Draft of column on Servant Leadership

I heard Jeb Bush use a phrase I had not heard in a while, servant leadership. At a pastor’s retreat, we had a focus on the same theme. The church in America has been hit with a flurry of business materials under the rubric of leadership. Lately, the leadership materials emphasize a charismatic leadership who has vision more than goals, who values change as a good in and of itself: the leader as agent of change. One hears the phrase transformation a good deal in church circles, against the mere model of management that could be termed transactions.

The very phrase is to induce a sense of paradox. Do not servants serve leaders?  In the model of servant leadership, the leader is not after self-aggrandizement prestige or personal power. Power is a tool to help the group and the members of the group find space and permission to discover their best skills, indeed, their best self. Both means and ends are important within this framework. People are not ever to be seen as mere pawns, mere tools of power, but as ends in themselves, intrinsically valuable. Quite simply, one wants to be their best for others.

Servile leadership is not the same as servant leadership. The servant leader does not consider oneself as nothing, nor does the servant leader throw all ego strength to the ruler(s). Some minority groups and those who have suffered under top-down leadership approaches back away from this understanding, with good reason. It is the contention of this model that it can seek to lift everyone up, not only the leader. Surely strides for equality are not served by the fear of the old rock group The Who; “meet the new boss/same as the old boss.”

Servant leadership at the church level seeks to have the pastor follow the lessons of leadership in the New Testament. Jesus repeatedly warns against power over others, coercive means, and instead invites people to an emerging movement, perhaps better put, to develop living within a vision of god’s way in the world, the kingdom of heaven. For instance, in Mark 10:35-45 Jesus speaks against being a tyrant, but to serve all. In John 13 Jesus reverses expectation and washes the feet of his disciples.

We have incommensurate demands for the leaders we desire, politically or religiously. I cannot even imagine one person who possesses the gifts we desire in one package: speaking gifts, powerful skill with people in small groups and one on one, and attention to detail and specific policies and outcomes. Even if a leader has those qualities, if one preference of ours is violated we want to throw the bums out. The reaction of sports radio: to fire the coach and start anew has infiltrated the domain of political and organizational approaches. We may see a powerful leader as optimal at a time of crisis, but not during ordinary times. Too many times, I have seen churches say that want a little Napoleon in church only to discover quickly that they want more dispersal of powers.

We also tend to define leadership with a few attributes such as strength, courage. Servant leadership sees leadership as being able to use a whole variety of attributes and qualities and to seek out one’s weak spots in others. For instance, President Reagan was a consummate public speak but poor on detail. President Carter was detail-oriented, but he was not a magnetic public spe3aker. Few pastors are good in the pulpit, in a hospital room, in a teaching setting, and as administrators. Different situations call for different sets of gifts. As we mature, we discover that we do not need parental figures, but we are able of shouldering the adult responsibilities of leadership as they may arise.