Building Your Leaders - Christianity Today

“An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest” (Luke 9:46).

It’s scary to realize that a dozen men could be in the company of Jesus day after day, listen to his teaching and watch his ways, and yet not get it.

Get what? That Jesus lived by a different politic: servanthood.

His slogan? “The Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28).

His followers grew up in a culture that understood only one politic: power. The power of kings and armies—brute force. The power of the religious community—pronouncing or denying God’s approval. The power of family, village, and tribal tradition—nailing people to mindless conformity to “the way we do things.”

These concepts of power were hardwired into the souls of the disciples. They were sensitized to locating sources of such power and submitting to it or using it for their advantage. They were used to exercising power if they found themselves in a position to do so.

Within the small movement of Christ-followers, it was natural for them to sort themselves out through competition and debate. Who of us is the most faithful? The most genuine? Who is the one to run things when Jesus is absent? Who should prevail when decisions are to be made? Who’s in charge?

These debates (and there was more than one) seemed to happen whenever Jesus talked about suffering, martyrdom, and resurrection. He spoke of suffering, and they preoccupied themselves with rights and privileges. Not much has changed, has it?

This “politic,” over which there was so much misunderstanding, is one of the great divides among human beings—to dominate, intimidate, control by power, or to win over people by serving them.

We talk much in the church today about serving. Do you ask yourself from time to time, “How much of it really happens?”

Jesus’ men had had enough of serving the Romans, the religious establishment, the rich. Yet the Son of God was asking them to adopt this servanthood perspective for new and different reasons. They apparently thought Jesus was their chance to break out: to become the power-brokers instead of being the “power-broken.”

Jesus’ brand of servanthood means that everyone (child, leper, Gentile, opposite gender, sinner) is more important than me. Servanthood means that all I have and all I am is placed at your disposal if it will bring you into the presence of God. Servanthood is not about how I add value to my life, but about how I add value to yours.

Jesus not only taught it, he did it. By leaving heaven, by becoming a man, by dying on a cross, by building into the lives of men and women. It took those dozen men a long time to figure out this counterintuitive conviction: serving changes the world; ruling does not.

And when they “got it,” history was never the same.

Gordon MacDonald is a senior fellow with Trinity Forum.

To Discuss

Pick an item from your current agenda, and ask, “How would a servant handle this issue differently from a ruler?”
If we think of ourselves as servants, who are we here to serve? What specifically can we do to serve them?
What servant skills are evident in our leadership team? What skills need to be further developed?

Which Position Next?

Case study: Determining your next hire.

The new, solo pastor and his church leaders watched their congregation grow in average Sunday morning attendance from 100 to 180. The pastor began to feel strained under the load. One pastor, working a few too many hours, can care for a church of 180. But additional staff is needed if the church is to grow.

The church leaders discussed at length their options: remain a one-pastor church, hire a part-time staff person, or hire a full-time person.

Money, as always, was tight. But finally the leaders decided that adding a full-time person was a risk but the best decision. Since every leadership position in the church, except the full-time pastor, was staffed with volunteers, the discussion now focused on which position the church most needed to fill.

What Would You Do?

Was the decision to go with a full-time person the right one?

What is the first step in working through this decision?

How does a church’s strengths and mission statement factor into the decision?

What Happened?

The church leaders considered several possible needs in the church: in worship, youth, small groups, Sunday Bible study classes, and counseling positions. The church leaders decided that the volunteer worship staff was doing a more than adequate job based on the fact that worship attendance was increasing and congregational comments were positive.

After much discussion the leaders decided that long-term program ministry and leadership development were crucial to the future life of the church.

They ultimately employed a full-time minister responsible for developing ministry programs throughout the church, and then enlisting, training and motivating adult, lay volunteers to fill leadership positions for each of those ministries.

—Roger Barrier

To Discuss

Given the limited information in the case study, what do you think was the philosophy behind the church’s decision?
How might two or more part-time, paid staff positions be more useful than one full-time paid minister? What are the potential cost savings?
How does our mission and/or vision statement help us in making effective staffing decisions?

—Dave Goetz Leadership Resources editor

From Building Church Leaders Quarterly, a series of tools to develop your leadership team. To subscribe, call 800-806-7796 or click on the link.