Servant Leadership

For the past two Sundays I served as the guest worship leader at "Lifeland Community Church" in downtown Mason, Ohio. I enjoyed seeing some old friends who attend there.

Last week Pastor Chad Fagerland taught on the topic of servanthood and looked at the New Testament passage of Matthew 20:20-28. In the passage, the mother of two of Jesus' disciples approached Jesus and asked him if her sons could "sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom".

The passage concludes with Jesus telling his disciples in verses 25-28:

"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Even though Pastor Chad was speaking to a broad audience, I was struck at how much the passage applies to Christian leaders. Those who want to "become great", Jesus says must become a servant or a slave. I have to admit, that this is a difficult concept for me follow. "Do I always regard others better than myself?" I thought to myself. "No." I quickly replied.

Afterwards I did a little reading on the word that was used in verse 27 for slave. In the original Greek, the word is δουλος (doulos), which is sometimes translated "servant".

I discovered that it is used throughout the New Testament to refer to followers of Christ. Paul used the word in Galatians 1:10: "If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."

"So, how do I become a servant or slave?" I wondered. At first the whole idea seemed so daunting, and so overwhelming. Then I remembered the Matthew 20 passage, that concludes in verse 28, "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve".

"That's it." I thought. "I need to look to the Son of Man as a model of how to do this."

It still seems like a daunting challenge, but I do feel hopeful that I have a trustworthy model to follow.

Blessings,
Dave

Memories of Turbo Groups

We just returned from vacationing in Florida where we saw our friends Greg and Susie Kazanjian (pictured on the left). Seeing them made me think about how encouraging they were a number of years ago when I first began writing training materials.

It was 1998, and I had just finished leading my seventh Turbo Group at our church (a "Turbo Group" is what I called a short-term leadership training group, designed to help train individuals to lead Christian small groups and Bible Studies).

At the time, I was in the process of finishing a manual called, "Skills for New Leaders: A Turbo Group Training Program", but was not really sure if anyone would be interested in reading it.

Greg and Susie were our neighbors, and one day Greg said to me, "Davey-boy, I'll help you get the manual printed, how many do you want to start with?"

I said, "How about twenty?"

"Twenty?" he replied with a laugh. "I was thinking of starting with five hundred or a thousand. There's more than twenty people who are going to want to use this manual."

I eventually "compromised" by having him print three hundred copies and the rest, as they say, is history. Over the past ten years, I've sold or given away nearly 3,000 copies and a number of churches have used the training to teach new small group leaders important skills for leading.

I'm appreciative of people in my life, like Greg and Susie, who have faith when I don't seem to.

More information on Turbo Groups is available at my website: www.dstiles.com