Week 2 of Module 01 | Approximately 10 hours
Welcome to Unit 1.2
Last week you counted the cost and committed to formation. This week the formation begins working on something harder than a study schedule — it works on you.
Attitude, teachability, and self-leadership are not peripheral to ministry. They are the foundation of it. A person can be theologically literate and practically useless in ministry if they lack humility, cannot receive correction, and will not hold themselves accountable. This unit addresses that foundation directly and without apology.
Read everything carefully. The reflection questions in this unit require honest self-examination, not performance. Write your responses before attempting the quiz.
Part 1: Attitude as a formation criterion
Formation assesses character, not only competence. This is not a course in which you can study hard, perform well in quizzes, and ignore everything that is said about who you are. The Institute is preparing people for ordained ministry — a public role in which character is not incidental but definitional.
Attitude is not fixed. It is a choice — repeated thousands of times across a formation pathway and a lifetime of ministry. The person who enters formation defensively, who bristles at feedback, who treats every correction as an attack, is choosing an attitude. The person who receives correction with genuine openness, who asks “what can I learn from this?” rather than “how do I defend myself?”, is also choosing an attitude.
The Christian tradition has always understood character as something formed through practice — through repeated choices, sustained disciplines, and the slow work of the Holy Spirit on a willing person. Formation is one of the primary contexts in which that work happens. But it cannot happen to someone who is not willing to be changed.
Part 2: Humility — not weakness, not performance
Humility is the virtue most central to ordained ministry and the one most frequently misunderstood.
Humility is not thinking poorly of yourself. It is not self-deprecation, passivity, or the performance of lowliness. Humility is the realistic and honest assessment of who you are — your gifts and your limitations — in relation to God and to others. The humble person does not inflate themselves, but neither do they diminish themselves falsely.
The theological ground of Christian humility is Christological. Philippians 2 describes the self-emptying (kenosis) of Christ — one who was in the form of God and took the form of a servant, humbling himself to the point of death. This is not presented as a psychological technique. It is presented as the pattern of the one whom every ordained minister is called to serve and to follow.
A deacon who ministers with genuine humility does not need to be the most important person in the room. Does not need credit for what goes well. Does not need to protect their position when challenged. Is genuinely concerned with the good of the people they serve, not with the maintenance of their own status.
Read the following passage carefully. Read it more than once.
Philippians 2:3–8 (CPDV):
“doing nothing by contention, nor by vainglory, but in humility, let each of you consider the others to be superior to himself. Let each of you look out, not only for himself, but also for others. For you should have within you the same attitude which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider it robbery that he was equal with God. Instead, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found to have the appearance of a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and the death of the cross.”
Word study — Philippians 2:3–8
AOCM Scripture Study
Scripture study: Php.2.3-8
Passage: Php.2.3-8 — Open in STEP Bible →
ταπεινοφροσύνη
Pronunciation guide: tapeinophrosunē
Basic meaning: humility
