Biblical Leadership - Part I
What is biblical leadership?


The “Shepherd” metaphor:

From biblical times up to the present day, the job of shepherding sheep in the Middle East is performed by children; oftentimes even very young children. The children tend the sheep, protect them, lead them to clean water and pasture, etc. An adult acts as “over-shepherd” and keeps watch, often from a hilltop or tower in the vicinity. An excellent example of how this works can be seen in a video by Ray Vander Laan called “The Lord is My Shepherd” (which is on Vol. 2 of the “Faith Lessons” series produced by Focus on the Family and Zondervan).


With this in mind, it’s interesting to read Isaiah 11:1-6:

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him- the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord- and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.”

The youngest and least in the family were given the job of shepherding the sheep (remember the story of Samuel anointing David, who as the youngest son, was out with the sheep).

With this idea in mind, take a look at Matthew 20:20-28. Here Jesus gives his “leadership philosophy”:

“Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. 'What is it you want?' he asked. She said, 'Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.' 'You don’t know what you are asking,' Jesus said to them. 'Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?' 'We can.' they answered. Jesus said to them, 'You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.'

When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord if 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.”

Those hearing these words, both as they were spoken and later in their written form, would have understood that the “Gentiles” referred to were the Romans. The Romans are considered to have been geniuses at administration, after all, they ruled a huge chunk of the world for almost 1,000 years. The Romans applied a very hierarchical approach to governing. In the Roman system of ruling, everyone knew who was directly “over” them and who was directly “under” them. This hierarchical system formed the basis for the governmental structure of the Roman Catholic church (which was an outgrowth and remainder of the Roman empire). We also see it in the organizational charts of modern corporate businesses (although, thankfully, managers rarely command their subordinates to fall upon their own swords as punishment for failure.).

What Jesus was telling His followers was that they were not to follow this type of hierarchical methodology. It’s appealing to our flesh, and it gets things done, but it’s based on position rather than on relationship. Chances are you have a boss at work. Perhaps this person has a title, such as “Manager”. This person has authority over you because of their position and title. If your Manager leaves the company tomorrow and a new person is given their job next week, that new person will now have the authority over you. The authority is based on that person occupying a position in the hierarchy, not on how much you respect and admire them as an individual. The authority is in the position and/or the function. If the position is eliminated or the person does not function according to standards, they are removed like a faulty part in a machine and have no further impact on you and your job.



“Not so with you…”

The church (ekklesia – gathering) of Jesus Christ is all about relationship. God is, in His revealed nature, relational. The very concept of the Trinity is a picture of community. We see in the Trinity each Person – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – loving one-another, esteeming one-another, preferring one-another. As Jesus revealed to us the Father, so we are to reveal Jesus to the world (and to one-another). This occurs as we love one-another, esteem one-another, prefer one-another, serve one-another, sacrifice for one-another. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35).

In Matthew 20, Jesus states that the one who desires to become great (mega) must become the servant (diakonos) of all and the one who wants to be first (proto) must become a slave (doulos). A servant has few rights. A slave has no rights.

The Greek word “diakonos” is variably translated in our bibles as “servant”, “minister” or “deacon”. It is a compound word. “Dia” means “through” or “across” (as in diameter – a measurement through a circle). “Konos” means “dust”, “dirt” or “earth”. So the word “diakonos” literally means “through the dirt”. The picture it evokes is one of absolute lowliness.

Jesus taught this apparent paradox of leadership not just in words, but by his actions. In John 13:1-5 we read:

“It was just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extend of his love. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”

In that culture, the job of washing feet was given to the lowliest servant or slave. It literally involved getting on one’s hands and knees and cleaning the crap off of someone’s smelly feet. Truly, this was the job of a “diakonos”. Remember, these were the days of open sandals or bare feet, as well as dusty walking paths, streets with sewage flowing down the middle and animal droppings galore. I imagine that the whole concept of having a slave wash people’s feet became a standard practice in order to help minimize the stench that unwashed feet would bring into an enclosed space. I think we lose sight of the significance of this in our modern-day “foot washing ceremonies”, where we humble ourselves and lovingly wash one-another’s (already recently showered) feet. If you really want to “wash my feet” in the biblical sense, come clean my garage or pump out my septic tank or pick up the dog turds in the backyard.

