Establishing Personal Ethics: Modelling Principles of Spiritual Leadership for a Christian Educator

Abstract

Spiritual leadership for a college instructor relies upon developing certain principles that can only be derived from God. I assessed the value of many possible principles upon which anyone could draw to foster the necessary traits of a successful spiritual leader from God’s viewpoint. The outcome was the creation of a visual tool to illustrate the principles and their relationship to one another (Figure 1), which is then explained in detail. The evolution of this illustrative concept continued even during the writing process and was revised more than once until finalized into its current form. Submission to God is the core principle without which the other principles are impossible to develop. In short, spiritual leaders must be unquestioned followers of God. Once capitulation to God’s leading is established in a spiritual leader’s life, wisdom and understanding, personal integrity and ethics, and focus and perseverance are then available for the spiritual leader to develop.