Servant Leadership

Today, I had the privilege to lead Bible Study for the College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America as we met for our annual meeting at Ridgecrest, NC.  Below is the outline of my teaching on Servant Leadership from Philippians 2.

“Servant Leadership"

Philippians 2

 June 5, 2012                                                 

A. Some Thoughts on Servant Leadership

Robert Greenleaf – Good leaders must first become good servants.

John Maxwell – True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not to enrich the leader.

Leighton Ford – Whatever our career may be, true leadership means to receive power from God and to use it under God’s rule to serve people in God’s way.

Max De Pree – The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.  The last is to say thank you.  In between, the leader is a servant.

Ken Blanchard – Servant-leadership is all about making the goals clear and then rolling your sleeves up and doing whatever it takes to help people win.  In that situation, they don’t work for you, you work them.

Charlie Brown – Few people are successful unless other people want them to be.

B. Overview of Philippians

Paul’s Theme:  Get your thinking right!

                          Right thinking leads to right living

Chapter 1:  Have a Single Mind (1:21)

Chapter 3:  Have a Spiritual Mind (3:19, 20)

Chapter 4:  Have a Secure Mind (4:6,7,13,19)

Chapter 2:  Have a Servant Mind (2:3)

C.  Servanthood Defined  -- 2:3, 4

Eugene Peterson translates this in THE MESSAGE:  Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top.  Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead.

C. S. Lewis – Repentance means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into… It means killing part of yourself, under-going a kind of death.

C. Servanthood Illustrated

1. Jesus (v.5 – 11)

         <  Opposite of servant-heart – v.14 >

2. Paul (v.17 – 18)

3. Timothy (v.19-24)

4. Epaphroditus (v.25-30)

Tony Baron – One of the great temptations for church leaders is to be powerful.  They often seek the prestigious position not because it is a calling from God, but due to a confusion of desires.  But Jesus directed his followers to “take up your cross and follow me.”  And after washing their feet, he taught the disciples to “do as I have done to you.”  These symbols provide a more accurate measuring stick of leadership than a prestigious position. – From The Cross and the Towel, Leading to a Higher Calling

A Question to Ask Yourself:  Am I doing this for me, or Am I doing this for the Glory of God and the edification of His people?