Servant Leadership

“Not so with you.  Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Matthew 20:26-27

In the Bible, Jesus clearly taught the principle of servant leadership, and that the person who wants to lead must first be a servant of others.  This is precisely how God designed humans to lead one another for the benefit of all.  Of course, the world views this much differently and often those who pursue leadership want to have the power to do what they want or believe is best.  Just look at the 2016 American Presidential race that is now underway.  How many candidates would we say are servant leaders? Not many, I suspect. And unfortunately, we will get what we vote for!

I would like to share a true story from a few hundred years ago.  There were a group of soldiers responsible for a cannon on wheels. On one particular day, it had been raining and the ground was very muddy.  Eventually the cannon got stuck in the mud. The Sergeant of the group rode on a horse and barked out instructions to the soldiers on how to get the cannon out of the mud, but to no avail. No matter how hard they pushed or pulled they could not get the cannon unstuck. Then a General came along and asked what the problem was.  The Sergeant said the cannon was stuck and his men could not get it out of the mud.  The General asked the Sergeant, “why don’t you get down and help them and maybe together you can get it out of the mud.” The Sergeant replied, “I am the Sergeant and they are the soldiers. It’s not my job to do that.  Besides, I might get my uniform dirty.” At this, the General got off of his horse and helped the men move the cannon out of the mud. That General was George Washington, the first President of the United States!

You see, George Washington understood what servant leadership was.  That’s what made him such a great leader!  It was not sitting high on his horse and telling others what to do. Rather, it was getting down in the mud and working together with his followers so that problems can be solved and goals can be reached. Effective leadership is when the leader humbles himself and seeks to support his followers, and not make demands of them.

A more current example came from a friend of mine from Indonesia, who recently sent me this story about President Jokowi of Indonesia. “On the 18th of June 2015, he invited 400 orphans to the presidential palace for a breaking of fast occasion. What was really touching and endearing is the fact that during the occasion, President Jokowi lined up for his food just like the orphans!! There was no special table for him or his Ministers, nor did they have any special food!! I could not help but be full of admiration for this great man and leader. How many people of his stature would do such a thing? How many would even contemplate inviting orphans to their breaking fast occasion!! Even if he had food served to him on a special table with lavish decorations, culturally we would have accepted it. But he personifies this concept of servant leadership i.e. he insisted on doing what his followers were doing and demonstrated that although he was their leader, he was full of humility.”  President Jokowi also understands servant leadership, and his nation will undoubtedly be blessed because of it.

The world needs more servant leaders. We need them in government.  We need them in business.  And we need them in our churches. When leaders lead according to Biblical principles, as humble servants, the people will be blessed. But when leaders lead for their own glory and purposes, the people are harmed in the process.

So let us pray for all leaders and for them to lead as servants. And let us nominate, appoint, and elect only those leaders who will demonstrate servant leadership!