LEADERSHIP & DESTINY SHAPED IN THE HOME: CHRISTIAN’S STORY

Across the vibrant communities of Zambia, where young people stand at the crossroads of challenge and opportunity, Christian was quietly being prepared for a future far more promising than he could have imagined.

Zambia, a nation proud of its unity and deep spiritual roots, is a place where young people carry both the weight of socio-economic challenges and the hope of tomorrow. 

For many, opportunities for leadership feel distant and inaccessible. But inside one family’s home, something remarkable was happening.

In Zambia, where public trust in leadership has been weakened by ongoing challenges such as corruption, lack of integrity, and the absence of leadership development in schools, many young people are searching for direction. As these questions stirred across the country, Christian’s father – who serves on staff with the Church Council of Zambia and has been trained through OneHope programs – made a deliberate choice. He gathered his family around the Lead Today program, using it to disciple his children at home and model a different kind of leadership, in integrity, and faith.

Lead Today is a teens and youth development program, the fruit of collaboration between John Maxwell’s EQUIP and OneHope, that introduces teens aged 12 to 19 to fifteen key leadership qualities built on biblical principles. 

For Christian, Lead Today was far from being a classroom and a formal training; it was simply a father guiding his children through lessons built on integrity, and the wisdom of God’s Word. Those evenings of learning became a turning point he didn’t fully recognize at the time. As he flipped through the pages of Lead Today, the principles began to take root quietly shaping how he approached school, friendships, and even his understanding of who he was becoming. He began to see leadership not as a title, but as a way of living with purpose and responsibility.

Recently, Christian was invited to interview with the World Council of Churches for a steward position at the Central Committee meetings, an opportunity that would place him in a global environment demanding maturity and conviction. Sitting across from the interview panel, he faced questions about integrity, accountability, and leadership. These were not merely words to him. They were values he had already practiced, deeply planted through the Lead Today lessons taught at home.

Chosen through a competitive interview process, Christian stood out from others as he responded thoughtfully to questions about leadership, character, and responsibility drawing from principles he had learned and lived through Lead Today.

He realized something powerful: God had been preparing him long before he entered that room. Lead Today program was meant to prepare him for something greater. 

Each question felt like a bridge back to the pages of the book he continued to read, again and again. Each answer revealed how much those simple, consistent lessons had shaped his confidence. 

Christian was selected to serve at the World Council of Churches Central Committee meeting in South Africa, a significant gathering of 158 leaders from across the global ecumenical movement. The committee meets to carry forward the Assembly’s mandate, make key policy decisions, and address pressing issues shaping the life and witness of the Church, including the role of young people.