K-12 private education systems are becoming an increasingly popular choice for parents who desire Biblical frameworks, teaching, and learning to build lifelong leadership skills and capacity for their children. Christian education stakeholders need to understand how leaders in non-Christian organizations explain their lived experiences of K-12 Christian education and leadership development. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how leaders of non-religious/secular organizations in the mid-south regions of the United States perceive the influence of any K-12 Christian education they received as it pertains to their current leadership practices. Dr. Robert J. Clinton's leadership emergence theory (LET) guided the theoretical underpinnings of this project and aided the exploration of how students began leadership capacity building from their Christian education. Data from semi-structured interviews with eight leaders on the influence of their K-12 Christian education, leadership emergence, and leadership in their non-Christian leadership role indicated a major developmental task of laying sovereign foundations. The findings underscore the importance of leadership capacity building through establishing sovereign foundations and inner life growth from the reflective spiritual environments in Christian schools. Christian education stakeholders need to foster an ongoing dialogue with former students who are now leaders, including experiences like prayer, communion, baptism, scripture memorizations, chapel, and Holy sacraments, which are an opportunity for stakeholders to enable leaders to initiate reflective internal processing and develop leadership skills. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]