ταπεινοφροσύνη, -ης, ἡ (ταπεινόφρων) lowliness of mind, humility: Act.20:19, Eph.4:2, Php.2:3, Col.3:12, 1Pe.5:5 of a false humility, Col.2:18, 23 (rare outside of NT, but found in bad sense in FlJ, BJ, iv, 9, 2 also in Epictet., see Tr., Syn., § xlii).†
(AS)
Source: STEP Bible Data — TBESG CC BY 4.0
κενόω
Pronunciation guide: kenoō
Basic meaning: to empty
κενόω, -ῶ (κενός, which see), [in LXX: Jer.14:2 15:9 (עָמָל pu.)* ] to empty. Metaphorical, to empty, make empty, vain or of no effect: καύχημα, 1Co.9:15 ἑαυτόν, of Christ, Php.2:7 (v Lft. ICC, in 1, and esp. Gifford, Incarn., 54 ff.) pass., πίστις, Rom.4:14 ὁ σταυρός, 1Co.1:17 καύχημα, 2Co.9:3†
(AS)
Source: STEP Bible Data — TBESG CC BY 4.0
δούλη
Pronunciation guide: doulē
Basic meaning: female slave
δούλη, ἡ, see: δοῦλος. δοῦλος, -η, -ον, [in LXX, ὁ δ. nearly always for עֶבֶד ὁ δ. chiefly for שִׁפְחָה,אָמָה ] __(a) fem., ἡ δ., a female slave, bondmaid (Cremer, 702 DB, iii, 215): Luk.1:38, 48 Act.2:18" (LXX) __(b) masc., ὁ δ., a slave, bond-man: Mat.8:9 18:23, al. opposite to ἐλεύθερος, 1Co.7:22 12:13, Gal.3:28, Eph.6:8, Col.3:11, Rev.6:15 13:16 19:18 opposite to κύριος, δεσπότης, οἰκοδεσπότης, Mat.10:24 13:27, 28 Luk.12:46, Jhn.15:15, Eph.6:5, Col.3:22 4:1, al. metaphorically, δ. Χριστοῦ, τοῦ Χρ., Ἰησοῦ Χρ., Rom.1:1, 1Co.7:22, Gal.1:10, Eph.6:6, Php.1:1, Col.4:12, Jas.1:1, 2Pe.1:1, Ju 1 δ. τ. θεοῦ, τ. κυρίου, Act.16:17, 2Ti.2:24, Tit.1:1, 1Pe.2:16, Rev.7:3 15:3 δ. πονηρός, ἀχρεῖος, κακός, Mat.18:32 24:48 25:26, 30, Luk.17:10 19:22 δ. ἁμαρτίας, Jhn.8:34, Rom.6:17, 20 τ. φθορᾶς, 2Pe.2:19…
- in bondage to, subject to: Rom.6:19.
- As subst., ὁ, ἡ δ., a slave
Source: STEP Bible Data — TBESG CC BY 4.0
ὑπήκοος
Pronunciation guide: hupēkoos
Basic meaning: obedient
ὑπήκοος, -ον (ὑπακσύω), [in LXX: Jhn.17:13 (לָמַם) Pro.21:28 (שָׁמַע), etc. ] giving ear, obedient, subject: Php.2:8 with dative of person(s), Act.7:39 εἰς πάντα, 2Co.2:9.†
(AS)
Source: STEP Bible Data — TBESG CC BY 4.0
Formation questionPaul describes Christ's self-emptying as the model for all Christian community and ministry. What specific attitudes in your own life does this passage challenge most directly?
Lexical and morphology data may include material derived from STEP Bible Data. Credit: STEP Bible, www.STEPBible.org.
G5012 — tapeinophrosynē: humility of mind, lowliness of thinking. Not humiliation imposed from outside, but a chosen orientation of the inner life. The word combines tapeinos (lowly, not elevated) and phrēn (mind, inner disposition). Humility in the New Testament is never accidental — it is a cultivated way of regarding oneself and others.
G2758 — kenoō: to empty, to make of no effect. The theological term kenosis comes from this word. Christ “emptied himself” — not of divinity, but of the rights, privileges, and status that divinity could have claimed. This is the pattern the ordained minister is called to follow: not grasping at status, but releasing it for the sake of service.
G1401 — doulos: slave, bond-servant. Not an employee. Not a volunteer. The one whose time and energy are given in service without the option of simply walking away. Paul uses this word deliberately — Christ took the form of a doulos. The deacon’s ministry has this shape.
G5255 — hypēkoos: obedient. The word describes someone who listens beneath (hypo — under; akoē — hearing). Obedience in the Christian tradition is not blind compliance. It is the posture of someone who listens carefully before acting, who places the will of God and the authority of the community above their own preferences.
Open Php.2.3-8 in STEP Bible
Reflection questions for Philippians 2:3–8
Write your responses in full before moving on.
The passage says to “consider the others to be superior to yourself.” In what specific ministry situations do you find this genuinely difficult? Where does your own need for recognition, credit, or status surface most clearly?
