RDM 25 - Servant/Leader

Ah, Rainy Day Monday again.  That day when I pull an old post out of the archives and brush it off.  Today I am posting from one of my own archives.

Servant/Leader

Okay, so the poster is a little sarcastic, but the rest of this post is so serious that I needed to inject a little humour. I was reading a post about leadership over at one of the blogs I follow. I was drafting a comment, when I realised that I have actually written something about this before; it was one of my first posts on Sharkbait's Reef before facebook removed me. So I decided to re-post it here.

Who or what is a servant leader? Are all leaders called to be servants? Are all servants called to be leaders?

The essence of this question comes down to this. We are all called to serve. To serve others, and to serve God. We are however called to serve in different ways. The true leader recognises his need to serve those around him, but also recognises that the best way to do this is to lead them. His decision to lead is not motivated by a desire to be the leader, but by a true desire to serve his followers. To have in his heart a burning desire to be of service to them, and to walk with them, for their sake, and as a service to God.

On the other hand, the leader who wants to lead, and decides he must do so by serving is not going to be able to do either. His desire to be a leader is going to hamper his ability to serve, and his attempts to serve will drain him as a leader. God gives leaders the special gifts to equip them: leadership; teaching; counselling; shepherding etc. But if our desire is to be leaders, we will burn ourselves out. If our primary desire is to serve God, and serve our fellow man in love for God and them, then God will sustain us.

God will sustain us in our service of him. We are all called to serve, and we are all called to lead. But while serving does not always involve leading, leading must always involve serving.

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