Leaders are servants. It’s counter-intuitive. It may be unlike the leadership you’ve experienced in the marketplace…or even the church for that matter. But biblical leaders are servant-leaders.

“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers–not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (I Peter 5:2-3).

It’s interesting that of all the roles outside the church, God chose the shepherd to be the model of leadership within the church. When you think business titan or political leader, you probably don’t think shepherd. God’s way is different, though. He wants leaders who are ready to serve. He wants people who will not lord their leadership powers over those entrusted to their care.

Jesus, of course, was the perfect example of embracing and championing this servant-leader approach. Here’s what he had to share:

“Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave–just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’”(Matthew 20:25-28).

Clearly Jesus is teaching a distinction between an authoritative style of leadership and leadership that is focused on serving others. You wouldn’t typically think leaders are first servers, but that’s how Jesus designed it.

Most of what makes a servant-leader is our attitude towards ourselves and others. Paul explained it like this:

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4).

The key is the attitude of humility. Rather than focusing on our ambitions and our own interests, Paul suggests we need to also focus on the interests of others. Here’s what I know about the interests of others: they’re sometimes different than mine. It takes a confident yet humble leader to follow God’s calling in his or her own life while also considering the interests of others around them. We have to live in that tension in order to experience God’s design for the church. That’s how we accomplish his purposes.

So, here are some questions you may want to consider about your leadership:

• When people consider who I am as a leader, do they think “servant” first?
• Do I lord over those in my care?
• Am I pursuing my ambitions, or do I consider the interests of others?
• How would those people I lead respond to these questions?

I hope you’ll join me in wrestling through these passages and these questions. The Church needs a new kind of leader. That’s the way God designed it. And that’s what he demands of those who are called to lead others. This isn’t just a model for church leadership. This is a model for how we are to interact with people all around us.

Are you a servant-leader?

Other Posts in This Series:

• Part 1 – Overview

Over the last number of weeks, I’ve been diving into the Scriptures to better understand a biblical perspective on leadership. Over the next several days, I plan on sharing what I’m learning. I want to challenge you to do the same. Today, I’m going to take the opportunity to explain why.

First of all, I believe that leadership is a gift. It’s among the list of spiritual gifts listed in Scripture. “If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously” (Romans 12:8). Now with that, the Bible says, “God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well” (Romans 12:6). That suggests that some people have leadership abilities, but others don’t. We are all followers, but not all of us are leaders. I think we all can learn some some leadership skills, but not all of us are gifted to be leaders. One of the first questions you may want to ask yourself is this: Am I really a leader?

I also believe that God has designed the Church to have clear leadership roles and structure. For example, “the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.” (Ephesians 4:11). These are specific roles God designed for ministry. Then in passages like I Timothy 3, we see defined leadership roles of elders and deacons. We are also called to respect the leadership structure God puts in place. “Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God” (Hebrews 13:17).

Now, here’s why I think we need to all wrestle with our theology of leadership. God has gifted some to be leaders. God has defined leadership roles in the church. But, God has also expressly defined for us how leaders are supposed to act. Frankly, sometimes I see a gap between God’s design for leadership and how we (including I) live out our leadership roles.

There’s this warning in the Bible to commit ourselves to the instructions of God’s Word rather than the traditions of man. (See Mark 7:8-9.) I’ve heard some press on the fact that we tend in the modern church to look too closely to marketplace leadership for cues to how we should lead in the church. That’s probably a fair argument. Not all successful leadership is biblical leadership. However, I do see business leaders using leadership principles taught in Scripture whether they know it or not.

The bottom line, however, is that we can learn from business leaders, but they should not be the anchor for how we lead. We can also learn from fellow church leaders, but they are also human and don’t necessarily provide a perfect model for biblical leadership. When we look to other leaders, we are essentially holding on to our traditions, rather than embracing the truth about leadership found in God’s Word. That needs to become our filter for truth. Just because we see other leaders doing it, doesn’t mean that’s how God designed it.

So, I ask you: What’s your theology of leadership? If you’re like me, it’ll continually be shifting in some respects as you come to a clearer understanding of God’s Word and how it applies to your life. You are not becoming the leader God designed you to be, however, if you are only learning about leadership from the books you read and the people you watch and your experiences along the way.

We need to wrestle with this issue and try to understand how God defines leadership. I hope you’ll join me on this journey to discover these answers together.