The Zone Gathering

On a night that Jesus could have understandably been concerned only about himself, he picked up a towel and demonstrated in a powerful way what servant leadership really meant.

Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He now showed the disciples the full extent of his love. It was time for supper, and the Devil had already enticed Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to carry out his plan to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he had around him. (John 13:1-5)

I find this passage so interesting. Let’s look at it more closely. First, it says, “He now showed the disciples the full extent of his love.” Jesus’ small group consisted of 12 losers. That’s right. Losers. Stinky Galilean fisherman, a traitor of a tax collector, and wild-eyed government overthrowing zealot. But Jesus did not assume a position of top-down authority with these guys. Instead, he showed them the full extent of his love by serving them.

The full extent of Jesus’ love was the ability to serve these guys even in the midst of his own circumstances.

If we are in a position of leadership, then we must strive to have the same attitude as Christ and sacrificially pour out our love on our group members.

Look at the next part: “Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything…So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin.”

Jesus recognized his authority, and that recognition led him to serve.

If we are in a position of leadership, then we must understand that our authority is given to us in order to serve.

The idea of “leadership” is a relatively new concept in the church. It’s listed as one of the spiritual gifts and it is certainly recognized and described in the lives of many Bible characters. But it’s not always leadership in the sense we think of it today. Take Moses, for example. He was a great leader, right? We lift him up as a great model of leadership. We study and teach his organizational skills, his conflict navigation skills, his vision-casting skills, and even his communication skills (despite his slow start there at the beginning in Pharaoh’s palace). But if you read the Biblical text, you will find that God does not refer to Moses as “my leader” but as “my servant.” In fact, Moses is referred to as God’s “servant” around 40 times in the Old Testament.

Instead of calling ourselves NCC Leaders, perhaps we should refer to ourselves as NCC Servants.

Here’s the main point of today’s post. You lead a small group in order to serve the people in it. If you’ve got any other purpose for leading a group, then you need to think and pray through that purpose. In his book Spiritual Leadership, J. Oswald Sanders said, “True greatness, true leadership, is found in giving yourself in service to others, not in coaxing or inducing others to serve you.”

How can you serve the members of your group? Here are a few practical ways you can serve the people in your group:

Pray for them. Really pray for them. Don’t just tack on prayer as an after-thought at the end of the small group meeting. Tim Elzea and I have experimented with moving prayer to the beginning of our meeting. While this might not work well in groups that have not yet built a solid community, it might be worth trying out. Pray for the people in your group throughout the week.

Connect with them throughout the week. Ask them, “Is there anything I can do for you?” and mean it. Shoot them an email, send them a card, give them a call to let them know you are thinking about them. What happens between your group meetings is actually more important than what happens during your group meetings.

Ask God how you can serve them. God knows their needs, and since he has brought them under your care, he will give you wisdom and discernment. He can give you creative ideas of things to do for them or things to say to them that would serve them at the place of their greatest need.

Listen to them. Sometimes, the best service is a patient ear.

Be there in a crisis. We don’t have a lot of hospital visits or funerals around NCC. But when they happen, rally around those people with cards, meals, and prayer. Many of the crises we face are much smaller in scale. The Zempels and the Hills have had a “flex car” arrangement for several years. I don’t know when it began or who needed to borrow a car first, but basically our car is their car and their car is our car. And any parking places that might go along with it. Actually, all of the cars are God’s cars (and the parking places) and we have decided to steward them in a quasi-communal arrangement. I’ve lost track of how many times the Hills have protected us from parking tickets by letting us sneak into a parking place behind their house. And I’ve lost track of how many cheerios I’ve found on the floor of our car after they’ve used it to shuttle kids around while their car was in the shop. It’s a little thing. But because of that little thing, I know that I could completely rely on the Hill’s if/when a big thing comes along.

Mark 10:43-44 says, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”

Instead of asking “how can I lead my group better?,” perhaps we can ask “how can I serve my group better?”

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 10:56 am and is filed under Leadership Lessons, Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.