“Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” –Mark 9:35
The concept of servant leadership is ubiquitous in contemporary church culture. It has become so conversationally commonplace that the radical nature of the concept is often lost.
Leadership is commonly thought of as giving direction. Conversely, servanthood is understood as following the direction of others.
In Philippians 2:5-11, we see how Jesus changes the way we understand these concepts as we relate to each other:
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus provides us with the most thorough—and thoroughly beautiful—understanding of what it means to be both a servant and a leader.
In verse 6 we see that Jesus (as God Himself incarnate) never used His positional authority (i.e., leadership) for His own benefit. Instead, He took on the nature of a servant (verse 7).
Notice Jesus does not relinquish His leadership when He takes on the role of a servant. As God, Jesus became obedient to death (verse 8). His obedience is not submission to the authority of others but to the actual needs of others.
In His leadership capacity, Jesus knows that the greatest need for humanity is a Savior to cleanse us from our sins. Jesus as a servant willingly died on the cross to atone for our sins—and therefore satisfy our deepest and most profound need.
How does this inform our ministries at InFaith?
Servant leadership means that the leader doesn’t seek to advantage himself through his leadership, but instead actually disadvantages himself for the advantage of others.