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Servant Leadership Part IIi

Thursday, February 9, 2012Gordon Bietz

Yesterday we talked about Jimmy and Johnny Zebedee and their desire to have positional leadership in Jesus Kingdom.

They wanted success. They wanted power

Jesus told them how to get what they wanted: They needed to be servants They needed to be slaves

For as Jesus says in Matthew 23:11 (NLT) The greatest among you must be a servant.

To be honest it doesn’t make sense to me how slavery results in being exalted.

The problem James and John had and the problem we have is we don’t understand the Kingdom of Heaven.

James and John wanted to be prime ministers in the Kingdom Their vision of the kingdom was based on an earthly template. They saw the kingdom through the eyes of the Roman government.

They lived with Jesus for three years but didn’t get it!Their picture of leadership was painted by the religious leaders of their time.

We are the religious leaders of our time.Do we get it?!

Or are we as blinded as James and John by the leadership principles of this world?

Remember what Jesus called the religious leaders of his time. “Blind guides”ii

Do we get it – or are we as blinded as the religious leaders at the time of Jesus? You recall what Jesus said to them:

2The most frightening chapter in the Bible ---- Matthew 23 - Woes and the Scribes and Pharisees

Matthew 23:15 (NLT) 15 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell* you yourselves are!

After the evangelistic campaign. After their baptism After they joined the church

They were twice as likely to go to hell than before their “conversion.”

Why?What did the religious leaders do to them?:

What did the church do to them? What did the institutions do to them?

What did the theological constructs do that made them more worthy of hell then before baptism?

In finding “the truth” they lost that sense of need. In finding “the truth” they missed He who is the Truth.

The synagogue which was created to be a window through which members might catch a glimpse of the Eternal became so opaque with bureaucracy, truth statements, rules, regulations and policies that they looked at them rather than through them.

The Scribes and Pharisees had never ending debates about theological nuances. There is an unhealthy preoccupation with theological issues as issues. I am not one to say that correct doctrine and orthodoxy don't matter, but correct doctrine and orthodoxy are worth nothing unless they find expression in a service of love, unless they make us servant leaders.

Ellen White"But the early Christians began to look for defects in one another. Dwelling upon mistakes, giving place to unkind criticism, they lost sight of the Savior and of the great love He had revealed for sinners. They became more strict in regard to outward

3ceremonies, more particular about the theory of the faith, more severe in their criticisms. (8T 241)

Can you imagine? As we lose sight of Jesus we go to prayer meeting more often. As we lose sight of the Savior we are more concerned about the 28 fundamental

beliefs. As we lose sight of the great love Jesus has for sinners we are more critical of each

other.

We have the truth – but there is danger in being right.

You have an argument with your spouse about the time change. Is there more darkness in the morning when you get up or more light? …and when morning comes you are right and you gloat.

And you gloat – or as Webster says, "To gaze with malicious pleasure"

You may even say, “I won’t say, ‘I told you so’” which is the same as saying “I told you so” with a touch of false humility.

It feels good to be right.

To be in the right can make you feel so righteous -especially if others notice!-in fact being right when no one notices is no fun.

You always knew the New York Giants would beat the New England Patriots.You are right.You gloat.You gaze with malicious pleasure at the Patriot fans.

There is danger in being in leadership in the church.Leaders that have the truth and are not servant leaders can easily morph into contemporary Scribes and Pharisees.

4Ill.

I remember when at my first pastorate studying with some people and there were some missionaries of another religion studying with the same people. We were competing for the attention of these people I was studying with.

I made a point that they had no answer for and I felt that sense of righteous power – gloating – to gaze with malicious pleasure.

The religious rulers at the time of Christ had that feeling a lot. There is a danger in bring right and not being a servant leader.

Our rightness – our righteousness – is a gift to serve others not an asset to build pride.

So we must be careful when we are right.

For there is something dangerous about being right. It can create a selfish sense of superiority, It can lead to righteously robed lawyers manipulating religious words and texts with

legalese.

