7. Servants
It’s a biblical theme that needs to be studied, taught, and brought to memory again and again because it is so radically counterintuitive. The most often used term for a spiritual leader in Scripture is servant. So it is vital that every leadership community does its work, understanding that what God has called each leader to be defines how God has called him to do what he has been called to do. What is the motivational joy in the heart of a true servant? The joy of a true servant is not power; the joy of a true servant is not control; the joy of a true servant is not acclaim; the joy of a true servant is not comfort or ease; and, of course, the joy of a true servant is not position. What gives a servant joy in being a servant is service.
Why is service so unnatural for us? Why do we love to be known as servants while not always loving the call to serve? Why do we fall into thinking of opportunities to serve as an interruption, a hassle, or a burden? Why do we count the cost while forgetting the riches we have been given? Why are servant posture and attitude not normal in the hearts and lives of those whom God has called to lead churches and gospel ministries? I think the answer is clear. In 2 Corinthians 5:15 Paul argues that the DNA of sin is selfishness. Sin is self-focused, self-absorbed, self-defensive, and self-aggrandizing—selfish in the purest sense of what that word means. So as long as there are artifacts of sin still resident in our hearts, we will be vulnerable to the temptation to make life about us—what we want, what we think we need, and what makes us content and comfortable. I am convicted as I write. I am required to face the fact that, like every other sinner, my default idol is the idol of self, and because it is, my default craving is for what I find comfortable, enjoyable, and exciting.
So it is an argument for the presence and power of rescuing and forgiving grace when any sinner finds joy in the self-sacrifice and self-denial that are the normal life of a servant. It takes grace to free us from the powerful inertia of sin’s individualism. It takes almighty power to free us from the depth of our self-allegiance. And it is all too easy to give way to sin’s draw. It is also vital for every leader to remember that the struggle of selfishness is the focus not only of the rescue and forgiveness of our justification, but also of the transforming work of our sanctification. Leader, your Savior has rescued you from you, is rescuing you from you, and will continue to rescue you from you until that rescue is no longer needed. If the leaders around you were to characterize your attitude and actions as a leader, would they say, “He has a servant’s heart”?
The Servant Struggle: A Case Study
You don’t have to search far in the New Testament to uncover pointed examples of the counterintuitive nature of Christ’s call for his chosen leaders to serve. Understanding and finding joy in their servant calling was a huge struggle for the disciples. Let’s examine one vignette, in Mark 9:30–36, where this struggle bubbles to the surface:
They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.
And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”
I’ve included the context here because the context is very important for understanding the powerful inertia of selfishness. Jesus and his disciples were on their way to Capernaum, and on the journey Jesus spoke more specifically about his impending death than he ever had before. You would think that the disciples were shocked and saddened. You would imagine that their hearts were filled with a combination of grief and compassion. You would expect that in this moment, they did not think about themselves but about their Lord. But the opposite was actually the case. Rather than thinking about the suffering of their Lord, they argued about which one of them was the greatest. It’s weird and inappropriate, and the conversation is shockingly insensitive and self-focused, but it is also tragically normal.
As they were walking along the way, Jesus observed the intense discussion, so when they arrived at their destination he asked them what they had been talking about. Suddenly, these very talkative men were strangely silent. They didn’t want to confess the subject of their conversation. There wasn’t much time between Jesus’s talking about his death and the disciples’ arguing about who was greatest. Instead of mourning the suffering and death of the great one, they argued that they were great. Instead of being brokenhearted at the thought of Jesus’s humiliation, they were focused on their own exaltation.
Now, I write what I am going to write for myself, but also for you. It’s so easy for me to divorce myself from these men, to separate myself from this kind of response and deny that this too is my struggle. But the Bible reminds us that these things have been recorded and retained for us because we are just like these people. We are not yet fully free of the inertia that lived in the hearts of disciples and that propelled their argument with one another. This passage was designed as a mirror into which we would look and see ourselves as we actually are.