Christ “emptied himself” of status. What status, reputation, or position are you most reluctant to release in your ministry life? What does that reluctance reveal?
Part 3: Teachability — the willingness to be changed
Teachability is the willingness to receive correction honestly, to update your thinking when you are wrong, and to grow from feedback rather than defending against it.
It is one of the rarest qualities in ministry. It is also one of the most important.
Many people who enter formation are already experienced — in life, in ministry, in leadership. Experience is valuable. It is also, without teachability, a significant obstacle. The person who arrives at formation already certain of what they know, already certain of how ministry should be done, already certain that their approach is correct, is not in formation — they are attending a validation exercise. Formation requires the willingness to be surprised, challenged, corrected, and changed.
Teachability does not mean agreeing with everything you are taught. It means engaging seriously, thinking carefully, asking genuine questions, and being willing to change your mind when the evidence and argument require it. A candidate who disagrees with something in this programme should say so — clearly, respectfully, and with a willingness to think further. A candidate who simply nods, submits the expected answer, and continues unchanged has not been formed.
Proverbs 12:1 (CPDV):
“Whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge. But whoever hates correction is foolish.”
Proverbs 15:31–33 (CPDV):
“The ear that heeds the correction of life will abide in the midst of the wise. Whoever spurns discipline, despises his own soul. But whoever heeds correction acquires understanding. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and humility goes before glory.”
Word study — Proverbs 15:31–33
AOCM Scripture Study
Scripture study: Pro.15.31-33
Passage: Pro.15.31-33 — Open in STEP Bible →
Formation questionProverbs says that humility goes before glory, and that the ear that heeds correction of life will dwell among the wise. What has been your instinctive response to correction in the past — and what does that pattern tell you about your formation readiness?
Lexical and morphology data may include material derived from STEP Bible Data. Credit: STEP Bible, www.STEPBible.org.
H4148 — mūsār: discipline, correction, instruction. Not punishment for its own sake, but the formative intervention of someone who cares enough to tell the truth. The word carries the warmth of a parent or teacher who corrects because they want the person to grow, not because they want to dominate.
H2450 — chakam: wise. In Hebrew wisdom literature, wisdom is not primarily intellectual — it is practical and relational. The wise person knows how to live well, treat others well, and navigate reality with integrity. Wisdom is formed by correction received, not by intelligence alone.
H4997 — nōd: bowl or vessel (in some texts translated “life” in the phrase “correction of life” — note the textual complexity here). The broader phrase describes correction that pertains to life itself — not trivial criticism but substantive formation.
H8085 — shāma’: to hear, to listen, to obey. This is the same root as the Hebrew Shema — “Hear, O Israel.” Listening in the Hebrew tradition is never merely passive. It involves the whole person responding to what is heard. The ear that truly hears correction acts on it.
Open Pro.15.31-33 in STEP Bible
Reflection questions for Proverbs 12:1 and 15:31–33
When you receive critical feedback — from a mentor, a supervisor, or a peer — what is your first internal response? Be honest. Name it before describing what you do with it.
Describe a situation in which you received correction that turned out to be right. What made it possible for you to receive it? What would have made it easier?
Part 4: Self-discipline — the ministry of consistency
Self-discipline is not a personality type. It is not something some people have and others do not. It is a set of choices, practised repeatedly, that build a pattern of reliability over time.
Ministry depends on it entirely. The minister who shows up only when inspired, who completes work only when convenient, who prays only when they feel like praying, who engages with people only when energised — will not sustain ministry for more than a season. Formation is the time to build the habits that will carry ministry through seasons when inspiration, convenience, and energy are all absent.
Self-discipline in the formation context means:
- Completing your ten hours of study each week, whether or not you feel like it.
- Submitting work on the deadline, not hoping the grace period covers chronic lateness.
- Praying the Daily Office when you would rather sleep, scroll, or watch something.
- Attending the cohort call when your week has been exhausting and you would rather cancel.
