Announcement
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APRIL 10th 2006
"I'M THE SERVANT LEADER AROUND HERE..."
Now buck up and follow!
By Karl Haffner (senior pastor of the Walla
Walla College church in College Place,
Washington.)
ROBERT GREENLEAF CREATED QUITE THE buzz in the
business community when he developed his theory
of servant leadership back in 1970. Leaders
are still quite enamored with his ideas. While
many leaders give lip service to "servant
leadership," rarely do we see it in real
life.
Occasionally, however, a servant leader comes
along who descends into greatness. Jane Byrne
comes to mind. She was the mayor of Chicago
who made a highly publicized tour of Cabrini-Green.
This public housing project of 81 high-rises
and row houses embodied evil in its purest form.
Gangs controlled the 14,000 people living there.
Rape, murder, extortion, drugs, and violence--these
vices plagued the residents on a daily basis.
Addressing the terrorized citizens, the mayor
promised, "You are going to live in security
and safety." It sounded like a typical
promise from a polished politician. That is,
until the next week when Ms. Byrne announced
her plans to leave her luxury apartment and
move to Cabrini-Green! Now that raised some
eyebrows. Headlines screamed, "Mayor Moving
to Cabrini!" Commented one city politician,
"It is a pretty dramatic thing to do."1
Indeed, servant leadership is dramatic. As dramatic
as the mayor moving might be, it pales in comparison
to the Son of God taking up residence in our
unruly world. And yet that is exactly what Jesus
did. Then he taught the guts of servant leadership
when he said, "Whoever wants to be a leader
among you must be your servant, and whoever
wants to be first must become your slave"
(Matt. 20:26, 27, NLT).
My hunch is that nobody would quarrel with the
tenets of servant leadership. Who would dare
disregard the clear counsel of Christ? And yet,
in practice, the prevailing attitude of Christian
leaders often sounds more like this: "I'm
the servant leader around here . . . now buck
up and follow!"
Whether you're the CEO of a Fortune 500 company
or a stay-at-home dad, Jesus calls you to be
a servant. Whether you're leading a workforce
or your family, you will have plenty of opportunities
today to let those around you know that you
are a servant.
How?
Let me be specific by underscoring the major
themes from the book of James. This classic
letter, penned by the half brother of Jesus,
could be considered the definitive training
manual for servant leaders. Below are four suggestions
that James gives us:
1. Practice servant leadership with
your eyes.
This might be called the ministry of noticing.
James 2:15, 16 (NIV) puts it like this: "Suppose
a brother or sister is without clothes and daily
food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish
you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does
nothing about his physical needs, what good
is it?"
If it weren't so tragic, it would almost be
comical. Imagine, James suggests, approaching
someone who is starving and naked, and saying,
"Hope you enjoy watching me eat Krispy
Kremes. Oh, and by the way . . . nice threads."
Of what value is that? True servant leaders
develop eyes that notice needs.
Want to be a servant leader? Then notice the
needs of people. Notice what they do right,
and affirm that. It's so simple, yet powerful.
I once received a letter from my boss that basically
said, "I noticed . . ." He wrote,
"Dear Karl, I noticed an article that you
had written in the Sabbath School Teacher's
helps. I noticed that your church met their
financial goals last month. I noticed . . .
" He went on to say, "I don't know
how you get everything done that you do, but
I want you to know that somebody notices such
things. I appreciate you." Then he offered
this PS: "Enclosed you'll find a very small
token of my appreciation."
Sure enough, he sent a crisp $5 bill. Isn't
that classy? I know it's not a lot of money,
but imagine if everyone reading this article
were to notice what I do! (You know I'm kidding.
Don't--and I repeat--don't send me money . .
. unless, of course, you're really spiritual,
then by all means--I'm joking.)
The point is, you can practice servant leadership
by noticing what people do. Perhaps you can
call your stepchild and say, "I noticed
you mowed the lawn last night . . ." Or
write your boss a note: "I noticed you
stayed after work again last night. That kind
of commitment is inspiring to me . . ."
2. Practice servant leadership with
your ears.
This might be called the ministry of empathizing.
James offers this advice to servant leaders:
"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone
should be quick to listen, slow to speak and
slow to become angry" (James 1:19, NIV).
Now, when James calls us to be good listeners,
he is suggesting more than just hearing auditory
sounds. He has in mind the notion of empathy.
In other words, he wants us to be authentic
servants, and really crawl into the skin of
someone in need.
I learned about the ministry of empathizing
when my wife, Cherié, was pregnant. We
dutifully enrolled in a Lamaze class. Now for
the record, Lamaze tends to be quite optimistic
about the whole birth deal. For example, our
Swedish instructor, Natilda, would never use
the word "pain" when talking about
delivery. Instead, she said, "You may experience
some discomfort." She even took us through
a simulation exercise in which we clipped clothespins
on our ears--as if to suggest that delivering
a baby would feel much the same. Then she instructed
us to "think happy thoughts" in order
to cope with the "discomfort." (By
the way, Natilda had no children of her own.)
I, too, was assigned a role in the birth. I
was called "the coach." Now, the primary
role of "the coach" was to empathize.
"Put yourself in your wife's place,"
Natilda cooed. "Feeeeeeeel her discomfort.
Seize the moment as if you were the deliverer.
Support the one you love."
"OK," I said. "Empathy. Righto.