Jesus’s response is at once wise and artful. He essentially says, “Yes, you’ve been called to be great, but the pathway to greatness is not power and position; the pathway to greatness is servanthood.” In so doing, he turned the typical understanding of the power, position, and rights of a leader on its head. Leaders who do not serve aren’t actually leaders. They use their power and position and those they have been called to lead to get for themselves what they think they deserve. True leaders don’t think that the ministry they have been called to lead and those they have been called to lead belong to them. A true leader knows that people are not the objects of his power and control but the focus of his sacrifice and service. Every ministry leader carries the identity of servant, and any leader who begins to think of himself in a different way is in spiritual danger and has abandoned the true character of his calling.
A while after this in Mark’s Gospel, another one takes place in which the disciples respond in a similar way. It’s recorded for us in Mark 10:35–45:
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
What a provocative conversation with so much for us to unpack. Since the Bible says that we speak from our hearts, it’s appropriate to consider the hearts of James and John as they bring their request to Jesus, and of the other disciples as they react to the request. It’s important that we don’t gloss over the self-focus behind the words of the disciples, but it’s also important that we understand that there are still seeds of the same in all of us. James and John come to Jesus and say (my paraphrase), “Jesus, here’s what we’d like you to do; we’d like you to exercise your messianic power to give us what we want, and what we want is to sit on either side of you in glory.”
On the surface, this request seems way more outrageous than anything we would ask of the Lord, but is it? I must confess there have been times when I have been spiritually discontent because the Lord hasn’t exercised his power to make things easier or more comfortable. I’ll walk away from a tough meeting, a hard conversation, or an unfair critique and think, “Why does ministry have to be so hard?” In that moment, I’m not just talking to myself; I’m complaining to my Lord. There are times when I am tempted to wish that ministry was more a throne than a cross. There are times when I am tired of sacrifice and suffering, and I wish that God would use a little of his power to make it a little less uncomfortable. Sometimes I don’t want to serve; I want to be served, not just by the people around me but also by the one who has called me. In this way, I am very thankful for the way this passage exposes me, and I trust you will be thankful as well.
But Jesus says more. He makes it very clear that we must not take the normal human models as our own. Gentile leaders loved their authority, loved exercising it, and loved reminding people of it. Jesus reminds the disciples that they haven’t been called to lordship but to servanthood. They haven’t been called to flash around their power and position but to carry around with them the mentality of a slave. Then he uses himself as an example. If anyone had the right to power, position, and authority on earth, it was the Son of Man, but he didn’t come to exercise his power in order to be served, but to serve, even to the point of death. We would all do well to have Jesus as a more influential model of leadership than the cultural or corporate models we sometimes look to.
These passages are quite an indictment against entitled, demanding, controlling, power- and positioned-focused ministry leaders! Why do ministry leaders get mad when someone disagrees with them or questions their plans? Why are ministry leaders intimidated by the gifts of other leaders? Why do leaders treat the people around them as if they are there to serve them instead of the other way around? Why do ministry leaders speak disrespectfully to fellow leaders or support staff, at times using language they should not use? Why do ministry leaders avoid tough conversations that need to be had? Why do ministry leaders build off-the-record alliances with other leaders so that their ideas will win the day? Why is unity difficult and division natural? The answer to all these questions is that it’s so hard for us to willingly, patiently, joyfully, lovingly, and sacrificially serve. We may not be as bold as James and John, but there’s evidence among us that their struggle is our struggle as well.
To Lead Is to Serve, to Serve Is Being Willing to Suffer
There simply is no such thing as a call to ministry leadership that isn’t also a call to a life of servanthood, and there is no such thing as a call to servanthood that isn’t also a call to suffer. As I travel around the world, I converse with young ministry leaders, and in these conversations I hear the same themes over and over again. These young leaders tell me about their exhaustion, how demanding ministry is, how much they just need a break or an adjustment in their schedule, and how difficult the people they lead. Several things have come into my mind as I’ve listened to these conversations. Of course, it is wise to know our limits, to construct a reasonable schedule and to know when it’s godly to say no. But there is something going on in the hearts and lives of these leaders and the leadership communities that leaves me concerned.
