The Difference Between Leading And Ruling
Churches serve; they don’t rule.
The Difference Between Leading And Ruling
A while back, a good friend and I were talking about leadership in the church. We were discussing how you recognize good leaders from bad ones. The more I thought about that conversation, the more I realized that the Bible gives us a very different picture of leadership than the world does.
The world measures leadership by power. How many people follow you? How much authority do you have? How much influence can you exercise? How important is your position?
But the church is different. The church is not about accumulating power. It is about laying power down.
Jesus made that unmistakably clear. When His disciples were arguing about greatness, He said, “Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant” (Matthew 20:26).
That is upside-down leadership by the world’s standards. The world says the leader is the person at the top. Jesus says the leader is the person willing to go to the bottom and serve.
Churches serve; they don’t rule.
There is nothing wrong with good leadership. God establishes leaders, gives them authority and entrusts them with responsibility. The problem comes when leadership is used as an opportunity for power rather than a responsibility to serve.
Power says, “You serve me.”Servanthood says, “How can I serve you?”
Power demands. Servanthood gives.
Power asks, “What can I get from these people?” Servanthood asks, “What can I give to these people?”
Those two things can look remarkably similar from the outside. Both may involve a person standing in front of people, making decisions and exercising authority. But God sees the heart. A person can be leading a church while actually building a kingdom around himself.
A good leader can have tremendous authority while using it to lift other people up rather than himself. That’s why Jesus didn’t just tell His disciples to lead. He showed them what leadership looks like. He Himself would ultimately demonstrate it by laying down His life.
The greatest Leader who ever lived became the greatest Servant who ever lived.
