Date
8-20-2026
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Doctor of Education in Christian Leadership (EdD)
Chair
Baylor Clark Whitney
Keywords
leadership, servant leadership, spirituality, work engagement, leadership skills, spiritual growth
Disciplines
Educational Leadership
Recommended Citation
Zegene (Archbishop), Philipos Ashagir, "Servant Leadership in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church: The Lived Experiences of Work Engagement and Spirituality" (2026). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 8735.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/8735
Abstract
This qualitative phenomenological study focuses on Servant Leadership in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC): The lived experiences of Work Engagement and Spirituality. Further, this study offers a lived experience of work engagement and spirituality as a clarification to servant leadership. Leadership skills and spiritual growth have a historical, Biblical, social, and theological foundation. Until now, the EOTC has been the source of theological, social, political, and religious leaders throughout the nation. Thus, this research study was particularly important to seek an understanding of the importance of servant leadership in relation to work engagement and spirituality in the workplace. As a result, this research study has followed and applied a qualitative phenomenological research method. The purpose of the research is also to uncover the lived experiences of leadership experiences as practiced within the EOTC. According to the research findings, servant leadership is the most important leadership approach in the EOTC. As the researcher found, servant leadership is understood not as a managerial technique borrowed from other leadership models. However, it flows directly from the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, the ultimate servant Shepherd.
