His job was to wash the dishes, but he did it with such love and devotion to Christ that people have talked about it for over a thousand years. Brother Lawrence was a poor monk who had the worst job in the monastery. You never know the impact it may have on someone else. We may not have the skills, and we may need to ask for help, but we shouldn’t just push it off on someone else. I have made it a practice not to ask anyone to do something I am unwilling to do. When we are called to some perform a task, we will not respond positively if we think that task is beneath us. God offers us many opportunities to be servant leaders, but first we must be willing to commit to that life.Īlong the same lines as “willingness to respond” is “humility”. Scripture also records a few who walked away like the rich young man we read about last week. Scripture notes a few that responded reluctantly like Moses who complained he did not speak well and Jeremiah who complained he was young, but both eventually took up the task to which they were called. The apostles responded when Jesus said follow me. Jesus responded and was willing to take on human flesh. I would name the first as “willingness to respond.” Mary responded to the angel who called her to be the mother of Jesus. I think we can find all of these characteristics in Jesus and many in the apostles, but I would like to look at some specific examples in scripture and see how they might apply to us.
I found a list of Ten Principles of Servant Leadership : Listening, Empathy, Healing, Awareness, Persuasion, Conceptualization, Foresight, Stewardship, Commitment to the Growth of People, and Building Community. (Chris Huff published the list on his website, but they are derived from Greenleaf’s writings). He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free”… (Luke 14: 18, quoting Isaiah 61:1) Luke describes how Jesus claimed that role when he read in the synagogue from Isaiah 61, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me he has sent me to bring good news poor. He will not cry or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench … (Isaiah 42 1:-3) and he goes on for several more verses. I have put my spirit upon him he will bring forth justice to the nations. Isaiah, very contrary to most notions of the Messiah, speaks for God when he states in chapter 42, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, My chosen, in whom my soul delights. The notion of servant leadership actually pre-dates Jesus, but Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophesy. One of Jesus’ goals during his walk with us on earth was to put in motion the upending of that system because it was a system which more times than not lead to tyranny by those at the top toward those at the bottom. The government was top down from Caesar, religion was top down from the high priest, family was top down from the patriarch, the oldest male member of the family, finance was built on patronage, politics by primogeniture. In Jesus’ world most of life was top-down management. Blanchard, who is very open about his Christian affiliation begins by quoting Jesus, which is where I believe we must start. In 2003, Ken Blanchard, the American business management guru wrote The Servant Leader, with Phil Hodges. In that pamphlet, Greenleaf attributes his epiphany to a story by the German poet Hermann Hesse, but I don’t think either Wikipedia or Greenleaf have looked back far enough. Greenleaf is the founder of the servant leadership philosophy, probably because he wrote the pamphlet “The Servant as Leader” in 1970 which caused an awakening in the business world. “…whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant…” – Jesus (Mark 10:43)
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