What is servant leadership? A few years ago, I posed this question to the faculty of a school. The principal responded by saying that servant leadership was helping students do what they wanted to do. I posed a scenario of a student who wanted to commit suicide and asked the principal if he would help the student. The principal froze—he didn’t know what to say; he had not considered such a situation. Clearly, he did not view suicide as something that would truly help a student and was perplexed at the quandary posed by his definition.
The principal assumed that the base nature of mankind is good, that is, aligned with the will and ways of God, and he assumed that suicide was inconsistent with the will of God. In the above scenario, the two assumptions clashed; hence, his quandary. He realized that a student could seek help doing something inconsistent with the will of God. This truth challenged his definition of servant leadership.
If you are an atheist, you might agree with the assumption that the base nature of mankind is good. Furthermore, you might assume that each person has the right to define his or her wishes, that is, each person has the right to autonomy. If you embraced the assumptions of the goodness and autonomy of mankind coupled with the above definition of servant leadership, then the principal should help the student do what he or she wanted even if it meant the student's death.
If this is not appealing to you—and I pray it is not—consider a theistic view and in particular a reformed Christian view of mankind. This view holds that the base nature of man is not good but evil, that is, mankind has an innate bias against God and will therefore, by nature, make choices contrary to the will and ways of God. Based on this theological perspective, servant leadership can be defined as serving the purpose of God in another person’s life. Consequently, assisting a student to commit suicide would be murder (Exodus 20:13), which is contrary to the will and ways of God.
At the rudimentary level, to align with the will and ways of God requires embracing values defined by God. Scripture teaches that God is a spirit being (John 4:24) who is present in his creation (Colossians 1:17), but not bound by his creation (Isaiah 55:8–9). Furthermore, he is immutable (Malachi 3:6) and therefore his values are timeless and universal (2 Timothy 3:15–16).
Therefore, to be a servant leader who serves God’ s purpose in another human means to help that person align with the transcendent timeless universal values that emanate from the God of the universe.
Based on Jesus’ response to the question of the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:36–40) and his new commandment (John 13:34–35), it appears that love is the seminal value of a person who embraces a Christian worldview. The apostles Paul (Colossians 3:14) and John (1 John 2:5) intimate this as well.
In the Greek language of the New Testament, there were three different words translated love in English. The highest form of love was sacrificially serving the purpose of God in the life of another. In other words, doing what was in a person’s highest good from God’s perspective no matter the cost to the person or to the one serving the person. An example of this was Jesus voluntarily giving up his life to pay the penalty for sin so that mankind could be saved. Jesus sacrificially served God’s purpose to redeem mankind from the presence, power, and penalty of sin.
If sacrificial love is, therefore, the seminal value of Christianity, all other transcendent values are subsets of sacrificial love. Some examples of values that emanate from sacrificial love are truth, obedience, hard work, discipline, excellence, faithfulness, generosity, and self-sacrifice.
To illustrate sacrificial love, consider the 1980s movie The Karate Kid. In this movie, a young man (Daniel) was threatened by older boys. In response, Daniel sought help from a wise older man (Mr. Miyagi) who agreed to teach Daniel self-defense. In the process, Mr. Miyagi demonstrated sacrificial love. Some of the lessons that Daniel learned were:
LIFE IS HOLISTIC: Mr. Miyagi skillfully and wisely spent time with Daniel on a daily basis and used everyday activities, such as, painting, waxing, and sanding, to teach Daniel skills and techniques that would be used in martial arts. In other words, even the most mundane activities of life can train us to live all of life better.
SUBMISSION TO AUTHORITY: Daniel, being young and impetuous, was not always a model student. He questioned Mr. Miyagi’s pedagogical methods, which also meant Daniel questioned his authority. Mr. Miyagi was aware of Daniel’s rebellion and therefore part of the process was to teach Daniel how to be submissive, which was not always easy. Daniel had frequent outbursts of anger and frustration, but Mr. Miyagi did not let this alter the training process and insisted on Daniel’s submission.
ACCOUNTABILITY TO EXCELLENCE: Mr. Miyagi expected excellence from Daniel in learning both to think and execute. In fact, to execute well a person must think well. Mr. Miyagi clearly understood this and worked as hard teaching Daniel mental disciplines as he did teaching him executional disciplines. Therefore, Mr. Miyagi conducted practice sessions to test Daniel mentally and physically. Sloppiness was not tolerated. Excellence was the standard; nothing less was acceptable.
The above lessons are examples of sacrificial love in action. To train Daniel, Mr. Miyagi had to sacrifice time and energy to bridle a young man who was undisciplined and marginally submitted. Other than perhaps personal satisfaction, Mr. Miyagi received little for his dedication and hard work. This is congruent with the biblical idea of sacrificial love, which is always about doing what is in someone’s highest good, no matter the cost. Undoubtedly, the process was time consuming and taxing for Mr. Miyagi but he made the sacrifice. This is real love in action.
True servant leaders do not support the will of man; they support the will of God. Such leaders should serve others based on the seminal transcendent biblical value of sacrificial love. Sacrificial love is expressed by helping people find and fulfill God’s purpose for their lives. This may sound noble and glorious but it is rife with challenge. The sin bias in mankind will rigorously oppose this process. Therefore, to truly serve God’s purpose in a person’s life will require a servant leader to work diligently to help that person conquer sin through the power of the Holy Spirit and learn how to practice transcendent values that emanate from God.
No one will function well as a servant leader without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 2:20). Therefore, servant leadership is a spiritual process that requires a relationship with God characterized by humility, submission, and teachability. These are key traits that servant leaders should seek to impart to those they disciple. The primary way to impart such traits is to model them. This is perhaps the greatest challenge of servant leadership.
May the Lord grant all of us grace to be humble, submitted, and teachable before him. These are key transcendent values that reveal sacrificial love. True servant leaders—those who help others align with the will and ways of God for his glory—faithfully model these values.
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