Before I talk about the nature of my concern, I want to make a pastoral observation. God is sovereign, and he writes your story, and because he does, he is in control of where you have been positioned in ministry and all the things you are tasked with there. Your complaint about schedule is never just about schedule, your complaint about exhaustion is never just about how tired you are, and your complaint that you never seem to get the break you think you need is never just about time. All horizontal complaints have a vertical component. Even though I may not be aware of it, my complaint about the bad service at a restaurant is not just a complaint about my particular server but also about the manager who trained her and watches how she does her work.
Grumbling about horizontal difficulty is at once a complaint against the one who lords over those difficulties. And here’s what’s deadly about this. A life of quiet or not so quiet complaint hammers away at your confidence in the wisdom, goodness, and faithfulness of God. It causes you to rest less comfortably in his care. Why? Well, because you tend not to seek out and rely on someone whom you no longer trust. A leadership community that has developed a culture of grumbling is, because of that, in spiritual danger. It is simply hard to willingly and joyfully serve the master you don’t trust in the way you once did, no matter what your formal theology tells you about his wisdom, goodness, and faithfulness.
Now to my concern. I am convinced that the life and ministry of a leader who is marked by low-grade grumbling, feelings of dissatisfaction, or conscious complaint indicate a foundational misunderstanding of the nature of the church and ministry calling. Church life was not designed to be comfortable. What is the church? It’s a chosen gathering of unfinished people, still grappling with the selfishness of sin and the seduction of temptation, living in a fallen world, where there is deception and dysfunction all around. There is nothing comfortable or easy in this plan. The church is intended to be messy and chaotic, because the mess is intended to yank us out of our self-sufficiency and self-obsession to become people who really do love God and our neighbors. God puts broken people next to broken people (including leaders), not so they would be comfortable with one another but so they would function as agents of transformation in the lives of one another.
You simply won’t have joy in being part of this plan unless you find joy in living a lifestyle of self-denial and willing servanthood. We complain about the hardships, hassles, workload, and demands of ministry leadership because we are too important to ourselves. We care too much about our own comfort. We keep track of the sacrifices we have to make. We grouse about our lack of control over our schedules. We notice too much how others are responding to us. We fantasize too often about taking a break. We are too easily hurt, too easily discouraged, too easily burdened, and too easily live on the edge of burnout. So we want greater power and control, that is, greater sovereignty over our ministry lives than a servant will ever have.
As a leader, you are not called to mastery; you’re called to servanthood. The master who called you didn’t live the entitled life of a master but the life of a suffering servant. Every moment of his life, from the straw piercing his infant skin to the nails piercing his hands and feet, your master suffered. Every leadership community is called to follow the mentality, attitudes, submission, and willingness of the servant master who called, equipped, and sent them. Self-focused leadership results in demotivating discontentment, desire for control, and a loss of joy—all of which is an indicator of a fundamental misunderstanding of the position and lifestyle to which you have been called. I want to say here, as I have said in previous chapters, that servant calling and the heart struggle it ignites need to be part of the regular conversation of every ministry leadership community.
Take time with your leadership community to reflect on the following verses and ask yourselves if they describe the mentality, the attitudes, the relationships, and the ministry functionality of the leaders in your community.
They left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. (Acts 5:41)
I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. (Acts 9:16, of God’s call to Paul through Ananias)
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Rom. 8:16–17)
As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” (Rom. 8:36)
Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. (2 Cor. 1:7)
Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. (2 Cor. 11:23)
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. (Phil. 3:8–10)
If we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us. (2 Tim. 2:12)
. . . choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. (Heb. 11:25, of Moses)
As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. (James 5:10)
For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. (1 Pet. 2:20)
But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. (1 Pet. 3:14–15)
If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. (1 Pet. 4:16)
After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (1 Pet. 5:10)
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. (Matt. 5:11)
You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (Matt. 10:22)
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matt. 10:39)
Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. (Matt. 19:29)
We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. (1 Cor. 4:10)
For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. (2 Cor. 4:5)
For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Cor. 4:11)
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:10)
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake. (Phil. 1:29)
There is no doubt about it: servanthood is the thematic biblical description of every follower of Jesus Christ. How much more, then, is it true of those who are called to be leaders? I don’t know about you, but I find those passages to be both deeply convicting and profoundly encouraging at the same time. These passages immediately expose what a poor servant I am. I hate when things are in my way. I grow quickly impatient with seemingly needless hassles and delay. I wish I could say that I am okay with being challenged, disagreed with, contradicted, or debated. I love predictable weeks and being surrounded by people who appreciate me. I struggle to love people who critique my love.
