10 things servant leadership is

Having cleared away 10 things servant leadership is not, here are 10 that it is. [Credit to Harrison Mungai for his help in observing many of these features and helping us to think through this really important area.]

I used to think that all that was necessary in gospel ministry was faithful Bible handling. Preach the Word carefully and surely everything else should follow? But I was wrong. Sadly it is possible to have high quality expository preaching and ungodly leadership. It shouldn’t be possible but it is. And it’s a very ugly thing. Peter Mead has written on the danger that can be done to a church or ministry when appointment of leaders values ability over character.

So here are ten aspects of biblical servant leadership, specifically in relation to gospel ministry leadership, from 1 Thessalonians, especially chapters 2 and 3:

1. Servant leadership is, wherever possible, Plural. A lot of articles and books on leadership assume that it is a personal project. Search Google Images for ‘leadership’ and you will see lots of clipart of a single figure with a crowd following behind. But the New Testament picture of leadership is far more often of team ministry (Acts 14:23; Romans 16). 1 Thessalonians is a letter from Paul, Silas and Timothy. They were all there in Thessalonica, ministering together. For Paul to be without his co-workers was extremely unusual and painful for him (1 Thess. 3:1-2 cf. 2 Cor. 2:12-13).
2. The basic dynamic of biblical servant leadership is: Pleasing God and Loving People. This vertical desire is vital – ‘not trying to please people but God who tests our hearts’ - 1 Thess. 2:4. The primary accountability is clear: twice Paul says, ‘God is my witness’ (1 Thess. 2:5, 10). As a wise pastor once said to a man heading off to his first pastoral post: ‘Remember, you are their servant but they are not your master.’ The master is the Lord, not man, not culture, not followers, not pressures inside or outside the church. Interestingly, even secular leadership gurus are beginning to recognise the importance of the leader being submitted to an authority higher than him/herself. 
3. The basic dynamic is: Pleasing God and Loving People. The vertical leads to the horizontal – ‘we loved you so much’ (1 Thess. 2:8). The whole letter of 1 Thessalonians oozes with love. Paul feels the searing pain (1 Thess. 2:17) of being forcibly separated as a parent from their small children (every parent’s worst nightmare) or a child from the rest of his family (a small child’s worst nightmare). In some of the strongest love language in all literature he shouts, ‘Now we LIVE because we’ve heard you Thessalonians are okay – we’re so joyful before God I can’t even find enough words to express my thanks!’ (1 Thess. 3:8-9). Paul was delighted to share his life with them (1 Thess. 2:8).  He was happy to labour as a leather-worker so as to be no burden to them (1 Thess. 2:9). He is over the moon that they have been brought to life (1 Thess. 1:2-10; 2:13) and now he loves to encourage them with signs of grace that he sees in them (1:2-10; 2:13-14; 3:6; 4:9-10). Paul sincerely loves these people. So servant leadership is a double dynamic – pleasing God and loving people. But the two are inextricably linked. It is precisely because the servant leader is focused on pleasing God (playing to the audience of One) that he doesn’t use people, either for money (1 Thess. 2:5) or for self-esteem (1 Thess. 2:6) and he is freed to genuinely love others gladly, deeply, sacrificially. And not only that, biblical servant leaders seek to please a God who is a God of love who defines love and commands love and has entrusted us with a gospel of the love-action of Christ crucified for sinners that he might bring more into the eternal love of the Trinity.
4. The manner of leadership is: Authority not asserted. ‘We could have asserted our authority but instead we were like young children among you’ – 1 Thess. 2:6-7. Servant leaders are not ‘above’ those they are leading, not domineering, but rather see themselves and present themselves as fellow ‘little children’ (cf. Matt. 18:3; 1 Pet. 5:3; Mark 10:42). The servant leader does not simply command as a dictator: “Do this because I say so.” He has the authority to rebuke, command and charge (authority is not a bad word, fathers have authority) but wherever possible he seeks to avoid asserting that authority to compel obedience, preferring to address the flock as a brother in Christ (x 8 in 1 Thess.) and appeal (persuasively, passionately and rationally) for obedience and followership to be freely and gladly given (cf. Philemon 9-14; 2 Cor. 8:8).
5. Instead of dictatorship, servant leadership is exercised largely through three things: first Personal Example. Seven times in 1 Thess. 1-2 Paul says to the Thessalonians ‘You remember’ or ‘You know how’ or ‘You witnessed’ – each time referring to the conduct and ministry of himself and his co-workers when they were in Thessalonica (1:5; 2:1, 2, 5, 9, 10, 11). The whole of the first half of the letter is a reminder of the pattern of Christian holiness and hard work and then there is the hinge in the letter – 1 Thess. 4:1 – with the second half urging them to keep on copying the pattern of holiness and hard work they saw – ‘imitators of us’ (1 Thess. 1:6). We can be shy of this exemplary apprenticeship model but it is clearly biblical – 1 Tim 4:12 and Titus 2:7.
