Service or Leadership?
Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. “But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42–45 NASB)
We live in a day where “Leadership Seminars” are being offered regularly in Christian meetings.
Now the reasons of this are the rapid globalization and urbanization of world’s civilizations. Increasingly people are living in communities that require more sophistication in every area of life. The old ways of leading with absolute and unquestioned authority are long gone. In the times of kings and despots, leadership seminars were unnecessary because the cost of disobedience was often imprisonment or death. But in today’s world, with a widespread and growing democratic value, leaders must convince people to follow them.
The typical topics of a leadership seminar of today include vision setting, inspiration, communication, and sensitivity. Leadership of today involves quite a bit of salesmanship, for followers must want to follow the leader. Asians say that leading is like riding a tiger, that you must stay on the tiger to avoid getting eaten by the tiger. But in today’s world the tigers leaders ride seem to have grown longer arms with which they can reach around and scrape ineffective leaders off their backs at will.
To the degree that Christian seminars help leaders learn how to lead effectively and, most importantly, in a spiritual way — a way that pleases God — then they do a great service to the church and to our world.
However, there is an inherent danger in this emphasis on leadership, and that is that Christ emphasized servanthood over leadership. Robert K. Greenleaf in his classic book Servant Leadership wrote: “Good leaders must first become good servants.” Greenleaf’s voice needs to be heard clearly today because he is essentially sharing biblical principles.
The silence of the Bible: The Word of God does not often use words like “leadership,” “leaders,” or “leading,” and when it does it is more likely to use them negatively than positively. Hebrews 13:17 and 24 are some exceptions — there the phrase “Obey those who rule over you” is seen. And is the term “overseer” or “bishop” used in 1 Timothy 3, so the Bible is not entirely silent on the subject. Any organization requires structure and accountabilities, yet the nature of a church is so unique due to the presence of the Spirit, that authorities and chains of command are not the major concern.
The character of the Church: What characterizes the church is the spiritual nature of the new community of grace, a community that is more bound up in sharing the same Lord and the same Spirit and the same principles than any other structure on earth. Again, Greenleaf wrote:
Moral authority is another way to define servant leadership because it represents a reciprocal choice between leader and follower. If the leader is principle centered, he or she will develop moral authority. If the follower is principle centered, he or she will follow the leader. In this sense, both leaders and followers are followers. Why? They follow truth. They follow natural law. They follow principles. They follow a common, agreed-upon vision. They share values. They grow to trust one another. (From Servant Leadership)
The purpose of the church is to bring glory to Christ through worship, witness, and service in His name. No other organization can claim such a spiritual reality among its people as can the church of Jesus Christ. The church is comprised of a born-again people, a community of priests (1 Peter 2:4–5) with each being of the same rank and status in terms of value, character, and spiritual life. A pastor or a recognized spiritual leader of the church should be a mature Christian, but there are no limitations of spiritual experiences, or of spiritual maturity, of wisdom, of knowledge, for any believer. The entire church has an anointing from the Holy One and are able to know the truth and the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5 and 1 John 2:27).
The Biblical Emphasis on Servanthood: I believe this generation is currently speaking too much about leadership and not enough about servanthood. In the church the character and spiritual desires, and not the intelligence or determination, of the leader are paramount. It is good if a leader be smart, if he is aware of trends and modern societal developments, if he knows something about how to lead in a twenty-first century environment, but it is infinitely more important that he knows the Lord and desires to serve Him and His people.
Servanthood can never be done in theory. It must always have a significant practical application. Christ came in this same way — to serve and not to be served. We serve out of our love for Christ and for His people. The more we love Christ the more we will love people. There are many ways we serve — a pastor serves through the diligent preparation of sermons that will feed the flock of God with spiritual truth. A consistent trait of servanthood is the desire to help someone else, to make them better. The servant can never be in it for himself, to make him look greater or bigger, and still be called a servant.
May God bless you as you seek to serve Him and others through His love.
