"The church's witness (should) take the form of Jesus' witness, whose power was manifest in love, weakness, and suffering" (Michael Goheen, True Story). How do we grow as humble servants who are baptized in the name of the Son, Jesus, whose servant leadership changed and continues to change human history?
Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me and for the Gospel will save it.
Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many.
In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called 'friends of the people.' But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.
+ Jesus (Mark 8:34-35; Mark 10:43-45; Luke 22:25-27)
As we began Emmaus City Church, and as we continue to seek Jesus' wisdom in how to be servants who are becoming more like Jesus, it's good to come back to His words again and again.
If we have been baptized into the name of the Son, how do we continue to be rooted in our identity as His friends who love Him, do what He says, and bear the image of His servants' heart to our neighbors, friends, strangers, family, and enemies?
In light of this meditation, I continue to be convicted by the list below of 20 ways I think Jesus intends to transform us into servants. Using Jesus' method of comparison, the contrast of what leadership should and should not look like can be helpful. And I hope that future servant leaders I will get to learn from will be able to add to it so I can continue to grow in humility (see also a previous post from Soma School on "How We Lead Others with Jesus"). The current list below is merely a starting point for holy curiosity and courage to become more like Jesus together.
"For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Corinthians 4:5).
20 Ways to Be Transformed from an Entitled Individual into a Communal Servant
1) Entitled individuals need to be recognized for what they've done for others. Communal servants focus on Jesus and what He's done for them and for others.
2) Entitled individuals bring their past bitterness into the present. Communal servants bring humble future hope into the present.
3) Entitled individuals soak in the world's cynicism. Communal servants seek the Kingdom of heaven's realism.
4) Entitled individuals wait for failures to happen any moment. Communal servants expect failures to shape their faithfulness for every moment.
5) Entitled individuals choose to keep a record of others' sins with them. Communal servants choose to love others in order to cover a multitude of sins against them.
6) Entitled individuals demand others to repent first in order to forgive. Communal servants forgive first because they have repented and been forgiven.
7) Entitled individuals listen to some portions of Jesus words in order to adapt it to their knowledge of the world. Communal servants work to be nourished by all of Jesus' words so they can be transformed to serve others.
8) Entitled individuals expect others to come to them for insight. Communal servants go out to serve, learning from others along the way.
9) Entitled individuals separate from others during trials and conflict. Communal servants go to be with others during trials and conflict, including those they are in conflict with.
10) Entitled individuals accept being led only on their own terms. Communal servants know they need to be led by others on Jesus' terms.
11) Entitled individuals casually read Jesus' words, assume their own goodness, and serve the community when it comes conveniently. Communal servants regularly pray and work to live from Jesus' words, ask to be filled with the Spirit He gives, and seek to serve their community because they expect all of the above not to come conveniently.
12) Entitled individuals self-protect and participate when the activity fits with their personality. Communal servants self-sacrifice and trust God will shape them to become more like Jesus to be fit for the needs that arise.
13) Entitled individuals fuel doubt with self-focused despair. Communal servants face doubt with Jesus-focused faith.
14) Entitled individuals want only invitation and community. Communal servants ask for challenge and vision as well that are needed in order for growth in forgiveness and grace to happen.
15) Entitled individuals want the glory without the cross. Communal servants know they need the cross in order to give Jesus the glory and others their good.
16) Entitled individuals want God and others only to lead them to streams of living water. Communal servants trust that Jesus is the Shepherd who can and will also lead them with others through the inevitable valleys of the shadow of death and sit with them at the table in the presence of their enemies.
17) Entitled individuals are self- and comfort-oriented complainers. Communal servants are others- and worship-oriented encouragers.
18) Entitled individuals wait to see "success" first, and then decide to give their commitment to what they want to do. Communal servants know "success" is first bringing their faithful presence and patience, and then giving themselves to whatever God wants them to do.
19) Entitled individuals try to love their family, tolerate their neighbors, and ignore their enemies with their own strength when they feel like it. Communal servants choose to love their family, neighbors, and enemies knowing Jesus can provide what's needed even when they don't feel like it.
20) Entitled individuals look at all of the above and think about everything that's not worth the sacrifice. Communal servants are convicted by all of the above as they wonder about how they can seek to be about God's work in the world, what they will follow Jesus into as servants alongside Him, and what the Holy Spirit will do in them and through them in the journey ahead.
For an example of how this approach impacted the growth of the first faith communities who followed Jesus, we have the story of a small group of people in Thessalonica under severe persecution in an insignificant area of the Roman Empire at the time. We get to read how they chose to be servant leaders so that more people would come to follow Jesus:
We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. Instead, we were like young children among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well. Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the Gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom and glory. And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus.
+ 1 Thessalonians 2:4-14
Because of their not perfect, but living, example, we also hear how the part of Jesus' Church in Thessalonica imitated this servant leadership that reflected His life and cross-bearing death:
We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our Gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers ...
+ 1 Thessalonians 1:3-7
Jesus made it happen in Thessalonica then. I believe He can make it happen again now. May He do it again among you and me in the days to come.
– Sully
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