“’The Lord is my chosen portion; He holds my lot.’ May it be true. I want to always set the Lord before me,” said Eden Howarth.
Howarth, a Union University freshman family studies and biblical languages student, quoted Psalm 16 with longing and joy.
“It can be so easy to choose something other than God,” Howarth said.
How sweet to find a kindred spirit in the refuge of this Psalm, as Anne with an E would say. The words of Psalm 16 have long been my delight as I pursue Christian friendship and fellowship:
“As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”
And many more wonderfully rich lines.
Eden Howarth, alongside myself and 20 other current Union students, was commissioned from a servant leadership program in Pine Mountain, GA, called Impact 360 Fellows. The program runs like a school year for nine months, with Christian apologetics training, immersion trips, Christian discipleship and servant leadership training.
Throughout the year at Impact 360, Howarth would grab lunches with staff between morning class and afternoon activities. One of these lunches led to staff member Pastor Greg reciting poetry and relating with Howarth over theater experiences. After lunch was over, Pastor Greg invited Howarth to join him on his porch rocking chairs to answer a question she brought up in conversation: “How do we train for contentment?”
“If we’re not content in the Lord, we’re not aware of His presence,” Pastor Greg told her.
To learn contentment, we must take time to slow down to pray, thank God, and take delight in His world. It takes work and training, but contentment is worth it.
At Impact 360, students are taught servant leadership in classroom settings, service teams and through leadership challenges. Impact 360 Fellows class sizes are about 80-100 students, which creates a community small enough to give many students opportunities to lead their peers positionally. However, not all students get to serve in leadership positions while in the program. And neither do all students on Union University’s campus.
I also commissioned from Impact 360 two years ago. And oh, how I thrived there. But like any program, it must come to an end. And like any program, it’s not real life. Servant leadership is harder than it looks in a classroom, but it’s also simpler than it looks in a classroom. There is no formula for leadership, though we can glean much wisdom from those who have gone before us and who have studied leadership.
Servant leadership today in my life looks like first sitting at the feet of Jesus. But unfortunately, there are still days like this that I chose not to make God “my portion.” On these days that I feel tempted to become a Martha from John 11, worrying rather than delighting in my Lord, I exhaust myself. But oh the riches of God’s mercy when I come to him again, for He never changes.
Abigail Handorf is a Union sophomore special education major who was also commissioned from Impact 360. She currently serves as a Life Group leader on campus and leads worship for Delight Ministries, and according to students who watched her perform at Open Mic Night at Barefoots, she has a beautiful Dolly Parton vibrato voice alongside her serene guitar playing.
Handorf hasn’t always served in leadership roles at Union, though.
“Originally, I thought a leader is someone who leads ministry in every way because we were trained to do these big things [at Impact 360],” Handorf said. “Coming in, I didn’t get to do that [at Union]. I doubted; am I really that faithful? But I learned very quickly that my faith is not defined by how I lead. It’s defined by Christ Himself.”
Coming out of Impact 360, leadership felt like a huge expectation for Handorf. But continuing her faith in the Great Servant, she has grown to understand how uncomplicated leadership really is. Leadership is not just about position.
“We can lead in how to be a faithful servant,” Handorf said. “Sometimes that means inviting people over, checking up, engaging in spiritual conversation with those who don’t know Christ. We are following in His footsteps, and leadership can be following in what Christ has called us to do.”
I think Handorf is right. Leadership is often found in the mundaneness of life. And as Christians, we are called to follow in the life of our Savior.
In Mark 9:35-36, Jesus addresses his disciples who were arguing among themselves about who the greatest among them was. “And He said to them, ‘If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.’ And He took a child and put him in the midst of them.”
Of course, uncomplicated does not mean easy. Howarth has been seeking to lead like a servant after her experience in Impact 360 as well.
“I want to lead in integrity and in joyfully doing work, being mindful about what I’m saying and showing gratitude,” Howarth said.
Leading with integrity is not always easy. Being careful with our words is not always easy. From Cobo meals to walks outside to opening her dorm space for others to come to, Howarth’s role in leadership to those around her is to serve and love others by asking good questions and remembering to follow-up conversations.
Alexander Gordillo, a Union freshman mechanical engineering student and an Impact 360 alum, also reflected on how uncomplicated leadership is.
“You don’t have to be the loudest person to be a leader,” Gordillo said.
Gordillo told of how Impact 360 impacted him (pun intended). During a week called TrueFace, Impact 360 staff cultivate a space for students to come to terms with their need for grace.
“A bigger understanding of God helps you to see your need for grace,” Gordillo reflected.
Soon after TrueFace week, Gordillo and some of the other students ended up in a car accident, hitting a semi-truck. All were safe and saved after the crash, but Gordillo remembers the wake-up call: God could call him home any day.
“How am I using my time now” became the lingering and guiding question.
Gordillo certainly grew in the Lord’s grace while at Impact 360, but Impact 360 was not his only experience to grow in the Lord and learn how to serve as a leader.
And this is the point. Leadership training should never be an ego boost, especially among Christian circles. Leadership is about humbly learning how to serve and obey God by loving those in our care.
Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians 13 when he defines love. Verse 2, “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
Sitting in her dorm room in preparation for leading worship at Delight Ministries, Handorf leaned over in her chair and asked the all-important question.
“What do you think a leader is?”
This is where the conversation must start.