6. Secondly servant leadership is exercised through Fatherly Counsel. This fatherly counsel clearly links strongly with the point about personal example – as any parent knows modelling is a massively important part of parenting which can either halve or double the force of our speech. But speech is necessary. ‘Like a father with his children we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worth of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory’ (1 Thess. 2:11). A great example of this kind of fatherly discourse is Proverbs 1-7 where the father pleads passionately with his son, ‘Please son, don’t go down that path, that is the way of death, fear the Lord, watch your heart son, whatever you do in life above all seek wisdom, get wisdom, sell all you have and cling to wisdom as if your life depends on it because it does’. This is discourse full of love and seriousness and tenderness and God-centred weightiness. That’s what Paul does throughout 1 Thessalonians. And this is fatherly discourse full of the gospel (1 Thess. 2:11b) – the God who irresistibly calls people out of the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son and even makes rebels into sons who will share in his glory.  This is exhortation that motivates people not with guilt/moralism or false promises but with the gospel, encouragement that comforts and strengthens people with the gospel hope (1 Thess. 4:18), admonishes and urges people to live up to what they already are by grace.
7. Thirdly, servant leadership is exercised through Self-effacing Word ministry. Here we find the engine-room and key task of leadership and ministry. Here we find the substance of the fatherly counsel.  ‘When you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers (1 Thess. 2:13). That verse tells us a) the content of Paul’s ministry – not personal anecdotes and experiences but the Word of God (cf. 2 Tim. 4:2; Acts 17:2); b) the authority at work in Paul’s ministry– Paul is very glad the Thessalonians didn’t receive his words as ‘Pastor Paul’s message for today’ but rather received their invitation and warning and call and command and marching orders from God himself (cf. 1 Thess. 4:8) – the preacher is simply a courier, the real authority is the Word of God and the servant leader knows his is only ever a delegated authority exercised through the Word of God; c) the power at work in Paul’s ministry – the word of God is a living agent at work in those who hear – so Paul knows he does not ‘make things happen’ by manipulative human persuasion or sparkling oratory or clever management techniques – hearts are changed as people are served/led by the Word of God. The leader becomes almost invisible and the glory goes to the speaking God.
8. All this servant leadership has a very particular aim: it is ministry directed towards increasing faith. It is very striking the number of references to faith in 1 Thess. 3. Timothy’s goal is to strengthen and encourage them in their faith (v2). The devil’s great target is destroying faith and Paul is terribly worried that the evil one may have succeeded (v5). Paul is overjoyed to hear that this is not the case and their faith has stood firm (v6-7). But he doesn’t stop there, he wants to supply what is lacking in their faith (v10). As Piper argues in Future Grace, faith is absolutely key to everything in the Christian life. It is faith that produces every good work (Heb. 11). It is faith that guards us and gets us home (1 Pet. 1:5). So the servant leader wants to work and pray with a clear aim: ‘for your progress and joy in the faith’ (Phil. 1:25). He wants to be an instrument of God strengthening hearts that they would be eagerly waiting, blameless and holy at the return of Christ  (1 Thess. 2:19; 3:13).
9. A subsidiary but very important aim of the servant leader is: Equipping the saints for the work of ministry (Eph. 4:12). Long before the secular world started to talk about ‘empowerment’ and ‘facilitation’ and ‘investing in people’ God’s plan was that the leaders of the church were equippers and encouragers and catalysts of the ministry of every member of the body. Paul exhorts the Thessalonians (all the saints not just the elders) to encourage one another (1 Thess. 5:11), to warn, help and be patient with sensitivity according to diagnosis (1 Thess. 5:14) and to do good to one another (1 Thess. 5:15). So the first half of Paul’s letter becomes a template not only for pastoral ministry but also, to a large extent, a template for every member’s ministry – encouraging, caring, warning, working hard to do good to one another.
10. In all this servant leaders are God-reliant. This is why Paul prays and thanks God so much through his letter (1 Thess. 1:2; 2:13; 3:9-13; 5:13, 28). Paul knows that it is only the Lord God who can change hearts and lives. He knows that the zeal of the Lord will accomplish His purposes, that He who has started a good work will bring it to completion, that the One who calls you is faithful and He will do it (1 Thess. 5:24). This doesn’t make Paul apathetic, he wrestles in prayer and strains every sinew and pleads with people, but it does mean that he is able to be patient (that oft forgotten fruit of the Spirit) and not push too hard (cf. Phil. 3:15; 2 Tim. 2:25; 3:9).