In washing the disciple’s feet, Jesus was giving a picture of the greater truth: That the King of Kings, had taken on the role of the lowest servant in order to reveal and glorify the Father and save mankind.

Paul expressed this truth in his letter to the Philippians (2:1-18) when he advised them:

“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Theologians refer to this passage as “the Kenosis”, which means “self-emptying”. Perhaps “self-emptying” is a good description for the essence of what Christian leadership is to be. Our task, as leaders, is not to be served, but to serve. It is to get lower than those to whom we “minister” (diakonos).

How contrary this is to many “leaders” today who take titles upon themselves and admonish others to support them and come under their “authority”. . I have yet to find a place in the New Testament where believers are told to “come under the authority” of other believers. Oftentimes, the pet verse used by these authoritarians is Hebrews 13:17: “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.” What’s interesting about this verse though is that if you examine (exegete) it in the original Greek, the meaning is much more subtle than it first appears.

Hebrews 13:17 redux:

To begin with, the word translated as “obey” in verse 17 is “peitho”. “Peitho” is an unusual word in the New Testament and it literally means “allow yourself to be persuaded”. We might say it as “give the benefit of the doubt”. “Peitho” speaks not of blind obedience, but of voluntary agreement. It brings to my mind the story of the Bereans in Acts 17:11 whom Luke described as “noble minded” because they searched the scriptures to see if Paul’s teaching was true. They allowed themselves to be persuaded.

The next key word in verse 17 is “leaders”. The Greek word is “hegeomai”, which is a somewhat generic term for “leader”. “Hegeomai” can refer to someone who guides, who goes in front of, who provides an example, who leads the way, who rules, who commands, who cares for, who acts as a guardian, etc. In other words, there are subtle shades of meaning in the word, depending on its context. I think if we keep the overarching picture of leadership that Jesus taught in mind, we can grasp the appropriate sense of how “hegeomai” was used here by the writer of Hebrews.

The next key word in verse 17 is “submit” (“hupeiko”), which is best translated as “yield”. The use of “hupeiko” here is consistent with the earlier use of “peitho”. The picture is of making a choice to yield to the servant-leader and give them the benefit of the doubt. Notice that such voluntary yielding is a choice that can only by made by the giver; it can never be demanded or forced (that would be subservience, not submission). There is a beautiful reciprocal relationship here of the “leader” giving him/herself as a “diakonos” and the receiver of the ministry giving themselves back. Each is serving the other in a voluntary expression of love, not out of fear, guilt or compulsion.

In my NIV bible, after the word “submit” in verse 17, comes the phrase “to their authority”. Are you ready for this? That phrase, or anything equivalent to it, does not appear in the Greek text! It was added by the English translators. If you don’t believe me, pull out your Greek Interlinear Bible (if you don’t have one, you should get one) and check it for yourself. In other words, in your NIV bible, there should be a period right after the word “submit”.

So, a contextually correct rendering of Hebrews 13:17 would be something like: “Give the benefit of the doubt and allow yourselves to be persuaded by those who serve you and are your guides.” Do you see how much more consistent this is with what Jesus taught and modeled and with what Paul wrote in Philippians 2?

Jesus said that all authority in heaven and earth belongs to him. We children need to stop this nonsense of trying to take His authority onto ourselves and lording it over one-another.




Shepherds

We began this teaching with a shepherd metaphor and now the writer of Hebrews brings us back to a picture of shepherds. The next portion of Hebrews 13:17 says of the leaders (hegeomai), “They keep watch over you as men who must give an account.” The phrase “keep watch” is a translation of the Greek word “agrupneo”, which literally means “to be sleepless” or “to keep awake”. The word is used to describe shepherds who stay awake all night long watching out for predators that might approach the flock that’s been placed in their care. It’s a beautiful picture of self-sacrifice. The gender reference in this verse (“as men”) does not exist in the Greek text, by the way. The idea expressed here is one of a person being given responsibility for a flock of sheep. Remember who was given the job of shepherding – the youngest children – the least. This person takes their responsibility seriously and sacrifices their own rights and comforts, for they know that the Chief Shepherd will check to see if any sheep have been lost, and they don’t want to disappoint him, because they love Him.


This concludes Part I of this teaching. In Part II, we’ll look more closely at how leadership terms such as shepherd, overseer, elder, deacon and pastor are used in the New Testament.

- posted by Daniel P. (Danny) Coleman @ 1:22 PM