About CIPS

Christians In Public Service was founded in Dallas, Texas, in 2013 by public servants who understood the weight of public service firsthand.

We started with a simple belief: knowing how to lead is not enough. Public service asks a great deal of people. It calls for good judgment, courage, wisdom, humility, and the ability to stay grounded when the pressure rises and the choices get hard.

That's where CIPS comes in.

Rooted in the teachings of Jesus, we help people grow into the kind of leaders who can carry influence and responsibility without losing themselves in the process. Because public life will test you. It brings scrutiny, disagreement, competing interests, disappointment, difficult decisions, and plenty of pressure. It can make people more guarded, more defensive, more cynical, or more focused on winning than serving.

We believe leadership should form something better in us. That's why much of our work centers on leadership formation.

Leadership development often focuses on what a person knows and what a person can do. Leadership formation goes deeper. It asks who you are becoming as you lead.

How do you use power? How do you treat people when you disagree? What happens to your judgment under pressure? Can you hold contempt without becoming contemptuous? Can you lead with strength without losing humility?

Those questions matter because people don't experience leadership as a theory. They experience it through the people who lead them.

Our work extends beyond public servants, too. CIPS helps citizens better understand government, public leadership, and their own role in civic life. Through teaching, writing, civic education, events, and honest conversation, we create space for people to think more deeply about how we lead, serve, disagree, make decisions, and share life with one another.

We don't  have to agree on everything to treat one another with dignity. And conviction doesn't require contempt. 

One question continues to shape our work: How do we live well together?

It matters in government and in our communities. It matters in churches, workplaces, neighborhoods, and anywhere people with different beliefs, experiences, interests, and opinions share responsibility for what comes next. 

CIPS welcomes people of goodwill who are willing to think seriously about leadership, citizenship, character, and what we owe one another. At its heart, our work is about helping people carry influence well, serve with wisdom, and remain grounded in the qualities that make good leadership possible in the first place.

Character. Authenticity. Wisdom.