- Responding to mentor feedback within the expected timeframe.
- Being honest in your formation record, even when honesty is uncomfortable.
These are not heroic demands. They are the ordinary minimum of a person preparing for ordered ministry. If they are already feeling like too much, that is important information — about timing, about readiness, or about whether this is the right moment to be in formation.
Colossians 3:23–24 was the key passage in Unit 1.1. Return to it now with this lens: “work at it from the soul, as if for the Lord and not for men.” Self-discipline is not for the benefit of the course director. It is not for the formation record. It is the shape of a life ordered toward God — and it begins here, in the small and unsexy discipline of showing up consistently for ten hours of study each week.
Part 5: Emotional maturity in ministry
Ordained ministry places people in contact with human suffering, conflict, failure, and need on a regular basis. The minister who has not developed basic emotional maturity will not be able to serve people in those moments — because they will be managing their own emotional responses rather than being present to the person in need.
Emotional maturity does not mean not having emotions. It means having a developed capacity to experience emotions, name them, and respond with intention rather than reaction. The emotionally mature minister can:
- Receive criticism without becoming defensive or withdrawn.
- Disagree with a colleague without damaging the relationship.
- Sit with someone in grief without needing to fix the grief or escape the discomfort.
- Acknowledge when they are wrong without their entire sense of self collapsing.
- Set a limit with a parishioner without feeling guilty for weeks.
- Recognise when they are tired, overwhelmed, or reactive — and take appropriate steps before those states affect their ministry.
These capacities are not innate. They are developed. Formation is one of the primary contexts in which that development happens — if the candidate is willing to engage honestly with what formation surfaces.
Reflection question
Name one area of emotional reactivity in your own life — a situation, a type of person, or a kind of feedback that reliably produces a strong emotional response in you. Describe the pattern honestly. Then describe what it would look like to respond to that trigger with intention rather than reaction.
Part 6: Relational integrity
How you treat people reveals more about your readiness for ministry than any quiz or written assignment. This is not metaphorical. The way a candidate treats peers, mentors, support staff, and people they disagree with is formation evidence — whether or not it is formally assessed.
Relational integrity in the formation context means:
Being genuinely present in cohort meetings rather than performing presence.
Engaging honestly with peers rather than giving socially acceptable answers.
Treating the course director and mentor with appropriate respect — not deference that conceals disagreement, but honest engagement that includes disagreement when it exists.
Behaving consistently when you think no one is watching.
Being willing to apologise when you have caused harm, without over-explaining or minimising.
The deacon whose relational life is marked by manipulation, withdrawal, passive aggression, or chronic conflict will carry those patterns into every ministry context. Formation does not automatically fix relational dysfunction. It does surface it — and the candidate who uses that surfacing honestly has an opportunity for genuine growth.
Mark 10:42–45 (CPDV):
“But Jesus, calling them together, said to them: ‘You know that those who seem to rule over the Gentiles dominate them, and that their leaders exercise power over them. But it is not to be so among you. Instead, whoever would become great shall be your minister. And whoever would be first among you shall be the servant of all. For the Son of man also has not come so that they would minister to him, but so that he would minister, and so that he would give his life as a redemption for many.'”
