Presbyterian College students Cade Wright and Saniya Chesney served as worship leaders at the inaugural UKirk Leadership Retreat, held from August 13-15. The retreat, hosted at Columbia Theological Seminary, focused on servant leadership and ethical engagement with conflict.
The Rev. Dr. Mark Douglas, J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary, led a workshop titled Being a Servant Leader Is Living in Community (Even When It’s Hard. Douglas encouraged students to view leadership as maintaining relationships, communicating divine messages, conveying the community’s concerns to God, and remaining present during difficult times. He described these roles as ancient callings that have become more intricate due to ecological crises, demographic shifts, and digital disruptions.
Douglas initiated the workshop by asking participants to identify with one of three ministry roles: speaking God’s word to people, representing people’s needs to God, or standing among people for shared discernment. Students then discussed the rewards, frustrations, threats, and possibilities associated with their chosen role.
During the report-back session, students shared insights into the gifts and challenges of leadership. One student from the God-to-the-people group highlighted the unique opportunity to integrate study and experience, inviting deep thought from listeners. Another student, focusing on speaking people’s needs to God, spoke of the intimacy of intercessory leadership and the trust involved in being privy to both sorrows and joys. A third group, discussing standing among the people, emphasized building connections, observing others’ growth, and managing the emotional toll and occasional imposter syndrome that can accompany visible leadership.
Douglas then discussed the contemporary challenges facing servant leaders, including ecological pressures and demographic changes. He noted that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are at their highest in 800,000 years, and even optimistic projections indicate at least 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming. Citing journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, Douglas mentioned humanity is experiencing a sixth great extinction, a human-driven collapse of biodiversity that threatens life on Earth and human flourishing.
In the United States, Douglas explained, these ecological issues coincide with rapid demographic shifts, characterized by increasing racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity, alongside an aging population. These trends, he stated, create new tensions within congregations and communities, making servant leadership more challenging yet more essential.
Drawing on the work of Catholic peace scholar John Paul Lederach, Douglas presented six practices for transforming conflict. He advised students to see presenting issues as insights into deeper histories, systems, and identities; to embrace complexity by understanding why issues are deeply important to individuals; and to identify small areas of shared concern that can foster new relationships. Douglas concluded by reiterating the importance of God’s presence in difficult and complex situations, urging students not to despair but to engage with these spaces where divinity is found.
