Servant Leadership is God’s Idea

Myriads of leadership definitions, styles, and models can be found in the modern world. Some of them are quite situational and specific, while others are far more generic with broader applications. Certainly examples of “good” and “bad” leaders with their predominating style could be appealed to for arguing for the superiority or inferiority of one to another. Often these opinions hail from humanistic, psychological, and/or philosophical perspectives. I personally wonder what God’s view of leadership consists of. Because there is a perennial necessity for leadership in all facets of society and on every level of any organization, God must have addressed, emphasized, and prescribed it. My assumption is that any divine contributions to the subject of leadership will be fundamentally authoritative. Additionally, biblical insight could add a clarifying nuance and dimension to the topic that is plainly missing in many treatments. While it is not my aim to exhaust the subject of leadership from a biblical standpoint, humanity can only be enriched by God’s perspective! The vital functions of leadership are applicable to the individual, family, society, industry, country, and the world. Therefore, I think it prudent to entertain the notions of leadership and servant-leadership from a biblical perspective.

What Is Leadership?

Foundational to the effectiveness of our purpose, leadership must be defined as God designed it. It is appropriate to frame the concept in His specific terms. This takes us back to the very beginning of time. A journey to the genesis of the universe also affords us a chance to develop a mosaic of leadership strictly according to God’s ideal. One key is to probe deeply into God’s designs for humanity on the earth; leadership is evidently essential to purposeful human experience.

In Genesis 1:26, Moses wrote, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” The “image of God” can be comprehended as ‘like God’ and ‘representing’ God. One implication of this statement, among several, is that God is the supreme leader and humanity is to reflect this function in society as His representatives. The word “dominion” means “to rule, have dominion, or to dominate” according to the Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon (Strong, 1890, 2006). The nature of this rule is sovereign. At this stage of history the ideas of evil domination, abuse of authority, or harsh subjugation should not be associated with this passage nor with the divine concept of leadership. Adam was to represent God on earth as his sovereign earthly ruler over all the rest of creation. John MacArthur agrees in The MacArthur Study Bible (1997) noting this word “dominion” defines man’s unique relation to the rest of creation. Adam was God’s representative while ruling over the earth. God’s command to rule distinguished Adam from the other creatures and defined his relationship as above creation (see Ps. 8:6–8). Thus, God installed the role of leadership from the very beginning; it is a crucial facet of His original design. In addition, Adam was to exercise his sovereignty by serving all creation. He was divinely commissioned to lead all under his authority, and develop all to ensure the world realizes its full potential to the glory of God. Though he was leader over all, his function was service to all at the very core.

This definition affords some insight into leadership, responsibility, accountability to God, purpose, proper authority and motivation. Adam was to serve God by leading; he also was to serve all living creation by providing leadership. The God of creation cherishes order, purpose, and design and deemed these good for earthly experience; he installed leadership to sustain these values. He created human leadership to compliment and maintain this order in the earth; Adam’s authority extended as far as necessary to satisfy this requirement. Furthermore in this notion, God provides the following: values, purpose, vision, mission, strategy, human resources, and governance. As the Supreme Leader, He supplies these essential elements. Obviously, God’s design for the universe is good and so is His plan for human experience. Through human agency such values were to be propagated throughout the entire world; they were to be perpetuated down through the ages. Humanity and all living creatures were to be enriched by divinely appointed leadership and wisdom pursuant of the will of God. This is an important function in God’s plan. Leadership affording meaningful and valuable service is a part of that original design. Adam was created and called to this service as God’s representative.

Sin of course defaced and skewed this plan so significantly that redemption of creation was necessary (Rom. 8:18-25). Leadership through human agency has been absolutely corrupted and severely devastated by sin. Universally, humanity is plagued with corruption, selfishness, abuses, negligence, manipulation, lack of accountability, and lording over others out of fear, pride, or flawed ideology. One mere glance at the political climate in our nation’s capital will roundly confirm this analysis. Conflict, aggression, suffering, subjugation, and the need for submission became realities with the advent of sin (Gen. 3). A sense of calling and serving the welfare of others has been monumentally discarded; though these values are clearly articulated by leaders on every level of civilization, we are justifiably skeptical. Scores of politicians make great promises in order to portray themselves as champions of the people’s welfare and interests, but the vast majority of them are skillfully deceptive and selfishly driven. In contrast, leadership in its purest form is available from God alone, and servant leadership was brilliantly modeled by the Lord Jesus during his earthly humiliation (Phil. 2:1-11). Biblical history affords several models of leadership through God’s servants, inept puppets, and godless tyrants down through the centuries, but all of them were gravely impacted by sin. Like humanity and all of creation, leadership requires redemption.