Word study — Mark 10:42–45
AOCM Scripture Study
Scripture study: Mrk.10.42-45
Passage: Mrk.10.42-45 — Open in STEP Bible →
διάκονος
Pronunciation guide: diakonos
Basic meaning: servant
διάκονος, -ου, ὁ, ἡ (derivation unknown), [in LXX for נַעַר, שָׁרַת pi.: Est.6:3, 5, א B Est.1:10 2:2, Pro.10:4, 4Ma.9:17 * ] δ. θεοῦ, Rom.13:4, 2Co.6:4, 1Th.3:2 δ. Χριστοῦ, 2Co.11:23, Col.1:7, 1Ti.4:6 cf. ὁ δ. ὁ ἐμός, Jhn.12:26 δ. περιτομῆς, Rom.15:8 δ. καινῆς διαθήκης, 2Co.3:6 δ. δικαιοσύνης, 2Co.11:15 δ. [εὐαγγελίου], Eph.3:7, Col.1:23 δ. [ἐκκλησίας], Col.1:25. fem. (cf. Eccl. διακονίσσα), Rom.16:1 (cf. 1Ti.3:11, and CGT, in l., also M, Th., l.with).† SYN.: δοῦλος, bondman θεράπων, servant acting voluntarily ὑπηρέτης, servant, attendant, by etymol. suggesting subordination. All these imply relation to a person, in…
- in general, a servant, attendant, minister: Mat.20:26 22:13 23:11, Mrk.9:35 10:43, Jhn.2:5, 9, 1Co.3:5, Gal.2:17, Eph.6:21, Col.4:7
- As technical term for Church officer (so in pre-Christian times, see M, Th., I, 32), a deacon: Php.1:1, 1Ti.3:8, 12
Source: STEP Bible Data — TBESG CC BY 4.0
δούλη
Pronunciation guide: doulē
Basic meaning: female slave
δούλη, ἡ, see: δοῦλος. δοῦλος, -η, -ον, [in LXX, ὁ δ. nearly always for עֶבֶד ὁ δ. chiefly for שִׁפְחָה,אָמָה ] __(a) fem., ἡ δ., a female slave, bondmaid (Cremer, 702 DB, iii, 215): Luk.1:38, 48 Act.2:18" (LXX) __(b) masc., ὁ δ., a slave, bond-man: Mat.8:9 18:23, al. opposite to ἐλεύθερος, 1Co.7:22 12:13, Gal.3:28, Eph.6:8, Col.3:11, Rev.6:15 13:16 19:18 opposite to κύριος, δεσπότης, οἰκοδεσπότης, Mat.10:24 13:27, 28 Luk.12:46, Jhn.15:15, Eph.6:5, Col.3:22 4:1, al. metaphorically, δ. Χριστοῦ, τοῦ Χρ., Ἰησοῦ Χρ., Rom.1:1, 1Co.7:22, Gal.1:10, Eph.6:6, Php.1:1, Col.4:12, Jas.1:1, 2Pe.1:1, Ju 1 δ. τ. θεοῦ, τ. κυρίου, Act.16:17, 2Ti.2:24, Tit.1:1, 1Pe.2:16, Rev.7:3 15:3 δ. πονηρός, ἀχρεῖος, κακός, Mat.18:32 24:48 25:26, 30, Luk.17:10 19:22 δ. ἁμαρτίας, Jhn.8:34, Rom.6:17, 20 τ. φθορᾶς, 2Pe.2:19…
- in bondage to, subject to: Rom.6:19.
- As subst., ὁ, ἡ δ., a slave
Source: STEP Bible Data — TBESG CC BY 4.0
λύτρον
Pronunciation guide: lutron
Basic meaning: ransom
λύτρον, -ον, τό (λύω), [in LXX (Pent..15 Pr.2, Isa.1) for פִּדְיוֹם and cogn. forms, גְּאֻלָּה, כֹּפֶר, מְחִיר ] a ransom (as for a life, Exo.21:30 for slaves, Lev.19:20 for captives, Isa.45:13): ἀντὶ πολλῶν, Mat.20:28, Mrk.10:45 (see Swete, in l, and for discussion of λ. and its cognates, Westc., He., 295 f. Deiss., LAE, 331 f. cf. also ἀντί-λύτρον).†
(AS)
Source: STEP Bible Data — TBESG CC BY 4.0
Formation questionJesus explicitly redefines greatness as service and leadership as servanthood. Where in your own life is this redefinition most costly — where does it require the most from you?
Lexical and morphology data may include material derived from STEP Bible Data. Credit: STEP Bible, www.STEPBible.org.
G1249 — diakonos: servant, minister, deacon. The very word that names your vocation. Jesus uses it to define what greatness looks like among his followers. This is not a secondary meaning of the word — it is the primary shape of ministry in the community he is forming.
