A friend is in a small group of a very large church east of Seattle.  A discussion came up about how old the earth is.  They told him that unless he believed the earth was 7000 years old he did not have a Christian world view.  We had a great discussion of “Christian” world view.  The claim to have “the” Christian world view is arrogant and often caught up in a current debate that will be irrelevant to future believers.

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Power Point of the sermon.

The servant leader is servant first. How does one know if he/she is a servant? Joy is the main evidence of a servant-hearted leader. The servant loves to live for others, to see them grow, learn, heal and find their place in the world. The servant follows Christ as he washes the feet of his disciples. After washing their feet he turned to them and said, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” [1] As the disciples of Jesus were competing for who would be the greatest, he was showing them how to be the greatest. There was no question about Jesus being the leader of the disciples, but he was a new kind of leader. He was a leader who put the needs of his disciple above his own. Jesus answered the disciples question as to who was the greatest of the disciples where he says, “the greatest among you will be your servant.”[2] The church inNorth America has been influenced by it culture. The church is always looking for who is the greatest, the biggest and the best. How to be a successful leader usually translates into how to make your church grow larger. The pastor must have a compelling vision built on a functional administration, develop potential leaders, do gift analysis and implement the latest creative church ministries. Churches that remain smaller suffer from a constant sense of failure. The Servant leadership model offers a new approach to leading a church other than being a visionary pastor driven church that depends on the giftedness of only one leader. The servant leader can begin to discover the giftedness on others. The focus can turn from how great the pastor is to how great the members are. Servant leadership finds the giftedness of the people and the pastor serves them by helping them discover God’s ministry for them. Equipping the saints for the work of the ministry becomes more than teaching people how to pray, study the bible and do a ministry in the church. The pastor begins to find value in what the church is doing outside of specific church ministries. Ministry happens all week long. The value of the saints at work radically increases when the average church member realizes that what they do Monday through Friday is ministry. God can come to work. Ministry is more broadly defined as ‘serving others’. The pastor must explore the ministry that is already going on everyday of the week by the congregation. Monday becomes as important as Sunday. Sunday becomes preparation for Monday. How does each person minister? How does each one lead? The pastor’s study includes not only interpreting the biblical text but also interpreting the culture context in which everyone is living. How is the Gospel applied in the current jobs and contexts that people encounter everyday? This will require much study from the Pastor and perhaps more people’s minds to arrive at a conclusion. BGU is a great beginning place to start the process of understanding the global culture in which we live, and how to help our churches engage in meaningful service within the community.

It is a matter of being a good steward of all God has given us. His gifts in all our lives must be properly invested. On any given Sunday, the church is full of citizens that have influence in their communities. The members are civic leaders, public educators and administrators, lawyers, business leaders and others who have varying degrees of influence and power within the community. A church that ignores where its people are on Mondays and what impact they can have for the betterment of the community is not making the most of all God has given them. There is great joy in beginning to celebrate what all the saints are doing in the community outside of church. When the church can embrace what is done by its members outside of church sponsored ministries a new understanding of the Kingdom of God emerges. A new sense of purpose in the Christian’s life is at work in the community. The great divide between what is defined as ministry and what is not is filled with God’s presence. What the church ‘counts’ and what it does not ‘count’ as important to God, and his kingdom make a huge difference in the attitude each believer has at work and in their neighborhoods. When the church can value what everyone is doing everyday as well as what the fellowship does together, new life and joy are created that empowers the church to begin to transform the world. A new awareness comes to life in the Christian of God’s ever present reality and that his kingdom is all pervasive. Their role as servant can change the world for the better.

Servant leadership also involves leading. Greenleaf defines leadership as “that one individual who has better than average senses of what needs to be done now and is willing to take the risk to say, ‘Lets do it now.’” [3] Servant leadership is not just calling leaders to become servants but as Greenleaf says, “My greater hope is that more of those who are natural servants, who get joy out of serving, will become aggressive builders of serving institutions.[4] To be part of building a ‘serving institution’ is a call to the lead well in the development of an organization that exists ‘for others’. The role of the church is to create an environment where servant leaders are nourished and then sent out into other institutions to build a better world. The church can transform its community by encouraging, training and valuing gifted servant leaders to become institutional builders of the present and future. “For the servant who has the capacity to be a builder, the greatest joy in this world is in building. Will not the growing edge of the church become the chief nurturer of servant-leaders, institution builders for the future?” [5] Greenleaf uses the word ‘institution’ as a positive. Institutions, whether for profit or not-for-profit, may be good or evil. Some institutions use people but the best serve people with-in and outside their institutions. Greenleaf recommends a definition of institution is “something that enlarges and liberates.” [6]

Leading is influencing others toward a better life, an eternal life in Christ. Everyday what we do and what we say leads others to an eternal joy or an eternal grief. We are either leading people toward God our Father every day and in everyway or we are leading them away from him forever! Everyone can be a servant leader because everyone can choose to serve and everyone has some measure of influence. Leadership is defined as influence. Everyone has some influence in the lives of others.

In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus teaches the parable of the talents. The Parable explains that each person is given different talents. Each person is held accountable to how they invest what they are given. Judgment day for the stewards focuses on their ability multiply what the master has given them. Those that invest well are rewarded. This parable raises questions about what talents are and what a good investment is. Each person’s life is filled with and surrounded by God’s gifts. A life time of investment has been made in each person’s life and how that person makes the most of it is crucial. An area often overlooked is the stewardship of power. Transformation of a community often requires a multitude of partners working together. These partners will represent business, government, legal and community leaders. The good steward will build, maintaining and encouraging relationships in the community with people who have power. To neglect or avoid relationships with those in power is to ignore gifts of God, which could be invested through partnership in issues of justice and peace in the community.

Investment in others must have right motives. Often investment is only made in others so as to increase our own ministry. Each person represents a life time of God’s investment. A Church can be a good steward of God’s gifts by helping each member to discover who they are and how they can be stewards of all God ahs given them. This process could release the church and empower them to transform a community. Investing in others to follow all God has for them is serving them and being a good steward of all God has given.