RIGHT OR WRONG? The ‘servant leadership’ model

Posted: 8/04/06

RIGHT OR WRONG?
The 'servant leadership' model

I’m hearing more about servant leadership as a model for pastoral leadership. As I understand the terms pastor/elder/overseer in the New Testament, servant leadership just doesn’t seem to be an appropriate pastoral leadership model. Are we simply picking up some cultural model and imposing it on our churches?

Scan the pages of your New International or King James version of the Bible, and I guarantee you will not find the phrase “servant leadership” in the midst of those 66 books. Many attribute the term to Robert Greenleaf and his 1977 book by that title, which advocated for a new kind of leadership “that contains such virtues as growth, responsibility and love.”

Does this mean the concept adopted by many church leaders is nonbiblical? While Greenleaf may have popularized the catchphrase “servant leadership,” he certainly was not the first to advocate leadership that encouraged leading with an ethic of love and service rather than through domination or fear.

Jesus, had some strong words for followers who wanted positions of authority or leadership. “You know that those who are regarded as 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 slave of all” (Mark 10:41-44). In a characteristic kingdom redefinition, leadership becomes not the exercise of authority or power, but the willingness to serve. In this twist of expected meanings, the one who rules is the one who serves (Luke 22:27).

Jesus went beyond providing words. He provided a specific example of what leadership should look like. He tells James and John, “Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). And just in case we are not quite sure what this “servant leadership” looks like, Jesus offers an example in John 13, when he, their teacher and Lord, takes the place of the servant in washing the disciples’ feet.

As incidents abound where pastors use position or intimidation to control, we must look once again to Jesus’ example when seeking to provide leadership within a church. But these incidents should not be cause for running from opportunities to lead through service to one another. In Romans 12, we are reminded that the one who is gifted to lead must do so diligently (Romans 12:8), but even this encouragement for leaders is followed by the instruction to be devoted to one another in love and to honor others above oneself (Romans 12:10).

If Jesus modeled servant leadership for his disciples, perhaps the question is not whether this is an appropriate model for pastoral leadership, but whether the world has adopted the term “servant” and given it a different meaning from the one Jesus modeled. We shouldn’t be surprised when those outside the church discover that care rather than intimidation leads to greater influence. Neither should we reject Jesus’ example regarding leadership simply because the term “servant leadership” has taken on meaning outside of the way in which Jesus first modeled it.

Instead, let us set an example for believers and nonbelievers alike of a leadership that truly models service and is a specific reflection of our Lord, who also came to serve.

Emily Row, Team Leader/Coordinator Leader

Communications/Spiritual Formation Specialist

Baptist General Convention of Texas

Dallas

Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to btillman@hsutx.edu.