Utumishi Blog

Dick Lucas has this extraordinary way of putting things in such a straightforward, brotherly, commonsensical way that it’s only when you later think over what might have at first seemed almost a throwaway remark that you realise that it represents the tip of an iceberg of research and wisdom, that, if taken seriously, has devastating force. E.g.:

Training for Christian leadership is probably a false trail; Jesus taught his intimate disciples to Serve, and thereby they became the apostles we know. (emphasis original, Foreword to Dear Friends, 2013, p9)

The world is very keen on leadership training. How to manage, how to get noticed, how to get to the top, how to handle conflict to your advantage. Every week LinkedIn sends me a seductive digest of ‘life hacks’, ‘the 5 things Donald Trump doesn’t do, ‘the 3 boardroom secrets that nobody knows’ etc. etc. And in the Church we can copy that – slightly Christianize it with a few verses scattered around – but basically it’s the same stuff – ‘the 5 strategic steps to 360 degree perpendicular church growth leadership’. Because we still, at the end of the day, a) think that the world has all the best answers and b) deep down have an unreformed view of leadership – we still think of leadership as an attractive prospect of being at the top with the power and the impressive title and lots of people running around at our beck and call.

At the iServe induction workshop we returned to Matthew 20:20-28 and asked:

• How does the mother understand the Kingdom? Do we hear that understanding of the kingdom in our churches sometimes?
• Why were the ten other disciples indignant?
• What is the normal pattern of leadership among ‘the Gentiles’? How are status, power and position linked? How do we see this today in politics, in the corporate world, in the church, in the family?
• What is so radical about what Jesus says about leadership in the kingdom? What has happened to status, power and position?
• What sort of God do we have in Jesus?
• How is Jesus both our salvation and our example? Why do we need both?

Jesus turns everything upside down and then shakes it – destroying all our categories, all the connections we make between identity, authority and position. Gentile leadership models are given no place in his Church. “It shall not be so among you.” A theology of glory and an economy of power is replaced by a theology of the Cross and an economy of service.

Harrison has pointed out before how even the term “servant leadership” can become just another tool in the Gentile leadership toolbox. From at least the 1970s even the secular corporate world has realised that servant leadership works but, although some have tried to keep a pure focus on servanthood (and hopefully in another post we can interact with Robert Greenleaf’s work on servant leadership), often it has become simply another management strategy; another means to an end. So we are aspiring leaders first and servants as an optional pragmatic second.

A biblical servant leader, in contrast, has the servant bit in bold type not the leader bit. The core identity is ‘servant’ – like all God’s people. Like God himself in fact (amazingly). ‘Servant’ does not qualify ‘leader’, rather ‘leader’ qualifies ‘servant’. And the way to train in servant leadership is (to come back to Dick Lucas and to Matt. 20) not to aim at leadership but at service.

Even the Son of man came… to serve

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On the subject… iServe Africa is still seeking funds to purchase some land on which to establish a Leadership Centre (maybe we should call it a ‘Service Centre’ (but that sounds like the place you’d return a faulty appliance or have a car repaired)). Time is running out for this appeal so if you have a heart for seeing fresh graduates and others trained in the gospel, gospel ministry and biblical servant leadership please contact the office to find out how you can partner with the project. And here’s a video about it: