For the next three weeks, we will be bringing you Thursday Leadership Lesson: The Greatest Hits! We’ve been writing these for almost two years, and it’s really amazing to see the wealth of information that our zone leaders have pumped out. Today, we bring you Servant Shepherd, written by Nathan Gonzales and first printed on November 10, 2005. In my opinion, this is one of the best leadership lessons that has ever been written.
We continue our Thursday Leadership Lessons just a handful of pages in the Bible from Sarah’s Drill from yesterday.
In I Peter 5:2-3, we read the apostle’s charge to potential leaders in the body of Christ:
Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers, not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
I must admit that this passage is the focus of Chapter Seven of one of my favorite books, Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders. If you are looking for something to read that will challenge, convict, and inspire you, please consider this book.
VERSE 2
First, the concept of being “shepherds of God’s flock” is staggering if you stop to think about it. This is literally an awesome responsibility. As shepherds, our responsibility is to not only watch over the flock, but to make sure they are properly fed and cared for.
Sanders points to the story in John 21:15-19, where Jesus repeatedly commands Peter to “feed my lambs” or “take care of my sheep” or “feed my sheep.” When Jesus asked Peter whether he loved him, He didn’t just want Peter to say the words. Jesus commanded action, and tending His flock was his request.
Myself included, I think sometimes we take our positions of leadership too lightly. We are responsible to care for others and shepherd them in their walk with God. In our role as a shepherd, how concerned are we when someone doesn’t show up a couple weeks in a row or they slip away from the rest of the flock? I’m sometimes guilty of firing off an email or two and leaving it at that.
Of course we are not perfect, but we should never use our inadequacy as an excuse. According to Sanders, “Nobody is worthy of such trust. Let us not pass the buck of leadership because we think ourselves incapable.”
Next, Peter deals with a leader’s motivation. Sanders writes, “The spiritual leader is to approach the work willingly, not by coercion. Nor should leaders serve from a sense of mere duty, but because of love.”
I wholeheartedly agree with Peter and Sanders on this one. If you are leading out of guilt or obligation, I say stop. Get out of leadership altogether or at least move to another ministry that you care about. (I may get in trouble for this later, but hey, Heather Z. and the staff are out of town!)
This is one of my core convictions. We need people with passionate visions. People can tell when a leader is authentic or not. People can tell whether you really care about what you are doing or care about the people around you. Enthusiasm is contagious, but so is mediocrity and superficiality.
VERSE 3
“The Christian leader must not be dictatorial,” writes Sanders on the concept of “not lording it over those entrusted to you.” Sometimes I think we lose focus on what it really means to be a leader. Jesus said, in Mark 10:43-44, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”
We don’t really serve people by telling them what we think they need to hear. We serve people by knowing and understanding them and subsequently meeting their spiritual needs.
Maybe we should be called Small Group Servants instead of Small Group Leaders. Attend Servanthood Summits instead of Leadership Summits. In this case, redefining terms may help us readjust our focus. The best example of leadership in the Bible is through service and action, exemplified by Jesus.
Paul’s advice to Timothy was, “But set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity” (I Timothy 4:12). This ties in with Heather Z.’s challenge to us to “be a leader worth following.” In the ONE vision, we must first be a disciple ourselves, before we can make a disciple. Going back to the GodSpace lesson, how can we lead someone somewhere we’ve never been?
We must be eager to serve people first and lead people second.
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