The term leadership has at least four ways it is used in the English language. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (1996) defines leadership as a certain occupation in an organization, aptitude for directing others, occasions of affording guidance, and the collective body of administrators in an organization. Modern students of leadership theories basically associate leadership with the capacity to lead others and with instances of providing leadership. They strenuously resist the notion of leadership as a mere position, or the function of a few at the top of an organization. Consider the perspective of renowned leadership authority John Maxwell. In Developing the Leader Within You (1993, p. 1, 2), he largely rejects the idea of leadership as a position saying, “…I have come to this conclusion: Leadership is influence. That’s it. Nothing more; nothing less.” James C. Georges, of the ParTraining Corporation, when asked: “What is leadership?” responded saying, “Remove for a moment the moral issues behind it, and there is only one definition: leadership is the ability to obtain followers…” (Maxwell, 1993). Accordingly, leadership is the ability to influence people to follow you, and is rightly tethered to our actual function regardless of our position in an organization.

In addition, Paul Chappell (2008) in The Spiritual Leader agrees with this view writing, “Leadership is influence. When God entrusted you with the call to lead, He entrusted you with influence for Him.” Speaking strictly from a spiritual perspective, leadership is influence for God: the ability to obtain followers to accomplish God’s will. Essentially, it is inspiring, impacting, and impressing others to follow God’s lead in their individual and cooperative experiences. The individual is redeemed through faith in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection (Rom. 10:8-17; 1 Pet. 1:18-25). Leadership is redeemed when it fits God’s design, embraces Christ’s model, and advances God’s will. First, this requires revisiting Genesis to note God’s leadership design, style, priorities, and prescription for humanity. Secondly, it involves directing, developing followers, and achieving God’s purposes with and through them as the Lord Jesus did. 

What Is Servant Leadership?

Servant leadership is a values-based leadership theory and practice that concentrates on serving first and leading as an expression of service. It was Robert K. Greenleaf (1904-1990) who crafted the modern concept of servant leadership in his famous essay The Servant as Leader (1970). In practice servant leaders achieve results for their organizations by giving priority attention to the needs of their colleagues and those they serve. Contemporary proponents of servant leadership define it as a management philosophy. This implies an all-inclusive perspective of the quality of people, work, and community spirit. Note the words of Greenleaf (1970),

The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…. The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.

Commonly leadership strategies are generally categorized as autocratic, bureaucratic, participative, and laissez-faire theories and philosophies (http://www.mindtools.com). Servant leadership is best linked to the participative management genre. In Christian applications, it is a sound organizational leadership strategy, excellent discipleship/mentoring approach and it disseminates wholesome ideals and values throughout an organization. In a world where values and ethics carry greater significance, servant leadership is a more attractive strategy (http://www.mindtools.com). The authoritarian leadership style, which thrives on wielding and concentrating power in an individual, is not particularly compatible with the fundamental guiding principle of service first. The most important goal of a servant leader is to inspire, reassure and facilitate the growth and development of subordinates to their fullest potential (https://greenleaf.org), and the laissez-faire leadership style is incompatible with this worthy objective. Servant leadership automatically engenders a strategic obligation to delegate responsibility, and involves others in participative decision-making. Growing and developing people to their full potential are God’s original designs for human leadership (Gen. 1:26-28). Servant leaders seek to develop and disciple as a priority.

There are scores of reasons why the servant leadership model commends itself to both individuals and institutions. Greenleaf (1970) expressed this saying,

The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?

Clearly, servant leadership requires spiritual understanding of identity, mission, vision and environment. Acting first as a responsible servant in the world, he or she contributes to the welfare of both individual and community. A servant leader selflessly and faithfully provides meaningful assistance resulting in the growth of those they lead. They really believe contented and properly motivated people have greater capacities for reaching their potential and fulfilling the requirements of the mission (Greenleaf, 1970).

While Greenleaf’s concept of servant leadership is quite beneficial, there is an ancient concept of servant leadership that predates his. It is articulated in the Scriptures by none other than the Lord Jesus Christ two thousand years ago. Consider what He said to His own disciples in Matthew 20:25-28,

…Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. [26] But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; [27] And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: [28] Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

In this passage, the Lord Jesus framed servant leadership in terms of service, selflessness, and sacrifice. Though the term ‘servant leader’ does not appear in this passage, the words “servant” and “minister” as a leadership strategy do. They refer to voluntary and sacrificial service. This is Christ’s counsel to His first followers and precisely what He modeled for our instruction and application. Such leaders possess a servant’s heart and exemplify sacrifice. The evils of pride, self-promotion, manipulation, and controlling dominance portrayed by the leaders of the nations are absolutely foreign to the idea the Lord Jesus advocates. Likewise, servant leadership is equally unfamiliar to the modern world at large. Though there is a growing interest in this worldview of leadership, it remains in sharp contrast to the familiar models of selfishness, distrust, pride, and looking out for number one. Again the motivations for servant leadership are more internal than external. What Jesus Christ calls his followers to become is servant leaders—people who serve first, who are selfless in their motives, and who are willing to sacrifice when necessary in order to serve.