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I love servant leaders! It has become a lifetime goal of me to be the very best servant leader I can possibly be. Over the course of my 15 (almost 16) short years of full-time vocational pastor I have met many leaders who are self-serving and unfortunately many of them lead nationally known ministries or even worst, they pastor churches. (a bit of a rant there - sorry)
But I love it when I meet men and women who are peak performers and they are servant leaders. They realize that leadership is a gift from God and is not to be lorded over those they lead.
Why am I ranting today? I heard of yet another pastor of a mega-church (that is growing) who is a self-serving leader and I guess it brought back some bad memories and some personal pain. What I mean by this is that people are treated as a means to an end and it is sad but true that they wind up running over the very people they should be serving. Please know that God can work through leaders like this - he works in spite of them.
How do I know this? This was me at one point in my ministry. This is a very regretful and sad part of the history of my ministry. In fact, if I have ever hurt you as a result of my self-serving leadership style, please let me know and I would love to apologize and learn how I might serve you. (I'm not kidding.)
Self-serving leaders worry more about how things look (and how they reflect personally on them) than they do the people they lead. They say things like: "That won't look very good [on me]."
Think of it this way: Jesus discipled 12 men and they continually let him down and were a poor reflection on him. They were fraught with problems and often did things that would embarass any leader. Yet, Jesus continued loving them and discipling them. I don't always serve like Jesus did, but I can tell you that it is my goal.
Why do I sound so angry today? (a friend held me accountable on this post so you are now reading version 2.0 - thanks!) I'm just wandering if you have you ever been mistreated/abused by a church or ministry? You should never be mistreated; not in marriage, not where you work, and ESPECIALLY not at church.
I am thankful that I am in an environment where servant leadership is valued, taught, and modeled. It has been a great time of healing for me personally as well as my family and now I am extremely motivated to be a servant leader.
Am I a servant leader? I can only imagine that there are people who believe I am a self-serving leader and they are probably right. I will forever be struggling to be the kind of servant leader Jesus wants me to be. In fact, servant leaders value feedback, so I would love to hear from you how I am doing - and please tell me! I promise to listen, apologize if need be, and learn from my mistakes. If I don't, then I don't deserve to lead.
I must confess that I have had a tough weekend and some painful memories were resurrected. I want to be an encouragement to folks and I hope maybe something in the post challenged you to be a servant leader. If you believe in prayer, would you say one for me today? Tye out.
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 NIV
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