Doing Life in an Attitude of Servantship
Servantship. It is an idea I have been trying to get into. The reason for this is that so much of what has shaped our pastoral imagination is a style of leading that is more influenced by culture than by Scripture. We all know Jesus talked about servantship, he even modeled it, but we opt for leadership instead of servantship. In fact, we try to have it both ways -- we want to lead, but we ought to be servants at it, so we talk about servant leadership. The problem with this is that leadership is still the primary focus and servant is merely an adjective to describe our leadership.
However, what Jesus demonstrated was not servant leadership, but rather just servantship. So why is it so hard for us as pastors to get our lives around this? Could it be down deep we really want to lead, to shape things in ways which have our mark on them? Our attitudes it seems are more shaped by leadership than servantship.
As pastors we have made leadership the primary gift -- and so have the churches we serve. But where leadership is listed in Romans 12: 6-8, it is listed as the sixth gift out of seven. Though it is a vital gift in the life of the church, and if we give any credence to priority of listing, it does not seem to be as primary as we have made it to be.
Rather, if we give heed to Jesus, we soon discover that we are to exhibit an attitude of servantship in all that we do. We are not to lead lording it over others, but if we do lead, or serve, or show mercy, or give generously, we are to do it in an attitude of servantship. Our life and ministry is to exude servantship -- that is our primary calling which Jesus exemplified when he washed his disciples' feet (see John 13).
My hunch is this: If we take the time to understand what servantship entails, we will come to a deeper understanding of what we are being called to in the life and ministry of the church, than by reading all the books on leadership. By our preoccupation on leadership, we have neglected that which we are called to in the world: servantship.
Perhaps it is time we put the same energy into exploring servantship as we have leadership over the past 25 years.
I know I am a bit preachy today, but I am getting tired of our continually focusing on and giving primacy to what is so opposite to what Jesus calls us to.
However, what Jesus demonstrated was not servant leadership, but rather just servantship. So why is it so hard for us as pastors to get our lives around this? Could it be down deep we really want to lead, to shape things in ways which have our mark on them? Our attitudes it seems are more shaped by leadership than servantship.
As pastors we have made leadership the primary gift -- and so have the churches we serve. But where leadership is listed in Romans 12: 6-8, it is listed as the sixth gift out of seven. Though it is a vital gift in the life of the church, and if we give any credence to priority of listing, it does not seem to be as primary as we have made it to be.
Rather, if we give heed to Jesus, we soon discover that we are to exhibit an attitude of servantship in all that we do. We are not to lead lording it over others, but if we do lead, or serve, or show mercy, or give generously, we are to do it in an attitude of servantship. Our life and ministry is to exude servantship -- that is our primary calling which Jesus exemplified when he washed his disciples' feet (see John 13).
My hunch is this: If we take the time to understand what servantship entails, we will come to a deeper understanding of what we are being called to in the life and ministry of the church, than by reading all the books on leadership. By our preoccupation on leadership, we have neglected that which we are called to in the world: servantship.
Perhaps it is time we put the same energy into exploring servantship as we have leadership over the past 25 years.
I know I am a bit preachy today, but I am getting tired of our continually focusing on and giving primacy to what is so opposite to what Jesus calls us to.
posted by Roland G. Kuhl at 4:38 PM
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