Becoming Servant Leaders
by Parrish W. Jones, Ph.D.
©2005. All rights reserved.

 

John 13:1-11

  I begin today a series of sermons on becoming servant leaders, a topic I consider to be fundamental to who we are as disciples of Jesus and members of his body, the church. You may have seen the book by Robert Greenleaf entitled Servant Leadership in which he discusses the notion as it applies to the corporate world. Before he published his book, a church in a small corner of Washington, DC had crafted an understanding of this title for the focus of their ministry. The Church of the Savior began in 1948 and developed the belief that all members of the church should be in the process of becoming servant leaders.

The concept is quite simple and rises out of the language of scripture and from texts like the one we read for the Gospel this morning. Greenleaf believed that in the corporate world, a true leader leads best through service not only to the corporate board, but to employees, customers, and the community.

       In the church this notion should be second nature. In his last moments with his disciples, Jesus took the posture of a household servant and showed his humility by washing the feet of his disciples. Then he said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

The language here seems contradictory. How do servants receive blessing? As the youth musical of a couple of weeks ago pointed out, Jesus seems to get it backwards.

The world tells us that we should indulge ourselves and get whatever we want whether we need it or not or whether its good for us or not. The world also suggests that humility is a bad thing. Who seems to be the big winners in our culture—those who promote themselves? Yes! Who seems to be the most popular—those who wear the newest and coolest clothes? Yes! Who gets anywhere by humbly serving others—nobody? Right!

Yet, Jesus calls us to service. Jesus leads us to sacrifice. But Jesus does not lead us to self-defacement. In serving, he teaches, we become fully human. We find ourselves in those whom we serve and most importantly in God.

In Matthew 23:1-12 Jesus tells us not to seek out places of prominence as most people do nor should we give titles of honor because the greatest among us will be servants because, as he puts it, “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” (v.12). There is a clear disconnect here with our culture, isn’t there?

Our culture tells us to seek position, prestige, success, and honor along with reputation and wealth. Our culture tells us the sign of wealth is what you have: houses, cars, clothes, and looks among other things. Women are assaulted with the image of appearance whenever they walk in a convenience store or approach the check out counter of a grocery store. Media portray only high prestige men as successes and worthy of serious character. Its hard to find a blue collar man who is taken seriously in the media. Even failing actors like Joey Trigiano from Friends and now his own show have all the accoutrements of financial success.

With few exceptions service is not lifted up as a character trait worthy of consideration in the media. Nor do we hear politicians running for office or in public forums giving serious voice to the notion of being a public servant.

This cultural stance is the most subtle and subversive form of persecution. The culture suggests to us that a basic identifying mark of our faith is of no value. It is not an obvious attack. But it shows just how subversively our culture seeks to undermine our faith, to divert us from being a disciple. In his book Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis has the student of the devil seek out a subtle means to get the subject to stray from the gospel. The subtle means could be getting the subject to commit him or herself to a cause that the subject would then make central to being Christian to the extent that all the rest of the faith and, of course, faithful discipleship would be forgotten. The point is to subversively lead the subject into spiritual bankruptcy.

Few of us expect persecution to be subtle. We expect it to be obvious. However, in the Western world it is always subtle and subversive. and leads to spiritual bankruptcy.

Jesus tells us that we should expect to be persecute because a servant is not greater than her or his master. (John 15:19-21). If Jesus was persecuted, we should expect persecution. We should expect our faith to be under attack.

Not withstanding the railings of some regarding sex, drugs and rock and roll, such temptations are too obvious. We can deal with them. It’s those things that become the myth of the culture that threaten us most, such as the myth that violence can and does succeed in reducing and ending violence in direct contradiction of scripture which teaches us that violence will only lead to violence. Or, there is the myth of scarcity that says there is not enough when the only reason some have too little is that a few hoard too much.

Jesus teaches that the way to spiritual abundance is through following his life of service. Being a servant does not mean that life will all be dark and dim, because the servant is blessed in ways that the world cannot comprehend. The servant is blessed with true community and family. The servant is blessed with a growing closeness to the source of life—God. As we serve we are nurtured by those whom we serve and receive blessing in those relationships.

I believe this is the value of one of the disciplines of Servant Leadership, namely, being with the poor in some concrete way that makes it possible for one to intimately know poor persons and to learn that abundant life can be lived by those we call poor. We will talk about that more in a few weeks.

What often scares people when first hearing about this notion is not just the notion of sacrifice. Many are scared by the term “leader”. People have often told me that they are not leaders. Just ask me to fix something, prepare a meal, sit with children, and the like. Give me a practical thing to do, just don’t ask me to stand up in front of people in church or to teach. Such is the image of leader.

That is not the concept we want to nurture. Many people are leaders not because of what they say, but because of what they do. In my church in Windber one of the true spiritual matriarchs was a woman who never served as a deacon or elder, never led a Bible study, never held office in the Women of the Church. She attended many of the meetings of the church and its worship. However, what she was known for by several generations was that she faithfully kept the nursery. She took care of children so Mom’s and Dad’s could go to worship and Sunday School.

She was often asked if she did not want a break, to have a few weeks off. She always said no. When asked why she did it, she always replied, “This is the gift God gave me. It is my mission, my vocation.” Sadly, we do not honor those who care for our children in the nursery or in day care centers very much as is the case also with our child educators in our schools. That is, if the amount we are willing to pay those who serve in those ways is any indication, we hold them in low regard.

No matter, what Mrs. DeLisa did at First Presbyterian Church in Windber was leadership. She had found her call and lived it faithfully and generations of parents and children were blessed by her gentle and kind care of the children that included songs and stories about God that very young children first heard from her.

The point of calling people Servant Leaders is not to honor anyone above another but to honor the special gifts God has given to each for the building of the body of Christ through the proclamation of the Gospel. That is what Jesus calls us to. That is the example he gave to us. May we be faithful to him as servant leaders in his church.