You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.
Servant Leadership
Max DePree
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.
Leadership Resolutions
Believe it or not, we’ve arrived at the end of another calendar year and the beginning of resolution season. Personally, I believe that we should resolve to be better and live more committed lives daily not just annually, but I can’t resist the call to be reflective at year’s end. There is something about section of time when one year ends and another begins, that moves people to think of starting anew. Truthfully, most of the resolutions that are made in the next several days will be forgotten in a month’s time, but that fact doesn’t at all diminish most people from announcing resolutions. Leaders are no different. As the curtain closes on the year 2010, and rises on 2011, here are a few resolutions that I believe would be beneficial for all leaders, and especially those that lead in churches.
1. Resolve to live balanced lives.
Leaders, in the same or greater proportion as the rest of the world, are typically living out of balance. Too much work, not enough rest. All worship, no serious study. Spend, spend, spend; not enough saving. Eat too much, exercise too little. Too task-oriented, not enough attention to relationships. Let’s be honest, balance takes work. It is a lot easier to lean to our areas of perceived strength or comfort, rather than to work to grow in the areas of our weakness. Some management philosophies, such as “staff to your weakness”, empower the notion to continue in our strengths rather than striving for relative balance in all areas. Some leaders have gone so long without any course correction, that they have developed blind spots to just how out of balance they are.
As leaders, we should strive to live balanced lives. Leaders should, at least annually, partake in some sort of assessment that will highlight where we need to improve. Ask others their opinions, seek counsel with denominational or business leadership. Leaders need to work towards balance in every area of life, not just in the office or boardroom. Family, health, and relationship with God cannot suffer for the sake of “leadership” excellence. Truthfully, the unbalanced leader exhibits little overall excellence.
2. Resolve to continue to learn and develop.
A disciple is, by definition, a lifelong learner. Leaders should never tire of learning, developing, and growing. Finished with formal education? Audit a course. Ready to write a book? That doesn’t mean that you can stop reading them yourself. Set some reading, learning, and professional development goals for yourself in the coming year. I believe that one of the issues with the church in America is that most of its believe that they are above being taught. Make strides to ensure that you are not counted among that number. Many leaders complain that those they lead don’t want to learn, or think that they know it all…make sure that they aren’t learning those habits from you. A wise person once told me that when a leader stops growing, those they lead stop growing.
3. Resolve to be counted among the servants, not the served.
Jesus, in Matthew 23, admonished the Pharisees for desiring Moses’ seat at tables of honor. The rulers of the synagogue, the ecclesiastical leaders of the time, perceived themselves to be those who deserved to be served due to their title and position. Sadly, there is a trend in contemporary Christianity that implies that clergy leaders are a different class of Christian. This class of leader deserves the service and adoration of those they lead. This line of clergy worship couldn’t stray further from the ministry of Christ. This year, let us all resolve to serve, rather than be served. If you don’t already, esteem others higher than yourself. Recognize that the cincture that girds the waist of a cassock represents the servant’s role of the minister. A minister is, by definition, a servant. To be called servant was good enough for Jesus, and for centuries it was good enough for those called to lead within the church. Now we have the proliferation of titles such as bishop, elder, overseer, and even apostle. Whatever your title, resolve, that in the new year, you will be known by the name…servant.
4. Resolve not to compromise integrity for the sake of growth.
Recently, I listened to John Piper preach a sermon, in which he admonished a group of leaders not to sell the gospel. By this he meant that they should not compromise the integrity of the gospel message for the sake of crowds or cheap growth. Believe it or not, we do not get to determine, as leaders, when growth occurs. We do not control growth. God gives the increase. The Lord prepares the harvest. What a leader does control, is whether all the elements of healthy environments for growth are present. We get to ensure the integrity of the soil and the seed planted. We get to be faithful in our nurture of the seed. But the increase, the growth, is in God’s control. In the coming year, allow the discernment of the Spirit of God to reign. Say no to shortcuts that undermine the truth that is in the gospel message. Don’t follow the crowds into the use of the latest ministry techniques that promise to grow your attendance. Expose heresy, by shedding light upon it. The lines of one of my favorite hymns gives us a lead…”How to reach the masses? Men of every birth. For an answer, Jesus gave the key. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Lift him up!” Lift Jesus up…still he speaks from eternity!
Above all else, I pray that we all, in this coming year, continue to grow in the grace, peace, knowledge, and likeness of our Lord. Stay blessed.
The Decade of Service
The second decade of the twenty-first century has officially begun. What a wonder it would be if, a decade from now, we looked back upon the next ten years as the “decade of service”. We, individual believers in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord as well as the Church catholic, have an opportunity to show that the previous decades of me-ism and decadent opulence within Western Christianity were an anomaly. We have an opportunity to return the servant and service to others first dynamic that has been a hallmark of the Church for centuries.
Listen, I am not naive enough to believe that the history of the Church hasn’t before been marred by TBN style self-indulgence, or that similar forays into prosperity focused gospel ramblings will not occur in the future. What I am saying is that the overwhelming intrusion of such teachings into the mainstream of the Church in recent history is alarming, and the tide must be stemmed.
Is the gospel message inward-focused? No. Is the gospel me-focused? No. The gospel calls me to deny my desires in order to be used to fulfill God’s ultimate desire, the redemption of his creation. The gospel compels me to think of myself after I have considered the needs of those around me, to love (actively) whenever the opportunity avails itself. Our Lord Jesus was the penultimate example of a servant and leader in action. We are called Christians because of our desire to emulate his faith and actions, and fulfill his mission. If these statements are true, and I believe them to be, then we should move to make ourselves stellar examples of what it means to “serve and not be served.”
Not Really Seeing a Lot of Servants in Ministry
I’ve pretty much sworn off of “Christian” television. The various networks seemed to be filled with individuals and couples alike, bent on flaunting varying forms of selfishness, self-exaltation, and idolatry. The little doctrinally sound or orthodox ministry that is televised is far outweighed by the fluff and heresy that appears. Where is the widespread outrage from ministers and ministries that believe that orthodoxy has died a slow death on television and in local church ministry? Where are the servants?
I’m in the process of writing my doctoral dissertation that seeks to address the dearth of servants, and in particular servant leaders, in the local church. My passion for this topic stems from the steady decline of servants in ministry leadership that I have watched occur over nearly twenty years in local church ministry leadership. We, the Church, have reached the point where the drought of servants in ministry leadership must decline or the fulfillment of our mission is in extreme jeopardy. Let me explain that last statement a bit more…God’s use of us in the fulfillment of his mission is in extreme jeopardy. I have no doubt that God’s will be done and his mission in the earth fulfilled, with or without us.
I just needed to rant for a moment about what I’m seeing in the local church and in the Church worldwide. Where are the servants? Where are those who serve because it needs to be done, not so that they can make a name for themselves? Where are those who served regardless of who sees, without a banner or camera present? I know that there are some out there, my fear is that there are far too few? What do you think?