When being right is more important than being sensitive to human needs, When holding to right church policies is more important than people, When being right is more important than being righteous,

Then we have taken "rightness" as our gospel instead of Jesus.Then we have made a god of “The Truth” instead of Jesus.

I have a question: Would you rather be a loving Atheist or a hateful Christian? Would you rather be a loving Muslin or a hateful Christian? Would you rather be a loving Catholic or a legalistic Adventist?

What sums up the law and the prophets?Matthew 22:37–39 (NLT) 37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’* 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’*

There are those who have elevated what they believe over how they behave.

5 What is the point of doctrines if it isn’t to make us more loving? What is the point of teachings if it isn’t to help us love our neighbors? What good is the truth if it doesn’t make us servant leaders?

Baptizing folks into a hateful dysfunctional church makes them children of hell as Jesus said.

Instead of finding common ground with our neighbors there are those who seek battle grounds.

Ill.It is a little bit like the man I met once who asked what religion I was and when I told him SDA he reached into his brief case, flipped through the file folders and took out a tract - against SDAs

There is a danger of being right – of using our rightness as a badge of honor rather than a badge of service

Leaders in god’s Kingdom are to be slaves and servants.

Is our view of the kingdom fashioned by the bible or by our culture?Fashioned by the beatitudes or our attitudes.Fashioned by servant hood or worldly images of presidential power.

What does the servant leaders look like. He or She manifests the fruit of the spirit.

Text Gal 5:22“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."Servant Leadership is:

not a question of position on the organization chart not a question of how many direct reports you have. not a question of how many committees you are on.

Servant leadership is filled with and produces the fruit of the Spirit.

Love - Spirit filled servant leadership is full of love.

There is a leadership style that seeks to force obedience. It can even be a well-intentioned attempt to manipulate for Jesus. Too often we seek to mold people without melting them first with love.

6 There are those whose leadership filled with self-confidence that they have the

truth and they are right:: -lets the chips fall where they may-separates the sheep from the goats.-points out the sins of the people.

I don't deny that there are times to point to the sins and problems of the people in your constituency but it better be the spoken from a broken heart of love with tears.

Spirit filled servant leadership is loving.

Text Gal 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

Joy - Spirit filled servant leadership is full of joy. The Gospel "good news."!

Matthew 21:15"When the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw...the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant."

The leaders were indignant. "What is going on here?!”

Let's have a little reverence! Quiet down! We have these children running down the isle of the church and shouting in the

sanctuary! Get them out of here!

-They couldn't tolerate a little joy.

We can preach detailed exegesis about the text and fill the air and mind with the complexities of eschatology, and explain why in this circumstance this doctrine is true and that one is false-- but no one is made happy.

The Gospel is good news, it is happy news.

7I like what Paul says in Galatians – The Galatians were all caught up in the law – bothered by the Judaizers and concerned about circumcision.

And in Galatians he says: (As in the NIV)

"What has happened to all your joy? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me." (Galatians 4:15, NIV)

You know why Angels can fly?Because they take themselves lightly

Spirit filled servant leadership is full of joy.

Text Gal 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

Peace - Spirit filled servant leadership is full of peace.

I think a major ministry of the servant leaders is the "Non-anxious presence." In the middle of the catatonic turmoil of society and the emotional roller coaster of people’s personal lives the president is the rock of Gibralter. He is a "non-anxious" presence that gives everyone a sense that - "It will be ok!" - relax - be at peace.

Ill.Eye surgery and jumping leg and nurse who touched me and said that everything would be alright.

Spirit filled servant leadership is peacemaking. Spirit filled servant leadership brings a sense of shalom - a sense of wholeness -

not just an absence of war but the fullness of contentment.

Too often we can get caught up in communicating eschatological anxiety.

Text Gal 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

Goodness - Spirit filled servant leadership manifests goodness.

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There is a false goodness that leaders fall for. Goodness developed in the lab of constituency expectations Doing things to keep up appearances

-Putting a burden on your children that they need to keep up the appearance of goodness.

