Ordained Servant Leader with CLA

Everybody Can Be a Leader Because Anybody Can Serve

The Lord led me to the Christian Leaders Institute to become an ordained servant leader with CLA. I had the distinct privilege of growing up in a Christian home, surrounded by a supportive, loving church family. As I’ve grown, it’s been easy to take those deep roots and social support for granted. I was baptized at a young age and became active in the youth group. I even had the privilege of helping lead a worship service as part of a youth-led service. But, as most people experience, life changed significantly after high school.

A New Thread

However, in my early days at NC State, my faith took a back seat to activities like socializing, engineering coursework, and student government. It was the student government that ultimately led me back to my Christian roots. I had the great fortune of reading “The Servant,” a leadership book by James C. Hunter. That book laid out a simple framework for thinking about leadership as a service to others. Instead of the people working to serve the leader, the leader exists to serve the people. What made it especially impactful was that it grounded every lesson in Christ’s teachings.

For the first time in my life, I saw Christ not as a distant biblical figure but as a teacher with a profound message. The fundamentals of Christianity suddenly came to life in my everyday interactions with others. A thread that had been left hanging from childhood suddenly wove its way into my life as the very fabric of faith, work, leadership, and service.

Ordained Servant Leader with CLA

Leaving undergrad, I found myself following that thread deeper. I yearned to understand the implications of Jesus’s teaching: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” With increasing clarity, I began to see the mind as an incredibly powerful instrument of love. How might we better put that instrument to work in the service of others?

Today, as a father, entrepreneur, and husband, I’m again recognizing the importance of my faith and my community in establishing a foundation for a life of love and service. I appreciate the Christian Leaders Institute and Christian Leaders Alliance, bringing their minds and hearts to the work of teaching and building community. They have also welcomed me into a growing community of servant leaders.

Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the Christian Leaders College.

Author: Henry Reyenga

Henry Reyenga is president of Christian Leaders Institute and Christian Leaders Alliance.