Servant, serve, stewardship

A question from my Certified Lay Ministry curriculum --

Look up scriptures that use the words serve, servant and stewardship.  Share one passage, and talk about the relationship between service and leadership.  Note that the word ministry means service.  As a group, explore the difference between this type of leadership and other understandings of leadership in our culture.

A few scripture examples:

• Luke 1:38:  Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”  Then the angel departed from her.
• John 12:26:  Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.  Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
• 1 Timothy 4:6:  If you put these instructions before the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourishing the words of faith and of the sound teaching that you have followed.
• 2 Timothy 2:24-26:  And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness.  God may perhaps grant that they will that they will repent and come to know the truth, and that they may escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
• Mark 10:42-45:  So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.  But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to becomes great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.  For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
• 1 Peter 4:8-10:  Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.  Be hospitable to one another without complaining.  Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve on another with whatever gift each of you has received.  Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever.  Amen.

Knowing that the questions requests a choice of one scripture and the use of it to discuss the relationship between service and leadership, I instead chose two.  Mark 10:42-45 defines how Jesus viewed leadership.   To be a leader is to be a servant.  We are to follow in the example of Christ, who leads us in all things, but does so by being a servant.  When love comes into the equation, our love of others and of God means that we place the needs of others above our own, that we do not seek glory or privilege for ourselves, but we seek to love and serve others, even to the cross.  Peter 4:8-10 speaks to the link between stewardship, service and leadership.  We become disciples of Christ, learning from him a way of life, and then we become stewards of what we have been given, using our gifts to change the world.  I like the phrase, “good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”  We use what we have been given so that others will come to know the grace of God.  We use what we have been given in service to others so that God will be glorified, not ourselves.   

That is probably the biggest difference between servant leadership and secular leadership.  Leadership in our culture means glory, fame, success, authority, and power.  Servant leadership for Christ is counter to all of those values.