True goodness is a natural kind that grows from the genuine heart and is not worn like a Halloween costume of pretense.

The goodness of the Spirit is not a goodness of avoidance.

Ill."We don't own a TV.""We don't eat meat."“We don’t have fun.”“We don’t live in this world – we are other worldly.”

Broadcasting such external goodness is like the hypocrites standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. [Matthew 6:5]

Ill.When my kids were young we didn’t own a TV.

The world we live in basically sees religious piety as just avoiding evil, and some of our members see it the same way.

It is a piety that deals with the world by running from it.1. from rock music2. pornography3. bad TV4. decadent materialism.

"The easiest sermon to preach is on why the world is going to hell." Steven Mosley It doesn't take creativity to point to the sins of the world. It doesn't take sacrifice to lift our skirts out of our morally toxic world.

Piety of avoidance is monkish separation from that which is not holy rather than Christlike involvement with that which is unholy.

Piety of avoidance rather than seeking to make people holy seeks to define who is holy and who isn't holy.

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It is piety of exclusion rather than piety of inclusion. It is based on the remnant that are called to be separate rather than the remnant

that are called to a task.

We avoid the evil thinking mistakenly that therefore we are good. - Goodness is more than avoiding evil.

When faced with crime piety of avoidance draws the doors shut, votes for mandatory sentencing, and buys bigger locks for the doors.

Spirit filled goodness goes beyond a defensive fight to the offense. It is time we went on the offense. Let sin no longer dictate the playing field and become the focus of our attention as we constantly define it, react to it, and avoid it.

Let goodness take center stage. Let justice flow down like a river Let mercy fill our vision Let our eyes be focused on Jesus.

Give our people a focus of action that isn't on the evil in their lives but on the possibilities of their lives.

Let us bring true piety and goodness into action in the church.

Servant leadership manifests true goodness.

Text Gal 5:22“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

Faithfulness - Spirit filled servant leadership is faithful.

When we think of faithfulness we think of being faithful to the truth. Leadership is faithful to the truth.

However, before you say, "Yes, I am faithful to the truth." Let me warn you that for spirit filled leadership you need more then truth.

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Ill.Soren Kierkegaard tells a story about a man who escaped from an insane asylum only to face the real prospect of being recognized as insane by the people in the nearest town and being returned to the institution. He decided to disguise his insanity by uttering aloud some generally accepted truth that would prove to all who heard him that he was sane.Finding a rubber ball in the street, he put it in the tail pocket of his coat where it bounced against his hind parts as he walked. With each bounce he said to any and all passersby, "The earth is round, the earth is round." Needless to say, he was recognized as insane and returned to the asylum.

Why?

Isn't the earth round?

Yes, but truth is not enough. There is something nonsensical about the truth in the mouth of one whose life has no evidence of participation in that truth.

To preach and prove that the 7th day is the Sabbath is not enough. Spirit filled preaching is more than Federal Express delivery of the truth. It is faithful participation in the truth.

If truth was all that was necessary to change lives who would be a smoker?

Soren Kierkegaard "There is no lack of information in a Christian land; something else is lacking."

This is not the time for a grave and passionless preaching picking its exegetical way through Biblical nuances. This is not a time as Craddock says for "predigested, homogenized doctrinal systems that intersect human life at no point." [P. 58]

The servant leader experiences the truth so as to share the truth.

We don't communicate the faith without participating in the faith.Servant leadership is faithful - faithfully participating in the gospel.

11Text Gal 5:22

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

Servant leadership is nothing more or less then spirit filled leaders.

Being a servant leader “is about who we are and not what we do.”iii

The servant leader manifests the fruit of the Spirit in his life.

Being a servant leader is not a milk toast wishey washy person who simple jumps at the suggestion of every person. It “is not so much about serving as a leader, but rather leading as a servant.”iv

Servant Leaders are Connected

For the Servant leader - Leadership is experienced like in the family. You don’t sense it as being above or over others. You don’t feel it as being ahead of others but it is experienced simply as being a part of the whole. It is like being an exposed nerve ending the leader is a part of the church and is affected by the office:

moods, joys and sorrows, pains and frustrations, successes and disappointments.

