The Heart of Leadership

Imagine that you are in charge of an internship programme in an organisation, and that you want to teach your new recruits about servanthood. In particular, you want to teach them that servanthood is at the heart of leadership. How do you do it? You could do a Bible study on the subject, but you decide that you want your ‘interns’ to experience servanthood, not just hear about it.

Your first idea is that you give them a task to wash the senior pastor’s car. However, does this really accomplish the goal? Do they learn that leadership is serving others, or do they actually learn that becoming a leader means that you can get others to do things for you? If Jesus ran an internship programme, what would He do?

Fortunately Jesus takes the guesswork out of this. When he wanted to teach on servant leadership, he didn’t ask Peter to do a menial job, he did it himself. Jesus washed the disciples feet. Jesus didn’t just talk about servanthood, but demonstrated it. In fact, he first demonstrated it and then he talked about it.

Jesus said (paraphrased!): The gentiles lord it over their subjects i.e. they get people to wash their cars! But you must be different…

Servanthood must be caught before it is taught

If people work for us, do they get the feeling that they are working for us or that we are serving and releasing them? Do we teach others to be servants, but act like lords? “We teach what we know, but we reproduce what we are” (John Maxwell).

Enough is rarely enough

Some may object: “Yes, but they must know how much I’ve sacrificed to be here in this role. I’ve given up a good job, taken a paycut, work longer hours. Surely that should be enough.”

Jesus could have argued in the same way. “Look how much I’ve given up! I left heaven where I had angels at my beck and call, I’ve taken on a human body for eternity, I’ve lived in poverty and worked hard as a carpenter… surely I don’t still need to demonstrate servanthood. They must have got the message by now!”

Servanthood vs. Success

In the Christian world it can be difficult to find modern day examples of true servant leadership. How much popular Christian leaders of today can you think of that have a strong reputation for servant leadership? There are plenty of examples of successful leaders (those with large churches, big name ministries, powerful expressions of God’s power), but it is more difficult to think of up-to-date examples of servant leaders. Perhaps this indicates something. Perhaps being a servant leader won’t lead to success (in the terms that success is measured in this world), but it certainly won’t be missed by God. Our measure of success can easily become distorted. Perhaps Jesus wasn’t the most successful leader (with a ‘mere’ 120 gathered at the upper room), but he was certainly the most influential leader ever to walk the earth.

Leadership is Serving

We’ll all have a view of what makes a good leader e.g. someone who can make decisions, someone who’ll take charge, someone who inspires others. There are all sorts of definitions of leadership. But at the heart of Biblical leadership i.e. Jesus-style leadership, is the fact that leadership is serving. If we are not serving others, then we are not leading. However, it’s not as much doing everything for others (driving them here and there, washing their cars or feet etc.) as much as equipping them to serve. Ephesians 4:11-13 says it all:

”(Christ) is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.”?

Our leadership must be about building up and releasing others so that they can fulfil the work of the ministry. So when we lead others, we serve them by helping them to discover the potential that is within them and helping them to be able to function in that potential. Servant leadership is not being at other’s beck and call, but helping them to be all that God has called them to be and to do all that God has called them to do.

Leadership is Everyone’s Business

There’s a myth that says that only a few elite people are called to be leaders. This again is more like Jesus’ teaching about ‘lords’ than ‘leaders’. Kouzes and Posner (authors of the book ‘The Leadership Challenge’—one of the best books on leadership around) coined the phrase ‘Leadership is Everyone’s Business’, because of their belief that everyone has potential to be a leader. We all influence others. The question is more, what will be do with our influence. Our role as leaders is to serve others, and to help release them to their full potential. As we do that, we need to inspire them to do the same for others.

Kouzes & Posner get to the heart of leadership (from their book ‘The Leadership Challenge’):

“Leaders attract followers not because of their willful defiance but because of their deep respect for the aspirations of others.”

“Leadership myth tells us that it is lonely at the top. Not so. The most effective leaders we know are involved and in touch with those they lead. They care deeply about others, and they often refer to those with whom they work as family.”