Are you a Servant Leader?

Good Day, so here’s an interesting question, are you a servant leader, leader or just a follower—before you answer, you may be surprised.

But before we get into the above topic, let’s enjoy some jokes—

Here is some funny stories for you from http://godslittleacre.net/funnies/kids.html

01. A Sunday School teacher decided to have her young class memorize one of the most quoted passages in the Bible — Psalm 23. She gave the youngsters a month to learn the verse. Little Bobby was excited about the task, but he just couldn’t remember the Psalm. After much practice, he could barely get past the first line. On the day that the kids were scheduled to recite Psalm 23 in front of the congregation, Bobby was so nervous. When it was his turn, he stepped up to the microphone and said proudly, “The Lord is my shepherd . . . and that’s all I need to know!”

02. When a mother saw a thunderstorm forming in mid-afternoon, she worried about her seven-year-old daughter who would be walking the three blocks from school to home. Deciding to meet her, the mother saw her daughter walking nonchalantly along, stopping to smile whenever lightning flashed. Seeing her mother, the little girl ran to her, explaining happily, “All the way home, God’s been taking my picture!”

03. A mother took her three-year-old daughter to church for the first time. The church lights were lowered, and then the choir came down the aisle, carrying lighted candles. All was quiet until the little one started to sing in a loud voice, “Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you….”

04. A little boy walked down the beach, and as he did, he spied a matronly woman sitting under a beach umbrella on the sand. He walked up to her and asked, “Are you a Christian?” “Yes.” “Do you read your Bible every day?” She nodded her head, “Yes.” “Do you pray often?” the boy asked next, and again she answered, “Yes.” With that he asked his final question. “Will you hold my quarter while I go swimming?”

05. One day a space shuttle crashed to the ground in the yard of a preschool. When he finally struggled out of the wreckage, the astronaut shouted, “I’m free! I’m free!!!” At this point, one of the little children standing there shouted back, “Big deal, I’m four!”

06. A Sunday School teacher asked her class, “Does anyone here know what we mean by sins of omission?” A small girl replied: “Aren’t those the sins we should have committed, but didn’t?”

Laugh, Laugh, I hope you enjoyed these few moments of laughter for all of us a little laugh.

The people cry out each election, where are our leaders and how will they fix our problems? The American people put so much faith in their leaders every 2, 4 or six years and yet the problems they promise to fix don’t go away? Are these leaders, just leaders, servant leaders or lifetime politicians?

Let’s think about this for a second, are you, as a Christian, a servant leader or just a follower in your daily life? Would you consider those men and women that we have or are presently in office a servant leader or a politician?

Before we get into the Biblical part, I recently read an article by Becky Sweat of Beyond Today of the kind of leaders the world needs and this got me thinking about various categories of people that we may fall into in our daily lives.

As one examines their life, they would fit into the servant leader without really know it? Servant leaders might be a parent, husband, wife, boss, manager, teacher, coach, pastor, elder, deacon, one who holds office as chairman of a company, church, homeowner’s association. I’m sure you could add to this category so the above examples will give you a good basis.

Let’s take Jesus—was He a servant leader? The example the author, Becky Sweat uses is excellent for in Matthew 20:25-28 (NIV) says. ²⁶ Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— ²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Here is the perfect example of a servant leader, Jesus Christ, but let us a dual witness as found in Mark 9:35 (NIV) ³³ They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” ³⁴ But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

³⁵ Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

As one reads the above verses, various traits come to mind as to those who are servant leaders and pompous leaders.

Servant leaders lead by example and not by words for they are those of action who say little and get the job done. In essence they, they tell the world what they did after they did it and with little fanfare or credit.

Servant leaders are very modest when taking the credit, and express and reflect a spirit of deference and humbleness while we leaders who are constantly “tooting their horn”, arrogant, egotistical, haughty, or conceited.

Servant leaders are straightforward and reliable giving solutions and not suppositions, Servant leaders are ethical in both their personal as well as public life. Let’s include honesty to the list for servant leaders as they are known to be trusted with all matters, details and issues that they face on a daily basis.

Leaders tell each audience what they want to hear, have loose morals, are unreliable in all their ways, have a “loose tongue”, dishonest, deceptive and deceitful in both their personal and public life. Lack of commitment is a very big issue for not just leaders, for this effects each of us in pour personal lives when we promise one thing over and over and never come thru. Whether it be to your husband, your wife, or your children, don’t commit or over commit without falling through for your word is your bond.