The "new" servant leadership is about more than humility
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Robert Greenleaf introduced us to the servant leadership concept in 1970 essay, The Servant as Leader.A popular quote from his essay is, "The servant-leader is servant first…. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead."
I would say Jesus gives us a better model than that. He didn't simply serve by giving people what they wanted, nor did he flee from conflict. He got into the middle of it all with a fierce love that compelled him to act boldly and courageously. He put his life in danger for the sake of others.
He didn't just serve people with the hopeful result that they'd follow him. He was humble and loving, but not weak.
He led through and by his servanthood. He was gentle as he wielded great power. He served his followers best by leading with strength.
The evidence of that is his confrontations with the powerful Jewish leaders. He openly declared his deity and defied those that wanted to kill him for alleged blasphemy. He rebuked demons, boldly refused Satan's temptations, walked on water, calmed storms, turned over the tables in the temple, and endured a public Roman scourging and execution.
When we think of servant leadership, we tend to think of foot-washing, healing and feeding people, and we stop there. But that's incomplete—all these other things Jesus did really paint a much different picture than what we're used to seeing.
Because we're still living and working in a difficult environment, if we can get servant leadership right—that it's supposed to be strong—we can help our companies get through this year. And we can lead our churches, support our pastors and storm the gates of hell during a time when Satan is celebrating.
Excerpted from Servant Leader Strong: Uniting Biblical Wisdom and High-Performance Leadership, by Tom Harper (DeepWater Books, 2019). For more information about the book, visit https://deepwaterbooks.com/.
 | Tom Harper is publisher of BiblicalLeadership.com and executive chairman of Networld Media Group, a business-to-business publisher and event producer. He has written five books, including Servant Leader Strong: Uniting Biblical Wisdom and High-Performance Leadership (DeepWater Books, 2019) as well as the Christian business fable Through Colored Glasses and its sequel Inner Threat (DeepWater, 2022). Learn More » |
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