On sacrificial, servant leadership

"Leaders we admire most, who have the greatest credibility as true leaders (vs. successful celebrities), do not place themselves at the center of things; they place others there. They do not seek the attention of people; they freely give it to others. They do not focus on satisfying their own agendas and desires; they look for ways to respond to the needs and interests of their constituents. They are not self-centered; they concentrate on the needs of their flock. Leaders serve a higher purpose than themselves, and they serve the people who have made it possible for them to lead. In serving this sacred purpose, leaders strengthen credibility by demonstrating that they are not in it primarily for themselves, to expand their reputation; instead, they have the interests of the institution, the department, the team and its constituents at heart. Being a servant may not be what many leaders had in mind when they choose to take responsibility for the vision and direction of their organization or team, but serving others is the most glorious and rewarding of all leadership tasks."

-- by James Kouzes and Barry Posner in Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It

"Most churches and missions make the mistake of selecting as leaders the most confident, the most competent, and the most apparently successful. But what you most need in a leader is someone who has been broken by an intimate knowledge of his or her shame and sin, and an even greater experience of Jesus' costly grace. The number one leaders in every church and mission ought to be the people who repent the most fully without excuses (because they know they don't need any now); the most easily without bitterness; the most publicly and authentically; the most hopefully and joyfully. They know their standing isn't based at all on their performance, reputation, and status. They know they are not really successful, strong Christians (or any kind of 'spiritual giant'), but simply weak, redeemed ones, infused with His Spirit."

-- Timothy Keller

"Spiritual leadership is not won by self-promotion, but by humble prayers and heartfelt tears. It is attained by much soul-searching and humbling before God; by self-surrender, a courageous sacrifice of every idol, a bold uncompromising, and uncomplaining embracing of the cross, and by an eternal, unfaltering looking unto Jesus crucified. This is a great price, but it must be unflinchingly paid by him who would be a real spiritual leader of men, a leader whose power is recognized and felt in heaven, on earth, and in hell, and is only available through Him."

-- Samuel Brengle

"The adventure of life is not to know, but to learn. The purpose of life is to uncover and grow our innate capacities. The nature of life is to experience change. The challenge of life is to meet and overcome through acceptance and surrender. The essence of life is to deeply care. The opportunity of like is to truly serve. The secret of life is to fully dare, to risk everything. The spice of life is to humbly befriend. The beauty of life is to give it away, to lay it down for others."

-- William Arthur Ward

"A Godly Leader finds strength by realizing his human frailty and weakness, finds authority by being fully under authority, finds direction by laying down his own plans, finds vision by more fully seeing the needs of others, finds credibility by being a humble example, finds loyalty by expressing deep compassion and empathy, finds honor by being faithful, ultimately finding his greatness by being a humble servant."

-- Roy Lessin

"A leader is aware of and deeply knows his own problems. He lives with and walks among the people in order to more intimately know their problems. A leader lives and talks and walks with God in order to invoke Him to solve them."

-- John C. Maxwell

"Whatever our career may be, true leadership means to joyfully receive power from God and to humbly use it under God's rule to selflessly serve people in Gods way."

-- Leighton Ford

Inspired and inspiring leadership is fully visible wherever it fully exists, and that's not just at tops of organization charts. Mature leaders simply lead by selflessly serving; they simply exist for the higher purpose of their calling to humbly help; they call for no spotlight or fanfare; they need no special attention, because their heart is to give, not receive, attention. They "be" vs. "brag about" themselves. They see and hear vs. demanding to be seen and heard. They receive God's guidance, love, and support, as their own and their only Source of Power. They are genuinely living to be uncomfortably serving vs. apparently serving for a comfortable living. I love to humbly follow someone who lives this brand of sacrificial, servant leadership, someone who is paying real attention to God first and to me as a result, someone who spends no time barking out orders or assigning me tasks or asking for me to own his problems and overwhelm, who is not looking for what I can do for him, but what he can do for me in helping me serve others, someone who is not pandering to me or posturing for me, but seeing me deeply, caring from a depth and power that is both palpable and pure. I have touched, seen, and known this incredible joy, and desire to spread it. You understand me, right C.B., G.B., J.K., B.P., B.M.S.? And thank you.

Spiritual leaders are wherever they show up.

About church and church leadership and their role in serving the Body; it is not always what we want, think, know, fear, expect, or dream up. In the case of spiritual leaders, they show up wherever God chooses for them to, usually in unlikely faces and places. Unlike in "our story," in which we are either the victim (like young Bruce Wayne in the Batman story) or the would-be superhero (like Batman himself) that can't quite get the job done in ridding the world of darkness and bad guys, in "His Story" we are all merely bit players (like Alfred) - sometimes the "leader," sometimes the "led," all the time the humble servant - willing to let His Story victoriously play itself out, effortlessly, instead of forcing and manipulating adherence and attention to our bumbling, castle-in-the-sand-making, silly, sputtering, whiny windmill-chasing melodrama.


Our Spiritual Leaders (Henri Nouwen Society)

The Church as the body of Christ has many faces and places. The Church prays and worships. It speaks words of instruction and healing, cleanses us from our sins, invites us to the table of the Lord, binds us together in a perfect covenant of love, sends us out to minister, anoints us when we are sick or dying, and accompanies us in our search for meaning and our daily need for encouragement and support. All these faces might not come to us from just within certain buildings or from only those we look to as our leaders. But when we live our lives with a simple trust that Jesus comes to us in our Church, we will see the Church's ministry in places and in faces where we least expect it. If we truly love Jesus, Jesus will send us exactly the right people at precisely the right time to give us what we really need most. And these will be our truest spiritual leaders.


The Weakest in the Center (Henri Nouwen Society)

The most honored parts of the body are not the head or the hands which lead and control. The most important parts are the least presentable parts (the hidden, soft, vulnerable innards, so to speak). That's the real mystery of the Church. As a people called out of oppression to freedom, we must recognize that it is the softest and weakest among us - the elderly, the small children, the handicapped, the mentally ill, the hungry and sick, the desperately lost and forlorn - who form the real center. Paul says, "It is the parts of the body which we consider least dignified, that we surround with the greatest dignity" (1 Corinthians 12:23). The Church as the people of God can only truly embody the living Christ among us only when the helpless, hurting, poor, and weak remain its most treasured part. Caring for the helpless, hurting, poor, and weak, not to "change" or "fix" them (for they are what they are), but to serve and suffer with them, therefore, is much more than Christian charity. It is the essence of being the real and true Body of Christ.