by grace and the gospel, rather than just drifting into patterns set by the culture around me.