Leadership

A couple of weeks ago, leadership was the topic of discussion around here.

I had a conversation with my friend Doug and I have not been able to stop think about something he shared with me. He was telling me about a leadership tape that he and his son were listening to for his son's job. The speaker on the tape was Andy Stanley and he said this;

"If you look around and find that you are the most powerful person in the room, what do you do?"

Doug said the teaching then proceeded to tell the story of Jesus washing the disciples feet, and explained that a real leader serves.

The night after this conversation with Doug, Mike and I were watching some sort of Dateline, 20/20, Primetime show about parenting and disciplining. The long and short of the show was this:

Disciplining often becomes a power struggle. Praising your kids in the positive helps decrease the amount of power struggles they engage you in.

At the end of this same week, Mike had the opportunity to lead worship at an event and came home with this (among many) nugget of wisdom:

Jesus isn't looking for leaders who will serve, but servants who will lead.

Wow! Anybody see where I'm going yet?

What I felt God was saying to me this week wasn't hugely profound in itself, but very weighty to me. As I look around my life, I am the most powerful person in my school room which is where I spend most of my day. I know that my calling right now is to serve my children. There is no doubt in my mind of that. But the convicting truth is that my heart has not been in a posture of a servant and a servant considers others' needs before his own.

The parenting show we watched was such a reminder to me to champion my kids. To support and encourage them. To truly serve them. Jesus said: "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you." As I serve my children, I am teaching them to serve others.

I wonder if a servant has power struggles?

Jesus finished up this conversation by saying; "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."