Curated by It’s That Part™ — Originally published by Faith and Proverbs on .
In my work, God has led me down a winding road—from accounting to leadership positions at McDonald’s, then Jiffy Lube, then Shell, then BP, and now at a fintech startup. But in every twist and turn, at work and church, he’s graciously provided me opportunities to serve and lead.
Servant leadership is one of the most influential and highly debated leadership theories of the last 40 years. Even to Bible-believers, who know God’s Word is perfect (2 Sam. 22:31), profitable (2 Tim. 3:16–17), and pure (Ps. 12:6), biblical truths may sometimes seem to run counter to common sense.
Since God’s ways are higher than man’s ways (Isa. 55:8–9), the believing leader must reconcile his or her thoughts—his or her reality—with God’s mind and will as revealed in the Bible, not the other way around (Phil. 2:2–4; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:20–24).
While the Bible’s apparent paradoxes may present temporary conundrums, they aren’t contradictions. Like God, we can both lead and serve. We can put others ahead of ourselves. Let me share six surprising scriptural secrets of service, surrender, and sacrifice.
1. To achieve greatness, serve everyone.
In his teaching on human ambition, the Lord taught his disciples that those who wish to become the greatest among them must serve all (Matt. 20:16; Mark 10:35–45). He used himself as the supreme example of the high cost of selfless sacrifice, saying, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). The son of the Sovereign, himself sovereign God, said he came to serve. His life-ransoming service cost him everything but ultimately gained him (and us) even more.
The son of the Sovereign, himself sovereign God, said he came to serve.
When serve-first CEOs work early mornings and late nights, when church planters set up chairs and take out the trash (like my father did), or when plant managers take extra summer shifts so their line workers can take time off, we see the others-first, self-denying marks of true servant leadership.
2. To get more happiness, give more.
The apostle Paul quotes Christ when he says, “It is more blessed to give than receive” (Acts 20:35). While this principle may appear emotionally relevant at birthdays and Christmastime, in context, it seems to apply more to giving sacrificially to “support the weak” (v. 35). In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul refers to the fact that he and his missionary companions had been hungry, thirsty, mistreated, and homeless (v. 11) and needed God’s people to care for them.
The paradox seems to be that it’s more blessed (more conducive to true happiness) to give to the most needy—those least likely or able to give anything back—than it is to receive a gift like being well fed, well clothed, and well treated. Leaders should remember that giving time and energy to those followers who need it most, and who may seem to have the least to offer in return, is part of servant-leader altruism.
For example, retired leaders may spend time mentoring interns, CEOs may invest in employees who will eventually work elsewhere, or managers may take a chance on hiring someone they aren’t sure will be reliable. In each case, these leaders are giving to those who can never pay them personally—and in some cases will not even benefit the company.
3. To go up, the way may be down.
The messianic journey of the eternally preexistent Son (John 1:1) was an epic journey down—from the highest heights of glory to the depths of the grave (Eph. 4:9). But because Jesus was obedient to and through death, God highly exalted him, bestowing on him the highest title and position: Lord of all (Phil. 2:9–11).
I worked at McDonald’s for 14 years early in my career. After six years in a regional controller role, I entered an executive training program in restaurant operations. Even though I was a CPA and MBA, I began as a crew trainee in the restaurants. I cleaned toilets, worked every weekend, counted cash drawers, and scrubbed trash cans. After two years in the restaurants full-time, I was operationally qualified to lead markets and regions for the company.
When I became the regional vice president in Nashville and then Kansas City, I was able to make better decisions based on my recent real-life serving experiences with both customers and crew. Those two years in the restaurants were some of the most difficult but also, by far, the most formative and rewarding of my career.
4. Ending is better than beginning.
The wise preacher in Ecclesiastes taught that the day of one’s death may be happier than the day of one’s birth, and a funeral is better than a party (Eccl. 7:1–4). When a life has been well lived and the journey is complete, the ending may be more joyful than the uncertain beginning.
One example: I enjoy traveling. I like the anticipation of the journey and the high and low points. But nothing makes me happier than packing on the last day of a trip and preparing to return home. In the biblical sense, the journey’s last day is happier than the first, because our Odyssean journey has been completed, and we know we’re going home.
In the same way, the day we retire should be sweeter than our first day on the job. We can look back at the ways God has provided, praise him for both his severe mercies and abundant generosity, and rejoice in the satisfaction of a job well done.
5. To achieve victory and freedom, yield.
On the penultimate day of his earthly life, Jesus yielded. In the darkest hour before the cross, when all he could do was physically and emotionally labor in prayer, Jesus surrendered his will, once again, to the Father’s divine will (John 6:38). Through his obedience and yielding, the world’s greatest victory was achieved and every believer was made victorious in him.
Similarly, every believer must yield daily to the Father’s will (Rom. 12:1). The servant leader, instead of insisting on the rights and privileges attending the office, may unexpectedly choose to yield the prerogatives of leadership for the real power found only in sacrificial service and selfless surrender.
At work, this could mean silently accepting the boss’s unfair decision, waiting patiently for a long-overdue promotion, or giving in to a coworker when a conflict starts to escalate.
6. To leverage sacrificial service, learn.
Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered (Heb. 5:8). The all-knowing, eternal Son of God, present and active from the creation of the cosmos (John 1:1–5), learned. He learned obedience experientially. Not only is Christ an exemplary servant leader, but he’s also the ultimate example of a servant learner.
If the all-knowing God leverages his human trials to learn, any executive may seek new insights from even the most challenging life experiences.
Start-up life is hard. After I’d spent more than 30 years in corporate roles and experienced six interstate relocations, my wife and I moved back to our hometown, and I joined a small tech start-up as CEO. We had six employees and two weeks of payroll in the bank. I learned to leverage relationships to raise the capital we needed to grow. We nearly ran out of money twice in that first year. I learned faith and dependence on God through those lean times. After six years, we’re now fully funded and sustainable thanks to more than 100 courageous investors who believed in us. While this was later in my leadership journey, I learned much from the process.
My Thoughts, His Thoughts
The servant leader may seek to reconcile his or her thinking with the mind of God as revealed in the Bible (Eph. 4:20–24), which will result in the practical development of a Christian worldview. When viewed from God’s perspective, the Bible’s apparent paradoxes reveal surprising scriptural insights about the heart of leadership—service, sacrifice, and surrender.
I learned faith and dependence on God through those lean times.
Consider Christ’s range of service—how far he came and how much he gave to serve obediently and perfectly. These choices and actions demonstrate the extent of Jesus’s serve-first, others-first servant leadership. God the Father, too, lacks nothing and is all-sufficient and eternally complete in himself (Acts 17:24–25). Yet his every interaction with us is others-focused. And the Holy Spirit serves by guiding and teaching (John 16:13) each believer as we develop progressively from one glory to greater glory (2 Cor. 3:18) in the process of ongoing sanctification (2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2).
God’s divine motivations and actions are consistent with servant leadership. The leader who holds a Christian worldview may benefit from prayerful meditation on God as the original and ultimate servant leader.
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Originally sourced via trusted media partner. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/serving-like-jesus/
