Key points:
- Leadership training for Asian young adults highlights servant leadership as a counter-cultural expression of Christian faith.
- ASCEND emerged from a 2023 consultation between Global Ministries and the Korean Methodist Church Board of Missions.
- The three-year program combines theological grounding with practical ministry planning to equip young leaders for spiritual formation and effective service.
Methodist young adults from Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia and Vietnam came together Nov. 3-7 for ASCEND 2025, which was centered on one conviction: Servant leadership is not an idea to admire but a life to practice.
The Asian young adults leadership training featured a week of study, worship and hands-on learning.
Now in the second year of a three-year program, ASCEND is sponsored by the United Methodist boards of Global Ministries and Higher Education and Ministry, and the Korean Methodist Church Board of Missions. Emerging from a 2023 consultation between Global Ministries and the Korean Methodist Church board, the program’s inaugural session was held in Cambodia in 2024.
ASCEND combines theological grounding with practical ministry planning to equip young leaders for spiritual formation and effective service. All sessions were conducted in English with live translation, allowing participants from diverse cultural contexts to learn together in a shared space.
Each national mission selected seven young adults for the three-year journey. Participants meet quarterly online and gather annually in November for in-person training, culminating in certification that recognizes Christian leadership and sustained participation.
Delegations from each country planned and led one of the week’s worship services, embodying ASCEND’s emphasis on shared responsibility. Opening worship, based on Mark 12:28-34, featured a sermon by the Rev. Jin Yang Kim, Global Ministries’ liaison for Peace and Justice and the Middle East, on the theme “Not Far from the Kingdom of God.”
The Rev. Paul Kong, Global Ministries’ Asia-Pacific regional representative, reminded participants that servant leadership confronts humanity’s instinct toward self-interest.
“By nature, people ask, ‘What benefit will this bring to me?’” he said. “But Jesus’ life was profoundly counter-cultural — washing the disciples’ feet, freeing the sinner and embracing those society rejected.”
Kong stated that servant leadership is not a theory or an idea, but a lifestyle.
“True servant leadership is the ability to think, act and live differently,” he said, “to ask instead, ‘How does this benefit others?’”
Participants received unexpected firsthand experience in the political realities that frame ministry in the host country. Midway through the second day, the program paused for about four hours amid concerns that the gathering might be construed locally as a religious assembly.
Organizers adjusted the schedule with minimal disruption and participants reflected on how such moments shape Christian witness and wise ministry practice. The interruption became a lived lesson in prudent leadership, courage and humility in sensitive contexts.
Through keynote lectures and small-group discussions, ASCEND invited participants to reconsider fundamental assumptions about leadership. The Rev. Young Min Paik, LEAD Hub director for South Korea at the Board of Higher Education and Ministry, challenged conventional associations between authority and power.
“Many people think that without power, you cannot be a leader,” Paik said. “But where does true power come from? Constantly saying ‘yes’ is not obedience. Sometimes obedience requires a faithful ‘no.’ Servant leadership needs humility and critical thought — the courage to act rightly for the sake of others.”
David W. Scott, Global Ministries’ director of Mission Theology, located this shift within the ministry of Jesus, drawing on Robert Greenleaf’s “best test” for servant leadership: whether those served become “healthier, wiser, freer and more likely themselves to become servants.” From John 13 to Mark 10:45, Scott and Paik traced how Christ inverted the traditional hierarchy of power — saying that authority exists not to dominate but to lift others.
The Rev. Byung-Bae Hwang, top executive of the Korean Methodist Church Board of Mission, reinforced this theological foundation by grounding servant leadership in the kenosis (self-emptying) of Christ in Philippians 2. Leadership in a missional church, he said, must “descend rather than dominate,” transforming “privilege into service and institution into incarnation.”
Together, these teachings helped young adults see servant leadership not merely as a skillset but as a vocation rooted in Christian identity.
Building on this foundation, Paik and Scott introduced the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., as a practical model of servant leadership. Its discipleship system emphasizes the balance of the Inward Journey (spiritual formation, self-awareness, vocational discernment) and the Outward Journey (service, justice and ministry with the marginalized).
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Participants explored how spiritual maturity shapes public action, and how outward engagement clarifies the inward call. The model resonated with John Wesley’s Methodist rhythm of personal holiness joined with social holiness. Many of them said the framework helped them move beyond passive participation in their churches toward an integrated identity as Christian leaders whose inner life and outward service strengthen one another.
The second half of ASCEND shifted toward translating conviction into practice. Scott taught participants to use logic models and SMART objectives to connect ministry ideas with measurable outcomes.
“Leadership isn’t just having good ideas,” he said. “It’s knowing how to organize, plan and measure the change God calls you to bring about.”
To reinforce that leadership is embodied, Hwang asked each delegation to dramatize servant leadership using only their bodies, creating short scenes that became living parables of humility, service and empowerment.
As the training drew to a close, Paik invited participants to sign a Covenant for Servant Leadership, articulating how they would embody humility, service and empowerment in the coming year.
The covenant served not merely as the conclusion to the theme lectures but as a commissioning — an invitation to live as active, transformative Christian leaders shaped by ASCEND’s vision.
“There are no big or small tasks in God’s eyes,” he told them. “Start with what you have; act now, then revise the covenant as you grow.”
For many, ASCEND 2025 marked a turning point in both self-understanding and ministry direction.
Nandin-Erdene Nyamkhuu of Mongolia, who recently launched a new faith community in a remote area, said the training clarified her call.
“‘Servant’ and ‘leader’ truly belong together,” she said. “It’s an inward and outward journey — first to be transformed, then to act.”
DT, a participant from the host country, expressed gratitude for discovering his vocation.
“During these days of learning, I discovered more about myself and the gifts God has given me,” he said. “Now I understand what true service looks like, and I’ll use those gifts to serve in my local church.”
Sorn Aly of Cambodia said the training reshaped her commitment as an English teacher.
“I was going to end my class when students stopped coming,” she said. “But ASCEND taught me perseverance. Even if only a few remain, I’ll keep teaching them with joy. Maybe I can’t harvest the whole field, but I can nurture what grows.”
At the closing worship, Kong offered words of encouragement and a challenge that many participants described as the crowning touch of the week.
“Don’t go back to your church and say, ‘I finished a week of leadership training, so now I’m a leader,’” he said. “Practice the servant part, not the leader part. Serve in ways that look very different from what the world expects. Be a quiet, unseen leader.”
Kim is director of Korean and Asian news at United Methodist Communications. Contact him at 615-742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
