And whoever desire to be first among you, let him be your servant, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. Matt But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. They were preoccupied with themselves and their positions of power and authority. However, Jesus teaches them that they should not be like the leaders of the Gentiles who lord it over them, but be like Himself and learn to lead by serving 1 Peter 5: Jesus offers Himself as a paradigm or model for them to follow.
Thus, they came in with dusty and dirty feet. It has, of late, become fashionable to talk or teach about this. However, what we need now is not just more teaching, but more leaders that practice this style of leadership. True servant leaders know their strengths and weaknesses and surround themselves with those who have complementary abilities and can offset their weaknesses.
Servant leaders invest themselves in enabling others to do their best, allowing teamwork to move their ministry. A true servant leader allows those alongside to grow into a great servant leader as well. True servant leaders invest in their team, empowering them to serve others in the same humility they display to others. They are committed to serving with humility and concern, having a forgiving and giving heart.
They are willing to sacrifice personally for the well-being of others. They are willing to do humble tasks, but as their leader, they always have in mind a larger vision. A serving attitude does not imply willingness to be abused by others or the toleration of exploitation.
Servant leaders are not enablers to those who should be helping themselves. A true servant leader is disciplined in all areas of life, knowing their first responsibility is to serve God and then to others.
Character and Integrity One of the keys to successful long Christian leadership is the desire to live with character and integrity. In 1 Timothy and Titus it lists 24 characteristics that should be seen in Christian leadership.
Some of these include being of good behavior, not greedy for money, not given to excessive drinking, not quick tempered, but being self-controlled, a responsible steward, one that holds fast to the Word of God and has a good reputation outside the church. It tells us that these qualities should be evident in the lives of those who are called to Christian leadership.
In saying this though, it does not say that one has to be perfect to be in Christian leadership. That is not possible as we are all human and fall short at times. However, it is saying that these things must be evident most of the time. We have to be like this, because our God is like this.
We all know this theoretically. However, in practice it appears that Christians and Christian leaders are no different from others. It is very painfully true of many top leaders even in the Church and Para-Church organizations today. We cannot be sure if what a Christian leader is saying is true or not and so we cannot trust them. They are not proving to be people of their word who can be taken at their word.
What they say and what they have inside and what they say and what they do, do not match often. I firmly believe that as Christian leaders we need to have this same commitment to living with character and integrity the Bible talks about. We need to have a good testimony both in and outside the church and before God and man. Risk-Takers The concept of risk is a challenging one for many Christian leaders. On the one hand, many churches and Christian organizations are conservative in their target setting.
This is a dangerous paradigm to take. On the other hand, God is a God who understands and uses weakness to achieve His purpose. Achieving the salvation of the world through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was the ultimate in using weakness.
It was also risky. The very heart of the sacrifice of the cross was that Jesus chose to go through with it. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed "Yet not what I will, but what you will. It had to be a real choice, with the inherent risk that Jesus could not go through with it. If there was no choice, there was no sacrifice.
The fact that Jesus resisted all temptation, maintained his integrity with the spiritual power with which he was entrusted, and surrendered himself to the cross does not take away any of that risk. In the selection of His twelve disciples, Jesus also took significant risk. Those who have hired people to fulfill roles where the job will expand significantly know the difficulty of selecting people who will make the transition successfully.
Jesus took the risk of calling a group that would probably not make the short list of most current-day executive search teams! Michelangelo said "The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. If we challenge ourselves with large goals, then we need to take risks in redefining our strategy.
Team-Worker Jesus could have for sure done a lot more and better, if he had not had his disciples with him. However, he chose to work together with them and to build the team of his disciples, the first leaders of the Church. He taught them, gave them OJT On the Job Training , heard their reports, prayed with them, corrected them, gave them opportunities to see him in action, and ended up investing most of his time and effort on them.
This is what we find in the Gospels and Acts 1: Therefore, I believe, all Christian leaders would be team players, team builders that are committed to the discipline of working with and for a team and make themselves accountable to others in the team. Without neglecting their personal tasks and goals, they give adequate attention and priority to the collective tasks and goals and invest in empowering others.
Otherwise, Christian leaders become carnal, worldly, and selfish and cease to be Christian leaders. Each leader was unique, gifted, and had clear strengths and weaknesses. But they all led differently, for better or for worse. As I followed this thought experiment, I identified ten leadership styles. They are just as applicable in the church as they are outside of it, and they are:. Each of the ten leadership styles are the opposite to another style.
This means we can pair them together which gives us five scales. Each scale has one of the ten leadership styles at each of end of it, which you can see here. The perspective scale is a measure of how we see the world. Are we visionary, focusing on tomorrow, or are we pragmatic, focusing on today? The focus scale measures our default priority. Are we relational, prioritising connection with people, or are we outcome-focused, focusing on completion of task? The framework scale measures our navigation and interaction with the world.
Are we methodical, valuing organisation, or are we flexible, valuing improvisation and adaptation? The perception scale measures our response to events. Are we confident, thinking clearly and having convictions, or are we sensitive, valuing deep thinking and responsiveness?
Finally, the engagement scale measures how we are energised within the world. Are we active, energised by proactivity, and taking the initiative? Or are we introspective, preferring reflection and pondering? Further research led me to conclude that each of these ten styles is made up of five drivers — strengths, motivations, and behaviour — that define, shape, and characterise it.
Ten leadership styles, each with five drivers, gives us a total of fifty attributes that any one of us can be strong or weak in. For example, you can see in the above chart that visionary leaders are characterised by envisioning, innovation, intuition, exploration and imagination.
Each driver is a strength when healthily employed, but if unhealthily used — due to stress, insecurity, or overuse — can become destructive and damaging to our leadership. I call these overextended drivers dysfunctions. We think we are leading well, but our strength to serve others has become a strength that hurts others. You can see these dysfunctions here:. For example, you can see in the above chart that visionary leaders, when under pressure or feeling insecure, may fantasise, get distracted, self-gratify, destabilise or daydream.
You might have a dominant or primary visionary leadership style, for example. We all have a unique mix of these leadership styles, with varying strengths, and I call this blend of ten styles our leadership leaning. On each scale, we will fall somewhere. Take the Perspective scale at the top of the above diagram.
We may have a strong leaning on the visionary end, for example, or a slight leaning. Or we may be strong pragmatically or have a slight leaning that way.
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