So I cry out for the help of my Savior, and I want to be surrounded by leaders who are crying out as well. And I marvel, once again, that the Lord would ever use me, that he never thinks it was a mistake to call me, that he is never disgusted with me, and that he greets my struggle with boundless love, incalculable patience, and mercies that are thankfully new every morning. I know too that he hears my longing and is, by grace, molding my heart into a servant shape.
But there is something else beautiful and encouraging to consider. The call to a life of joyful servitude and willing suffering is itself a grace. In calling me to deny myself, God is freeing me from my bondage to me. Self-focus never leads to happiness, it never produces contentment, and it never results in a satisfied heart. The more a leader has himself in focus, the more he thinks about how ministry inconveniences him, and the less he will experience true joy and lasting contentment. The call to servanthood is the tool that your Lord uses to free you from your discouraging and debilitating bondage to you. The call to servanthood is not just for the glory of your Lord and the benefit of others, but it is God’s grace to you as a leadership community. This is the upside-down world of ministry calling. The pathway to freedom is servanthood, the pathway to greatness is slavery, and the pathway to deep and lasting joy—joy that people and circumstance cannot take away—is denying yourself. It is only the grace of the Redeemer that will make a ministry leader find joy in the upside-down world of leadership to which he has been called. Leader, have you entered into that joy, or has it been robbed by delusions of mastery?
Now I want to be honest with you here. The gospel of Jesus Christ allows us to be honest about things we hesitate to talk about or want to hide because the things we want to minimize, hide, or deny have been fully addressed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. As I have traveled around the world, and as I am in almost constant conversations with ministry leaders, it is my estimation that many of us aren’t doing well with our suffering-servant calling.
Hypercritical theological arrogance is not the fruit of a servant’s heart. Looking for people to troll on Twitter is not what occupies the heart of a servant. Pride of accomplishment contradicts servant humility. Disrespect of the vital gifts of women to the health of the body of Christ fails to mirror the servant heart of Jesus. Treating your church or ministry as if it belongs to you denies your servant calling. Resistance in the face of the loving advice, concern, watchfulness, and rebuke of fellow leaders is resistance against your servant position. Exercising your leadership position in a way that is more political than pastoral does not flow from a servant’s heart. Treating staff members as if they are there for you rather than together with you serving the Lord happens when you forget your servant calling. Any dismissive, disrespectful, impatient, angry, bullying behavior is a failure to joyfully embrace the lifestyle of a servant. Ministry leadership conversations that are regularly marked by complaint are the fruit of entitlement, not servanthood. To get mad at little ministry inconveniences when we have been called to follow our Savior in his suffering, demonstrates how easy it is to drift away from what our Master has called us to be and do.
Leaders, this has been a very difficult chapter to write. I write not to condemn but to encourage. The new identity and potential that are ours in Christ tell us we can do better. Not because we are able, but because the one who is with us, for us, and in us is able. His grace offers us the deeply encouraging welcome to fresh starts and new beginnings. There are many things in ministry leadership that we need to confess, repent of, and forever forsake. Grace frees us from hiding, defending, excusing, or rationalizing away things that have no place in the heart and life of a servant of Jesus.
Why is this so important? It’s important because at the heart of every hope that the gospel offers us now and in the future is a suffering servant. Without his willingness to humble and deny himself, without his willingness to become a servant, without his willingness to suffer even to death, there would be no forgiveness, there would be no church, there would be no leaders raised up to carry on the gospel mission, and there would be no message to carry. Suffering servanthood is at the very heart of the redemptive story and the gospel message. Shouldn’t it also be at the very heart of our gospel mission and functionality as church and ministry leaders? Is it not possible to be on gospel mission yet deny that very mission in the way that we think about and conduct ourselves?
My prayer is that we would be empowered by God’s grace to be joyfully willing as leaders to live the suffering-servant gospel that is our reason for existing, in everything we say and do, in the place where the Savior has positioned us.