The Practice of Servant Leadership: A Qualitative Case Study of Watoto Church

December 3, 2025

The Practice of Servant Leadership: A Qualitative Case Study of Watoto Church

Jacky Franco Onaga | 2022

Abstract

Servant leadership has the capacity to bring about a paradigm shift in organizations, communities, and churches. Although it is older than most leadership theories, its acceptance as a theory and practice has been slow. Perceptions among researchers, academicians, practitioners, and leaders differ as to how the theory can be conceptualized and practiced. Much research has gone into defining the servant leadership theory and analyzing its difference from other leadership theories, but few have examined the practice of servant leadership. The purpose of this study was to seek to understand the practice of servant leadership in Watoto Church. The findings of this study are significant because they provided a critical understanding of servant leadership in a place where it works. The findings highlighted how servant leadership could impact communities and organizations and provide insights and guidelines to leaders of similar organizations. The study employed a qualitative case study design. This study method provided an opportunity to obtain the participants’ experiences, emotions, and feelings. A total of 10 pastors from different levels of leadership were selected using purposeful sampling. These were pastors who grew up in the ministry of Watoto Church’s servant leadership and therefore deemed to have relevant information. Data were collected through in- depth interviews. The in-depth interviews provided an open-ended approach that allowed the researcher to explore and probe to get rich information. The findings confirmed that Watoto Church is a servant leadership practicing church. The servant leadership practices included serving and caring for the community, empathy, leadership development, leadership accountability, character-based leadership, teamwork, and visionary leadership. The results further revealed that servant leadership had benefited and impacted Watoto Church by creating a smooth leadership succession, ownership and loyalty to the ministry, exponential church growth, and community care. Therefore, servant leadership is a good leadership style for social, community, and organizational transformation.

Keywords: Servant leadership, leadership theory, practice, communities, organizations, transformation

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