The Function of Servant Leadership
"For David, after he had served his own generation by the
will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:"
Acts 13:36
There are many leadership philosophies floating around the various conservative
Christian groups these days and they are not all biblical. Much of what I see is
geared toward what works rather than what is right. While what is right works,
everything that works is not right. Some say leaders should be like fearsome
generals, ordering people around, ruling their flocks by fear and intimidation.
Peter specifically forbade this type of leadership (1 Peter 5:3).
Jesus categorically condemned exercising abusive power over His people. He said
leaders are to lead as servants (Mat 20:25-28). However, many mistakenly think
this means they are to submit to those they lead and let them dictate what the
ministry does. When He said leaders were to serve He was referring to the
biblical form of servant leadership, not the weak, misguided, good intentioned
ideology of many misinformed Christian leaders. This type of weak leadership is
an offense to God (Prov. 30:21&22). Abuse and weakness are two ditches on either
side of the right kind of leadership.
Christian servant leadership is quite different. Servant leaders serve best by
leading people to reach their maximum potential for Christ. Like King David,
they serve by leading their people to victory as a conquering army, thinking
only of what is best for the flock. This kind of leader knows that it is best
for the people if they lead them to stretch themselves further than they are
comfortable and if they help them achieve more than they could by themselves.
The servant leader will use their office to do seven things:
1. To Gather Isaiah 66:18; Joel 2:16; Luke 14:23
Servant leaders are commanded to gather the sheep. Whatever else they do, this
is their prime directive. Obeying the Great Commission is gathering
people to Christ and then gathering them together for teaching and service. If
leaders are not gathering they are not serving Christ or man.
Far too many leaders focus on what prepares people for service and spend far too
little time on what people are to do once they are prepared. Holiness and
zealous preaching are great, but they do little good when directed at an empty
room. Standards of conduct and personal holiness are an important part of living
for God, but they are not the main focus of a Christian's life. Leaders are to
teach biblical separation so that the congregation is fit for service. The
standards are not the end, they are the beginning. Leaders should attract
people, seek people, and grow the flock. They are not to brutalize, intimidate,
and victimize them. "Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the
sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD." Jeremiah 23:1
2. To Recruit Isaiah 56:6&7; 1 Chron. 12:17
Once a crowd has been gathered, the servant leader will get people to sign up
for the task at hand. Leaders need to use their office to influence the flock to
get onboard God's program (the local church) and get busy obeying the Great
Commission. Again, this is for the good of the sheep. Idle Christians will
suffer shame at the Judgment Seat of Christ and will have no rewards. The
corporate body will not reach its potential unless everybody commits to doing
their part. Everyone must be in their place and committed (Psalm 31:5; Psalm
37:5) to doing what God has created them to do or everyone will suffer (1
Corinthians 12).
3. To Train Exodus 18:20; 2 Timothy 2:2
No matter how successful leaders are at attracting a crowd, they will experience
very little lasting growth or fruit that remains (John 15:6) until they
establish an efficient method and process of teaching people what they are to
do, how they are to do it, and how often they are to do it. Big events gather a
crowd, but the training process is what keeps them and makes them fruitful.
The job of servant leaders is to take the process one step further and train
leaders to train the people, thus releasing the senior leadership to focus on
the ministry of the Word and prayer (Acts 6:4). When leaders train others to
lead for them it creates space for them to focus on the big picture and plan the
future of the ministry. This was how Joshua led Israel into the Promise Land
(Joshua 1:10&11).
4. To Inspire Proverbs 29:19; Galatians 4:18
One of the primary functions of a servant leader is to cast vision and inspire
the people to "rise up and build" (Neh. 2:18). This is one role that can be
duplicated but never abdicated. Without a vibrant and living vision a ministry
will self-destruct. "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that
keepeth the law, happy is he." Proverbs 29:18 On the other side of no vision
is the empty promise. "For a dream cometh through the multitude of business;
and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words." Eccl 5:3 Some leaders
change like the wind and have a new program every other month, never achieving
what they previously promised. They talk a lot about growth and forecast a
bright future but never develop the dream by working the plan.
5. To Sort and Set 1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12
Servant leaders have been given the responsibility of testing and proving (1 Tim
3:10) the gifts of the people and setting them in their proper place in the
church. The congregation has been given differing gifts in different amounts and
each has a place to serve that is tailor made just for them. Servant leaders are
to watch them, evaluate them, prove them, empower them, and then assist them in
performing their God given calling within the body. Leaders also have the task
of separating the doers from the talkers, the mighty men from the grasshoppers
(Numbers 13:33), and the overseers of things from the overseers of people.
6. To Conquer Luke 19:13
Servant leaders are to instill a spirit of victory in their people. "The LORD
is a man of war: the LORD is his name." Exodus 15:3 If God is a man of war
it follows that leaders are to emulate Him and that they should lead their
congregations and ministries to be on the offensive.
Luke 19:13 instructs the church to occupy till Jesus returns. Occupation is a
military term given to a victorious army when they take over an enemy's homeland
and impose their will upon them by force. A ministry can't occupy until they
vanquish. No one wins by going on the defensive. Leadership, like warfare, has
serious risks and serious consequences for failure, but all soldiers risk death
in order to win. Without placing themselves in harm's way leaders cannot hope to
be successful.
7. To Reproduce Matthew 28:18-20; 2 Timothy 2:2
All organizations experience natural attrition. It is impossible to keep
everyone. People die, move away, get sick, get offended, and sometimes get
discouraged and quit serving God. The Christian faith is advanced by sharing
one's faith with others (Rom 1:17), and assimilating new converts into the
church.
All across America, churches that were once healthy and vibrant now consist of
only a handful of senior citizens trying to keep the doors open. As a family
line will eventually die out if new children are not born into the family, so a
ministry will die if it does not continually reproduce. This applies to
reproducing workers as well as leaders. Whereas Gathering in point one
was the leadership gathering others and reaching new people, reproduction occurs
when each member of the ministry reproduces themselves. Until the leadership
establishes a culture of reproduction the ministry will not outlive the current
leadership. The true test of a leader's effectiveness is what happens to their
ministry once they are gone.
Jeff Wade, DBS
BibleLeader.com
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