What Type of Leader Are You - CEO or Servant?

What Type of Leader Are You - A CEO or A Servant? We have been studying the 1st & 2nd Epistles of Peter in our Wednesday night Bible Study. The apostle has much to say about developing a leadership mentality that is conducive to the style of leadership that Jesus designed for His disciples. 1 Peter 5: 1 -4 is a perfect example of the style of servant - leadership that Christ wants His disciples to follow. Peter wrote, "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly, nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock, and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away (NKJV).

Some leaders foolishly attempt to apply carnal standards to spiritual matters. Those leaders view themselves as CEO's rather than servants. They use terms like submission, authority, rules, the system and compliance with unbridled arrogance, for they believe that their position makes them superior to others. Some will use phrases like, "You must be obedient to your superiors!" They will boastfully claim that they are submissive to their SUPERIORS as an effort to enforce compliance upon others. There is only one problem with this concept of SUPERIORITY. For a person to be a superior means that someone else must be considered INFERIOR. This type of carnal thinking smacks in the face of the Savior's love for all. Peter declared, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him" (Acts 10: 34 KJV).

Paul writes, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3: 26 - 29).

Jesus set the standard for leadership in the church when His disciples were arguing over who would be SUPERIOR among them. He stated, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors. But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is is not he who sits at the table? Yet, I am among you as the One who serves" (Luke 22: 24 - 27).

Jesus emphatically stated that it is the one who SERVES who is the greatest among you. The man who humbles himself and sees no SUPERIORS or INFERIORS, but views everyone human being as a wonderful creation of God, is the man who truly grasps the concepts of what it means to be a "Servant - Leader!"

Stacy Reinhart's book entitled, Upside Down Leadership, is a wonderful resource for applying the principles of servant-leadership into your ministry lifestyle. If you haven't read it, do so immediately and begin to follow it's instructions.

God hasn't called you to be a CEO in His Kingdom, He has called you to be His Servant!

Join us this Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. as we continue our study in the Epistles of Peter.