Christine Newkirk assists participants during a March strategic planning session at Holy Rosary Parish in Medford in response to Bishop James P. Powers’ letter on evangelization. (Submitted photo)
Jenny Snarski
Catholic Herald Staff
Christine Newkirk is a diocesan employee who wears many hats, but the overarching title of “servant leader” covers them all.
An alumnus of Viterbo University’s Master’s Degree in Servant Leadership, Newkirk was honored as a distinguished alumni on Oct. 11 at the La Crosse campus. The award was given particularly for her role in developing and running the diocesan School of Servant Leadership, a formation program offered in collaboration with Viterbo and partially funded by the Catholic Home Missions Grant.
Unaware that she had been nominated, Newkirk received a call from Viterbo’s president, Dr. Richard Trietley, informing her she had received the award and extending the invitation to bring family and friends to the award ceremony.
Feeling humbled and “very honored,” Newkirk was accompanied by extended family in the absence of her husband and son, as well as former professor and current colleague Dr. Bob Lecheler and Servant Leadership program director and longtime friend Dr. Tom Thibodeau. Thibodeau was instrumental in bringing Superior’s diocesan School of Servant Leadership to life 15 years ago.
According to Newkirk, the diocesan program is a unique offering in the United States. While she has spoken about the implementation of the servant leadership formation model at her alma mater, Dr. Thibodeau is hoping to expand exposure of the program to a broader Catholic diocesan audience, as it has proven very fruitful.
Based on the Viterbo master’s program, it has been adapted to fit local needs. It runs as an annual cohort over nine months with one course being covered in a two-day session from August through April. Students include men in discernment for the permanent diaconate, priests and persons working in religious education, Catholic schools and those in other leadership roles. Lay persons working in other service-oriented roles not directly related to the Catholic Church have also coursed the program.
With financial assistance from the Catholic Home Missions grant, Newkirk is able to keep the tuition cost affordable for participants, an average of 10-15, while bringing in “top-notch instructors.”
Courses include “Discipline of Theological Reflection”; “Servant Leadership through Evangelization and Missionary Discipleship”; “Building Community”; “Prophetic Leadership”; and “Peace Building and Conflict Resolution.”
One of the things Newkirk finds “very lifegiving” is that the program is “open to priests and deacons and lay men and women providing an opportunity to learn together in a much different way than they would in general.” Newkirk said she finds “it helps build relationships” across these groups with all sharing insights from their unique ministry perspectives, appreciating and affirming shared challenges. It also provides a space for faithful friendship, collaboration and diocesan-wide networking.
Most of Newkirk’s classmates in the Servant Leadership master’s program were employed in the secular marketplace and service-related fields like education and healthcare, not faith-based organizations. She noted that, especially as Viterbo University is a Catholic institution – founded by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in 1890 – spiritual enhancement was a large part of the program.
“They never shied away from using Jesus as an example,” Newkirk said, adding that the material was presented in a way that made it easily adaptable to secular spheres but also provided non-Catholics in the program an “experience of different ways to live out servant leadership in a particularly Christian capacity.”
As Newkirk finished her degree and thought about how to implement it, she reflected, “People in our church ministries need to know more about this to really embrace servant leadership because Jesus Christ is the best servant leader.” She wanted to find a way to bring the principles and methods she had learned to the Church in a way that intentionally holds a vision of who Jesus was as a servant and how that is reflected in church ministry, whatever the role.
Having a very clear understanding that, among so many other controlling and divisive leadership models, she needed to “name, claim and frame what you do in servant leadership and to be very intentional about it,” Newkirk implemented her studies in her employment with the Diocese of Superior as well as by establishing the School of Servant Leadership to form other servant leaders.
She shared, “I appreciate working for the Diocese of Superior and that it really does try to foster servant leadership, evangelization and discipleship and how all those things go hand in hand for the potential growth of the church.” While she is primarily focused on this development in the local Catholic sphere, Newkirk has participated with others like Dr. Owen Phelps, who served in multiple roles for the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois, in addition to being a consultant for the USCCB’s Communications Committee from 2003-2013 and published author on the topic of Catholic servant leadership.
In her role as director of the Office of Ecclesial Ministries and Diocesan Consultation, besides coordinating the School of Servant Leadership and other professional development opportunities, Newkirk participates in several consultative functions, is an active member of the Diocesan Planning Committee, Priest Personnel Board, the Vocations Team and a Wisconsin Dioceses Social Action committee.
In the 2024-2025 diocesan Catholic Services Appeal brochure, Newkirk commented, “We know our people and we are attentive to the topics they would like to know more about or need more formation in; we help facilitate networking so parish staff can share best practices, wisdom, insights and resources.”
She notes that these offerings are opportunities to share about the many good things happening in the diocese and “can help us identify areas of support that may need further consideration or implementation.”
Raised in the Ladysmith area attending Our Lady of Sorrows School through the eighth grade, Newkirk’s devout parents, including her permanent deacon father, ensured the faith was actively practiced and fostered. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Integrated Studies in Religious Education and Philosophy at Viterbo University.
Newkirk’s son, Michael, is currently deployed with the Army National Guard in the Middle East. Besides gardening, she loves mentoring her two granddaughters. She and her husband, Chris, will celebrate 39 years of marriage next February. With her husband suffering from degenerative spinal injuries and a rare form of neuropathy, Newkirk is applying her servant leadership under new circumstances while she continues to work full-time for the diocese.
Admitting that it is challenging but also lifegiving, Newkirk shared, “when you commit to somebody or something, you try to do that very intentionally.” In helping him maintain dignity even with physical limitations, she added, “It’s important for me to help provide him with the greatest quality-of-life that he can have in whatever capacity that is.”
Newkirk reflected, “It is important to me that I also live out servant leadership as a wife and a mom.”
