GRACE BIBLE COLLEGE

Book Review on Servant Leadership: The Master’s Design, An Asian Perspective

In partial fulfillment of the requirement of the course

I declare that this assignment is my unaided work. I have not copied it from any person,
article, book, website, or other form of storage. Every idea or phrase that is not owned
has been duly acknowledged.

Submitted to
Rev Gin Malsawm

Submitted by
Chingsangmawi
Registration No. 1592 /2021
Bachelor of Theology
14, December , 2023
Ginnei Thang Ngaihte, Servant Leadership The Master’s Design. GS Books: Telangana,
2017. 296.
Ginnei Thang Nhaihte and his wife Ching Ngaihte serve in Thailand as OMF regional Leader
(North), Director of Asian Cross-Cultural Training Institute, Singapore, and liaison for OMF
New Horizon Ministry in North East India. He also serves as an adjunct/visiting lecturer in
various institutions in India. He earned his Doctorate from the School of World Missions,
Fuller Theological Seminary, USA; BRE, BD from Union Biblical Seminary (India) and BA,
from St. Anthony’s College, Shillong (India).

This book is written in the Asian context to make leadership training adoptable for Asians.
This is because most leadership books were written in the Western context which is not
effective and applicable to Asians. This book is not academic and is more like teaching
Christians the Biblical standpoint on leadership and how to apply it in our context.

Chapter 1 talks about the traditional way of picking leaders, the criteria for the leaders, and
their functions. Most of the time we looked at their academic qualification, their family, the
materials they own, etc. instead of looking at their spirituality or asking and praying to God.
It also mentions that most of the training programs lack a focus on helping the candidates
discover their gifts, or it is not an appropriate strategy. This is so because the candidates may
be many that the trainer cannot lead them one by one, and for a strategy, each person has to
make their strategy because the trainer cannot research all the different places of their trainee
and handmade a plan and strategy for training them.

Chapter 2 is about how we get our leadership training and how it affects us. We got our
training strategy from the West and they they are teaching with their Western mindset and
using their Western context that their teaching is not useful for Asians. They do not know
everything so they teach what they know, it is the work of the educated native to teach
according to their culture. The Western people do not do any research or study the place and
that is why they cannot give or teach the Asians. And Asians are so many and distinct that
they cannot teach in a way that would be irrelevant. So we cannot just simply blame the
West. Moreover, most of our training books even today are mostly in the Western context
instead of the regional context, so we cannot simply blame them. If each region could do
research and write in their context, then that would be helpful.

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Chapter 3, writes about the Biblical concept of developing a leader. It is encouraging to see
that God even used criticism to prepare leaders because most of the time it is because of
criticism that most people give up the leadership work, or get discouraged due to criticisms.
however, this book taught us that God can use anything to prepare anyone to be a leader.
Moreover, another good remainder of this book is the need to train a successor for the present
leaders because that is what most leaders lack. One of the problems that may arise if we try to
apply Biblical leadership because not everyone in Asia is Christian. So, just to simply impose
this would not be a nice thing.

Chapter 4, under the topic of understanding who the trainee is, says that the trainer has to
know their trainee's gifts and what they are good at. This is a good concept because everyone
is different and using one method for all would be wrong. It is like one shoe size does not fit
all. On the other hand, the question is will it not be difficult for the trainer to recognize the
gifts of the trainee and develop a new strategy for each trainee? It is not like they will be
training one person at a time. The good thing about the book it not only talks about how to be
a servant leader, but it also includes the importance of the trainee being a model for the
trainee. Many people who are trying to be a leader usually miss this part in their training and
that causes problems because what they learn is not applicable in the place where they are put
in.

Chapter 5 taught the need to empower upcoming leaders by the present leaders. Just like
Jesus trains and empowers his followers the senior also needs to motivate, encourage, and
empower the trained leaders. This is a very common type of problem in many churches or
organizations. The senior leaders act as the owners and so for the new leaders, there is no
other choice than splitting from the main church. This is the one thing everyone needs to
learn and practice.

Chapter 6, writes about the importance of our spirituality as well as our physical body. Many
of us today neglect to care for our bodies and that is wrong. If the leaders take care of both,
then they will be effective in their work both spiritually and physically. Moreover, the real
model for leadership is Jesus, the real servant leader such as his humility, sacrifice,
commitment, and so on.

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Chapter 7, is about how to develop a servant leader according to the context. This chapter
taught that getting training according to the place so that what they will be applicable in the
place where they are placed

This book has provided a lot of information on being better leaders and servant leaders. It
contains similar pieces of information as other books, but a little bit more in the Asian
context. Although this book is written in the Asian context it is a bit general it needs a lot of
work for application because the problems and solutions provided here are kind of general
and to apply in some specific context it will need a lot of new research and modification of
what is written in this book. So, everything in the book may be not applicable everywhere in
Asia or if we are to apply it it will take a lot of work. What if the book focuses on one
particular place because Asia is also a big continent where a variety of people are living so,
for each it will still be difficult to apply effectively. And when the focus is too broad it looks
like other leadership books written in a Western contect.