G1401 — doulos: slave, bond-servant. The person who is first must be this. Not a manager. Not a visionary. Not a platform — a doulos. If this is the shape of leadership Jesus describes, what does that mean for every ambition about ministry that you brought into this programme?
G3083 — lytron: ransom, redemption price. The Son of Man came to give his life as this. Diaconal service, at its deepest level, follows the pattern of the one who gave everything for the freedom of others. This is not a management philosophy. It is a theology of ministry rooted in the cross.
Open Mrk.10.42-45 in STEP Bible
Reflection question for Mark 10:42–45
Jesus says the one who would be first must be servant of all. Where does your own desire for recognition, authority, or status in ministry conflict most directly with this? Write a paragraph naming it honestly.
Part 7: Perseverance — finishing what you start
Formation is ten months. Ministry is a lifetime. The person who begins well and cannot sustain it has not yet demonstrated the quality that ministry most requires — not brilliance, not inspiration, but faithfulness over time.
Perseverance in formation means staying present when the material is hard, when the week is exhausting, when a module feels less interesting than the ones before it, and when the cohort call falls on the worst possible evening. It means returning after a hard week without theatrics of guilt or self-recrimination — just returning, doing the work, and continuing.
The tradition has a word for this: hypomonē — sometimes translated as perseverance or patient endurance, but carrying the sense of remaining under the weight of something rather than running from it. It is one of the virtues the New Testament returns to repeatedly, because the Christian life — and ministry within it — consistently asks people to remain present under pressure.
James 1:2–4 (CPDV):
“My brothers, consider it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But patience has its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and whole, lacking in nothing.”
Word study — James 1:2–4
AOCM Scripture Study
Scripture study: Jam.1.2-4
Passage: Jam.1.2-4 — Open in STEP Bible →
ὑπομονή
Pronunciation guide: hupomonē
Basic meaning: perseverance
ὑπο-μονή, -ῆς, ἡ (ὑπομένω) [in LXX for מִקְוֶה and cogn. forms frequently in 4Mac ] δι᾽ ὑπομονῆς, Rom.8:25, Heb.12:1 with genitive of person(s), 2Th.3:5 (ICC, in l), Rev.3:10 with genitive of thing(s), Rom.2:7, 2Co.1:6, 1Th.1:3 before ἐν, Rev.1:9.† SYN.: see: μακροθυμία, and cf. Hort on Jas.1:3 (AS)
- a remaining behind (Arist.).
- patient enduring, endurance: Luk.8:15 21:19, Rom.5:3-4 15:4-5, 2Co.6:4 12:12, Col.1:11, 2Th.1:4, 1Ti.6:11, 2Ti.3:10, Tit.2:2, Heb.10:36, Jas.1:3-4 5:11, 2Pe.1:6, Rev.2:2-3, 19 13:10 14:12
Source: STEP Bible Data — TBESG CC BY 4.0
δοκιμή
Pronunciation guide: dokimē
Basic meaning: test
δοκιμή, -ῆς, ἡ (δόκιμος), [in Sm.: Psa.68:31 * ]
- the process of trial, proving, test: 2Co.8:2 9:13
- The result of trial, approval, approvedness, proof: Rom.5:4, 2Co.2:9 13:3, Php.2:22 (Cremer, 212, 701).†
(AS)
Source: STEP Bible Data — TBESG CC BY 4.0
τέλειος
Pronunciation guide: teleios
Basic meaning: perfect
τέλειος, -α, -ον (τέλος), [in LXX chiefly for שָׁלֵם, תָּמִים and cogn. forms ] having reached its end, finished, mature, complete, perfect __(a) full-grown, mature: Heb.5:14 ethically: Php.3:15 opposite to νήπιος (-άζειν), 1Co.2:6 14:20, Eph.4:13 τ. καὶ πεπληροφορημένοι, Col.4:12 τ. ἐν Χριστῷ, Col.1:28 __(b) complete, perfect (expressing the simple idea of complete goodness, without reference either to maturity or to the philosophical idea of a τέλος; see Hort on Jas.1:4): Mat.5:48 19:21, Jas.1:4 3:2 of God, Mat.5:48. ἔργον, Jas.1:4 νόμος, Jas.1:25 δώρημα, Jas.1:17 ἀγάπη, 1Jn.4:18 τὸ τ., 1Co.13:10 compar., τελειοτέρα (σκηνή), Heb.9:11. (There is probably no reference in St. Paul's usage to the use of this term in the ancient mysteries cf. ICC on Col.1:28 but see also…
- of persons, primarily of physical development,
- Of things, complete, perfect: Rom.12:2
Source: STEP Bible Data — TBESG CC BY 4.0
Formation questionJames describes trials as the context in which perseverance is formed. What has tested your perseverance most in the last year — and what has that testing produced in you?