The leader is enmeshed in the life of the church responding to needs as they are perceived. You might even say the leader is codependent. The leader’s heart races when there is a threat to some part of the body. This leadership is not as some theory from Tom Peters or Peter Drucker but as a response to the body to what’s needed at this particular moment. The leader serves the body so the body is most efficient.v

This kind of leadership is connected, organically connected to the whole. We have learned about families in books like Generation to Generation by Friedman, that in dysfunctional families there frequently is an identified patient but the reality of it is that each member of the family contributes to the problem. If you pinch one family

12member they all jump and if one bleeds they all bleed. So with the servant leader, they are there not to identify the problem and excise it from the body but rather to expose the problem to the body so its resources can bring healing..

It is the servant leaders job not to inflict pain but rather to bear pain.

Ill.Death in the dormitory.

Servant leadership is connected to the people they serve. They feel connected.

When the body encounters problems the servant leader seeks solutions not in lawyers but in serving people.

The servant leader is an expert in love not justice. The phone number in his blackberry is not the employee relations attorney

but the pastor counselor. When confronted with a problem he looks first not for out placement

services but for people building services. When there is a problem with a member of the family they are brought to

the center not pushed to the outside.

How often have we heard “Well someone had to be sacrificed for the organization.”

Who made the rule organizations more valuable than people? The same people who made that rule are those who sacrificed Jesus for the organization.

As Robert Greenleaf says, “The best test, [of servant leadership ] … is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”vi

For that reason in our discussions of accountability we must recognize that the person I serve is the one I need to be accountable to.

As president I am best evaluated and held accountable by the vice presidents, the faculty and staff.

They are the ones I serve and best know if my service is effective.

Ill.

13Draw the pyramid – upside down

Servant Leaders listen

The servant leader listens. Some proponents maintain that the primary mission of the servant leader is to figure out the will of the group, to express that will, and then to further it however he can. The leader begins by listening. Robert Taylor, dean of the University of Louisville's business school, explains: "The servant leader today doesn't have answers, he has questions. The people working with customers are the ones with answers."vii

Ill.Draw the organizational chart and talk about where the wisdom is located in the organization.

Ellen White as Dr. Paulson quoted her yesterday:“Sometimes a man who has been placed in responsibility as a leader, gains the idea that he is in a position of supreme authority, and that all of his brethren, before making advance moves, must first come to him for permission to do that which they feel should be done. Such a man is in a dangerous position. He has lost sight of the work of a true leader among God’s people. Instead of acting as a wise counselor, he assumes the prerogatives of an exacting ruler. God is dishonored by every such display of authority and self-exaltation. No man standing in his own strength is ever to be mind and judgment for another man whom the Lord is using in His work. No one is to lay down man-made rules and regulations to govern arbitrarily his fellow laborers who have a living experience in the truth.”viii

So it is with the servant leader in the church, their leadership is not derived from being the one with all the answers but rather it springs from their ability to listen to those who have answers and

to then give expression to the corporate reality. to paint a picture of the corporate goals of the church. to project a vision

Ill.The picture here is an image of a ship on which interdependent sailors call out to one another what they are doing and what they have learned about the sea

14in which they are sailing. The servant leader incorporates their experience into the whole.It is an image of mutual interdependent adjustment as opposed to an image of singularly controlled direction.

Speaking of answers.Someday I want to write a book, “Leadership for Dummies”That is where I was when I took my present job and it was my salvation.

Servant Leaders are not threatened

The classic Broadway musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” satirized the traditional way of playing the business game. In one song, the perennial mail room clerk explains to the ambitious newcomer, J. Pierpont Finch, how to rise in the corporate world.

