Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

Servant Leadership

brotherly community, love, humility, and servanthood at the very heart of Christ’s teaching. Unfortunately, like many of the early Christians, we have been slow to understand these great virtues and especially slow to apply them to church structure and leadership. Because love, humility, and servanthood are pivotal to authentic Christian leadership and the inner life of the Christian community, however, let us briefly survey our Master’s teaching on the subject. MATTHEW 11229: GENTLE AND HUMBLE. Contrasting Himself with the harsh, self-absorbed religious leaders of His day, Jesus called out to the people, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.” Through this significant statement, Jesus tells us who He is as a person: He is gentle and humble. Too many religious leaders, however, are not gentle nor are they humble. They are controlling and proud. They use people to satisfy their fat egos. But Jesus is refreshingly different. He truly loves people, selflessly serving and giving His life for them. He expects His followers—espe cially the elders who lead His people—to be humble and gentle like Himself. MARK 9:33-35: HUMBLE SERVANTS OF ALL. On the first recorded occasion when the disciples discussed which of them was the greatest, Jesus, the master teacher, answered their age-old question by means of this now-famous paradoxical statement: “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all.” Here Jesus begins to trans form His disciples’ thinking about personal greatness. He declares that true greatness is not achieved by striving for prominence over others or by grasping for power, but by exhibiting a humble, self—effacing attitude of service to all—even to the most lowly people. Charles Colson, who served as Special Counsel to the President of the United States from 1969 to 1973, knows from personal experience the magical enticement of power and high position. He skillfully de scribes the differences between the worldly view of power and posi tion and the Christian view: “Nothing distinguishes the kingdoms of man from the kingdom of God more than their diametrically opposed views of the exercise of power. One seeks to control people, the other to serve people; one promotes self, the other prostrates self; one seeks prestige and position, the other lifts up the lowly and despised.”3 Colson’s wise warning to Christian leaders bears repeating: “Power

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