Lexical and morphology data may include material derived from STEP Bible Data. Credit: STEP Bible, www.STEPBible.org.
G5281 — hypomonē: perseverance, patient endurance, the capacity to remain under weight. This is not gritted-teeth stoicism. It is active, trusting endurance — the quality of a person who remains present in difficulty because they believe the difficulty is not the last word.
G1382 — dokimē: the result of being tested and proven genuine. Like a metal that has been through the refiner’s fire and emerged purified, not destroyed. Formation will test you. What it produces — if you engage honestly — is something more reliable than what you brought in.
G5046 — teleios: perfect, complete, mature, fully formed. The goal of the testing and the perseverance is not comfort but completeness — a person who has been fully formed rather than partially started. Telos again: completion is the goal, not merely beginning.
Open Jam.1.2-4 in STEP Bible
Reflection question for James 1:2–4
Describe a time in your life when you had to persevere through something that was genuinely hard. What enabled you to continue? What does that tell you about the resources you are bringing into this ten-month formation?
Part 8: Self-leadership
Self-leadership is the capacity to govern yourself — to manage your own time, energy, commitments, and emotional life without constant external structure or supervision. It is the prerequisite for leading anyone else.
In formation, self-leadership looks like this:
- You know when your study time is and you protect it, without being reminded.
- You complete work because it matters, not because someone is chasing you.
- You identify your own problems early and raise them — with your mentor, the course director, or a trusted peer — rather than concealing them until they become crises.
- You manage the competing demands on your time with deliberate intention rather than simply responding to whatever is loudest.
- You know when you need rest, and you take it — because a minister who cannot rest is a minister who cannot sustain.
Self-leadership does not mean self-sufficiency. The most self-leading person still needs community, accountability, and support. What self-leadership rules out is the expectation that formation will carry you — that someone else will make sure you do the work, attend the meetings, submit the assignments, and engage honestly. No one will do that for you. The formation environment provides the structure and the support. You bring the self-leadership.
Part 9: A note on failure and recovery
Every candidate in formation will have a hard week. Most will have several. Some will have a month that feels like it is falling apart. This is normal. It is not a sign that you are unsuitable for formation or for ministry.
What matters is not whether you fail in any given week — it is how you respond to failure. The candidate who has a hard week and quietly catches up, submits the late work, and continues — that is a candidate demonstrating resilience. The candidate who has a hard week and disappears, stops engaging, misses the cohort call, and then eventually surfaces with a lengthy explanation — that is a different pattern, and it is formation data.
Failure in formation is not the same as failure in ministry. But the patterns of response to difficulty that you develop now will be the patterns you bring to ministry later. This is the time to develop the honest, practical, low-drama recovery pattern that sustained ministry requires.
Part 10: Required reading
The following reading is required for this unit and forms part of the ten hours of study. Access each item from the resource area.
- A Guide to Formation and Ministry within the Independent Sacramental Tradition, Chapter 3 — on vocation, humility, and servant leadership.
- The Prospectus and Formation Policy Manual, Section 3 — formation expectations and conduct.