I'll deliver!"
The day that went down in empathy finally came.
Our doctor induced labor at 8:00 a.m. This was
welcome news, since we assumed the ordeal would
be over by noon. By noon, however, Cherié
was in excruciating pain--with no promise of
a munchkin anytime soon. By 6:00 p.m. Cherié
felt as if she were swimming in a pool of hot
tar. I tried to be a good coach, but I felt
more like a magician trying to coax a greased
Saint Bernard through a cat door. Nothing seemed
to work (except Cherié--now she was working).
After 20 hours Cherié let out a scream
that turned my spine into a crystal goblet in
the old Memorex commercials. So I said, "Ah,
honey, are you experiencing some discomfort?"
Come to find out, that was not the most empathetic
thing I could have done. While that may go without
saying, let's agree that empathy is a tricky
art at best. How can I really know what it's
like to have a baby? (Sorry, Ms. Discomfort,
but I'm not convinced by the clothespins.) How
can I feel the pain, the joy, the struggle,
or passion of another person? It's a precarious
proposition, to be sure.
Nevertheless, it is possible to model empathy.
Look at Jesus. He lived a sinless life, yet
empathized with sinners. We do not need to experience
the exact things; we must only be willing to
listen so deeply that we are consumed in the
same emotions as another person.
Empathy isn't easy, but it's worth the effort.
So why not give it a whirl? Walk in someone
else's Birkenstocks. Put on someone's pain.
Crawl into another's skin. The dividends will
be well worth the investment. For Cherié
and me, the result was tons of joy . . . that
weighed 8 pounds, 14 ounces.
3. Practice servant leadership with
your mouth.
Another way that you can be a servant leader
today is by using your mouth to practice the
ministry of blessing. Again, this is a prevalent
theme in the book of James. "If anyone
considers himself religious and yet does not
keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives
himself and his religion is worthless"
(James 1:26, NIV).
Think about tongue power. On the one hand, words
can wound the soul. Whoever suggested that sticks
and stones can break the bones but words will
never hurt ought to be sued for slander. Words
can hurt.
But on the other hand, words can also heal.
Proverbs 16:24 reminds us, "Pleasant words
are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing
to the bones" (NIV). So practice servant
leadership today and venture words of affirmation,
love, and blessing. Speak kindness to your roommate,
your professor, or your employees. Maybe you
haven't talked to your ex-wife for years. You
are so angry because of what she did to you.
Well, the Holy Spirit is talking to you: "Be
a servant leader. Take the initiative to humbly
serve the person who you think least deserves
your love."
4. Practice servant leadership with
your hands.
The final way that James calls us to be servant
leaders is by putting our hands to work, and
practicing the ministry of service. "Religion
that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless
is this: to look after orphans and widows in
their distress" (James 1:27, NIV).
According to James, servant leadership manifests
itself by caring for the marginalized. My favorite
story on this comes from Philip Yancey.
It seems that a woman went with her fiancé
to the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston to arrange
the details for their wedding banquet. The couple
pored over the menu, selected china and silver,
ordered flower arrangements, and so on. Because
they had pricey tastes, the bill totaled more
than $13,000! They left a deposit of $6,500
and went on to tackle the seemingly endless
list of other details for the big day.
Then the romance soured. The day the invitations
were to be sent, the potential groom got cold
feet. "I can't go through with this,"
he whined. "I must break off our relationship."
When the fiancée tried to cancel the
banquet, the events manager at the Hyatt could
not have been more sympathetic. She even shared
her own story of heartache. "But about
the refund," she said, "I have bad
news. The contract is legally binding. You're
entitled only to $1,300 back. You have two options:
forfeit the rest of the down payment, or go
ahead with the banquet. I'm sorry; I really
am."
It was a wild idea, but the more the jilted
bride thought about it, the more she liked the
idea of going ahead with the party. It wouldn't
be a wedding banquet, of course, but a banquet
just the same.
You see, 10 years earlier this woman had been
living in a homeless shelter. Thanks to some
community servant leaders, however, she was
able to get a good job and save some money.
Now she wanted to treat the down-and-outs of
Boston to a night on the town.
Yancey writes: "And so it was in June of
1990 the Hyatt Hotel of downtown Boston hosted
a party such as it had never seen before. The
hostess changed the menu to boneless chicken--'in
honor of the groom,' she said--and sent invitations
to rescue missions and homeless shelters. That
warm summer night, people who were used to peeling
half-gnawed pizza off the cardboard dined instead
on chicken cordon bleu. Hyatt waiters in tuxedos
served hors d'oeuvres to senior citizens propped
up by crutches and aluminum walkers. Bag ladies,
vagrants, and addicts took one night off from
the hard life on the sidewalks outside and instead
sipped champagne, ate chocolate wedding cake,
and danced to big band melodies late into the
night."2
Forward March!
Maybe this week you too can be a servant leader
and throw a banquet for someone in need. It
may not look like the meal Yancey describes,
but just the same, you can use your hands to
serve people in need.
I say, enough with all the lip service about
servant leadership. It's time to unleash an
army of real servant leaders.
How?
- With your eyes--notice the needs of others.
- With your ears--hear the hurts of people around
you.
- With your mouth--speak words of blessing.
- And with your hands--serve "the least
of these," and you will be among the greatest
leaders in the only kingdom that counts.
Source:
Adventist Review |
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