Leadership is service

A lot has been written about Christian leadership as servant leadership. This word servant is added to leadership to distinguish the kind of leadership that we mean. Jesus is rightly looked at as our model for servant leadership because of the humility and selflessness he embodied in his life, ministry, and supremely in his death on the cross. The word servant also helps us distinguish Christian leadership from the kind of leadership that is essentially self-promotion. Someone who takes power, prestige, and status only so that they can take more power, prestige, and status. This person is like the ruler of the Gentiles that Jesus warns his disciples against in the Gospels. They use their power to make themselves great at other people’s expense, while Jesus’ disciples are those who serve.  

While leadership can be, and sadly often is, used for personal gain and exploitation, the phrase servant leader offers a helpful reminder of what a Christian leader should be. The Bible offers an even closer marrying of the words servant and leader, which says that leadership is a form of service. To lead is to serve, and to be a leader is to offer service. Paul says as much in Romans 12, where he’s laying out how members of the church should use the various gifts they have been given in the service of the body. He says, "We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully" (Rom 12:6–8).

Many things could be said, but I want to note two. First, leadership is a gift on the list on equal footing with all the others. It’s not exceptional, better, or more necessary than any of the others. This should keep leaders humble, because while their gift may sometimes put them in a unique position, it is no more valuable than any other gift. In fact, I would go as far to say, a leader can’t lead, if they don’t have other gifted people around them. Second, and my overall point, leadership is simply another form of service used to build up the body of Christ. This is why as helpful as the adjective servant is in describing Christian leadership, it is somewhat redundant, because Paul would say if you are not serving the body, then you aren’t leading. Service under his definition is something you offer to others, because it is something you have to give. It’s giving money if you have money, teaching if you can teach, healing if you can heal, basically using whatever you have been given for the ultimate good of others. Leading is helping everyone else move forward, because you can. It’s lending whatever power, influence or position you may have to enrich the lives of others. It doesn’t take, it only gives. If authority is lent to a leader, the purpose is to benefit those who are doing the lending.

I think we get closer to the heart of what God intended leadership to be, and closer to how Jesus lead when we realize that Christian leadership isn’t some subcategory of the way leadership functions out in the world, but rather this is what leadership was always meant to be. Leadership in God’s world is always meant to be service, always meant to be for the good of those being lead. The Gospel doesn’t so much turn the world’s idea of leadership upside down, as put it right side up. When we follow Jesus and have the gift of leadership our task is to serve.