Servant Leadership

Servant Leadership - Progressive Growth in Christ
Servant leadership requires the practice of certain disciplines (habits we practice to please the Lord). These disciplines are key elements of "abiding in Christ." They are progressive in nature as set forth below:

• Humility - "apart from Him I can do nothing" - leads me to:
• Seek Him - and as He reveals Himself and what He is doing - I can:
• Love Him - by obeying and working with Him - this will lead me to:
• Serve Him - as I lovingly serve others - this creates opportunities to:
• Exalt Him - by giving Him the glory - and to maximize my faithfulness:
• Accountability - I ask others to hold me to these disciplines.

Servant Leadership - Discovering Humility
The key characteristic and focus of servant leadership is "humility". Why? Because, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). What is pride? In the context of a Christ-led business, pride is simply the belief that I (we) can build this business for God -- without His involvement. On the other hand, humility is the belief that "apart from Him, I can do nothing" (John 15:5). In a nutshell, it's the heartfelt belief that I (we) cannot build a Christ-led business that reflects His works and is love and brings Him great glory -- only God can do that (through us).

Servant Leadership - Seeking Him First
In servant leadership, the degree of our "abiding in Him" is dependent upon the depth of our understanding of who the vine is and who we as branches are -- in other words, the more we understand "who He is" and "who we are in Him", the more we can "abide in Him." The degree of our "abiding in Him" is dependent upon the depth of our understanding of His love, power, grace, faithfulness, mercy, compassion, patience, peace, and joy. Likewise, the degree of our "abiding in Him" is dependent upon the depth of our understanding of who we are in Christ -- as a new creation, child, friend, brother, bride, beloved, saint, and heir of God -- and what He has bestowed upon us -- "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:3). The greater the depth of our understanding of these things, the greater will be the depth of our "abiding in Him."

Obviously, the beginning point for "abiding in Him" is seeking Him. Hebrews 11:6 vividly demonstrates this principle: "without faith (knowing His works & words) it's impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. "

Servant Leadership - Loving Him Through Obedience
The next discipline of servant leadership -- "abiding in Him" -- is loving Him. The Scriptures make it clear that our love for God is demonstrated by our obedience (John 14:15, 23-24; John 15:10; 1 John 5:3). As Henry Blackaby aply stated, an obedience problem with God is really a love problem with God. If we are to be Christ-led, we must be willing to obey regardless of the cost. Obedience consists of three components: (1) timeliness (act or speak when the Lord indicates, not before and not after); (2) fullness (partial obedience is disobedience); and (3) joyfullness (not grumbling, complaining, whining, etc.).

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