Recommended further reading: The Rule of St Benedict, Chapters 4–7 — on the tools of good works and the degrees of humility. Freely available online in English translation. This sixth-century text addresses attitudes in formation with remarkable directness and remains one of the most durable accounts of character formation in the Western tradition.
Further Reading and Resources
A note about these resources: The links and suggestions below are offered in the spirit of generous formation, not formal obligation. You will not be asked to reproduce specific content from any external source in your assessment. What you will find, however, is that those who engage with these materials tend to write with greater depth, reflect with greater honesty, and bring something richer to their cohort discussions. Think of them as an open door — the Institute has gone to the trouble of finding it for you, and a serious candidate will rarely stand in the doorway when there is so much worth walking into. All external links open on third-party websites. The Institute does not host, control, or endorse third-party content, and links may change over time. If a link no longer works, a simple search using the title and author will usually locate the resource without difficulty.
Unit 1.2 has asked you to examine your own attitude, teachability, and capacity for self-leadership. That is not comfortable work, and the discomfort is the point. The resources below will help you go further — into territory where some of the most important thinking about humility, service, and growth has been done, not always by theologians.
- The following video features a New Testament scholar who has written a full academic commentary on Philippians in conversation about the central passage of this unit — Philippians 2. Pay particular attention to what is said about the Roman cultural context of honour and status, and how Paul’s call to humility ran directly counter to that culture. Consider how the same counter-cultural dynamic applies to ministry today. Access on YouTube by clicking here.
- On servant leadership: Robert Greenleaf’s 1970 essay The Servant as Leader coined the term that is now used everywhere, often loosely. Reading the original — even a portion of it — is worth doing precisely because it is nothing like the greeting-card version. Greenleaf was writing about organisations, not churches, but his central question — whether those who are led are growing, becoming more capable, more free, more likely themselves to serve — is a thoroughly diaconal question. The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership (greenleaf.org) makes material available, and the essay itself is widely reproduced and easily found with a search.
- On growth and the capacity to learn: Carol Dweck’s short TED Talk, The Power of Believing That You Can Improve, runs to approximately ten minutes and is freely available on YouTube and at ted.com. It is not a theological lecture, but the implications for formation are direct. If you have privately assumed that you either have what it takes for ministry or you do not, this talk will challenge that assumption at its root — and that challenge is worth sitting with.
- On the dangers of status-seeking: C.S. Lewis delivered a lecture in 1944 called The Inner Ring, which has since been widely anthologised. It describes with uncomfortable precision the hunger to belong to the inner circle — the right group, the recognised people, the ones who matter — and what that hunger does to a person’s character over time. It takes about twenty minutes to read and may be the most formatively useful thing on this list. Search the title along with Lewis’s name; it appears on multiple freely available sites and through most library services.
None of this replaces the theological grounding of the unit itself. But formation that stays only inside explicitly religious texts tends to produce ministers who can speak well within the tradition but are less able to meet people where they actually live. The wider reading is part of the preparation.
Upload your Assignments
You have one assignment for this unit. Take time during the week to reflect honestly before you write. Upload it at the end of the week.
Assignment 1: Character and Attitude Reflection
Accepted file types: PDF, DOCX
Word count: 500 to 800 words
Write your response to the following question: “Identify two areas of personal character that you believe will be tested most during this formation pathway. Explain why, and describe honestly how you intend to grow in those areas over the next ten months.”
Do not write what you think the correct answer is. Write what is actually true for you. This is a portfolio item, rubric-marked by the course director, and held in your formation file throughout the programme.
Before you move to Unit 1.3 — your checklist
- Complete every item below before the system will allow you to proceed:
- Read all eleven parts of this unit in full.
- Work through all the Scripture passages and reflection questions in writing.
- Complete the Unit 1.2 knowledge check quiz (80% pass mark, maximum two attempts, 20 questions drawn at random from the bank of 50).
- Submit your Character and Attitude Reflection.