The clerk says that when he joined the firm as a brash young man, he told himself, “Don’t get any ideas.” And he hasn’t had one in years. He played it safe, “the company way.” What’s his point of view? He has no point of view. Whatever the company thinks…he thinks so, too. By playing it the company way, our clerk admits, he will never rise to the top. But by never taking a risk, he’ll be sure to be around year after year.

Too much employee energy goes into repression, hiding the truth, concealing problems and refusing to face reality. Rather than confront ideas and people that we think are wrong headed we bide our time.

Inside too many of our conference offices today there is little toleration for public criticism. People see mistakes and abuses and the destruction of those among them who dare to be bold, iconoclastic, and creative. Too often we manifest the pathology of “groupthink” in meetings where differing opinions are not solicited.

We need workers who are independent -minded, who are willing to take the risk of speaking out, who feel free to respond imaginatively to change - who are, in a word, creative. Creativity requires the corporate culture to encourage more open and much safer expression of what may sometimes be irritating or unsettling new ideas.

As Max DePree says in his book, Leadership is an Art,

15“Everyone has the right and the duty to influence decision making and to understand the results. Participative management guarantees that decisions will not be arbitrary, secret, or closed to questioning.” [Page 24-25]

There is no question you can’t ask. There is no issue you can’t raise There is no concern that is off limits.

The servant leader is not threatened by this: Because the goal of the servant leader is not to project the agenda but to develop

a consensus of the groups agenda. His goal is not to project his opinions but to elicit the opinions of the group. He seeks not to mold everyone to his point of view but he seeks to guide

everyone to a corporate point of view His intention is for the group to arrive at a direction rather than for him to choose

the direction.

Would you like to know your score on the servant scale?The true test of a servant is if I act like one when I am treated like one.

Servant Leaders share information

In the old leadership model information was a means of control and it was held tightly to the chest. The policy book was reserved for a special few. A private rule book to be applied to friends of the President.

In the servant leadership paradigm information is shared generously throughout the organization. The goal is to syndicate leadership. For people to exercise leadership in the organization they need information.

We can’t ask people to exercise broader judgment and at the same time give them a very narrow piece of the information pie. (adapted from Robert Haas) Policies, decisions, the rational for decisions, budgets, budget processes all need to be broadly shared with everyone.

Servant Leaders are lavish with communication including everyone in the loop. Exclusive protecting of information engenders distrust. Better to err on the side of sharing too much information rather than not enough information.

16Servant Leaders:

1. Are connected2. They listen3. They are not threatened4. They share information

When the leader thinks of being the leader instead of being a servant.

“This is when he looks to pride rather than humility, To power rather than powerlessness, To being first rather than being last, To being applauded rather than anonymously doing his work.This is where he lords it over people. This is when he becomes more concerned about how people look up to him, rather than on how he can look to his people and serve their needs. In other words, the focus is now on himself as leader rather than on others as their servant.”ix

And Jesus says,whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

Where do we find an example of this kind of servant leadership.45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (NIV)

As I said yesterday:Jesus didn’t just preach servant leadership, he lived it.

Jesus came not to show off his worth,He came to give us worth.

He came not to enrich Himself at our expenseHe came impoverishing Himself to make us rich.

He came not to impress us with His glory.He came to share His glory with us.

And so following the example of Jesus:Servant leaders serve others so they will find success

Rather than using others to find their own success.

17As servant leaders we feed others so that they can reach their goals.

Rather than feeding on others so we can reach our goals.

i Tuesday, May 28, 1997ii Matthew 23:24iii Ibid location 90iv Ibid, location 178v Adapted from: I'll take out the garbage. (leadership in church and family) Authors: Thomas, David M. Citation: The Catholic World, May-June 1993 v236 n1413 p124(4)vi [The Servant as Leader by Robert K. Greenleaf]vii [Title: The leader as servant. (management concepts) Authors: Kiechel, Walter, III Citation: Fortune, May 4, 1992 v125 n9 p121(2) ]viiiTestimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 491. – {ChL 33.1}ix Servant Leadership, Frank Padilla, Kindle location 69.