Archive for Service
My Thoughts on the Fourth
Posted by: | CommentsSome veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg–or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can’t tell a vet just by looking.
What is a vet?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.
They’re the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another–or didn’t come back at all.
He is the Quantico drill instructor that has never seen combat–but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.
He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor die unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket–palsied now and aggravatingly slow–who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come. He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being, a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs. He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known. So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say, “Thank you.” That’s all most people need, and in most cases, it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
It is the soldier,
not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier,
not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier,
not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
Who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.
That’s how I see it anyway……..
Lead Like Jesus
Posted by: | CommentsLeading Like Jesus
Introduction
Equipping people to become servant leaders will be a task of the church until Jesus returns. Therefore it is important that we keep the mentality of a servant (slave) at the forefront of our ministries.
Jesus, the greatest leader of all time, was unquestionably a servant-leader. The crown of his servant-leadership was a crown of thorns.
- The symbol of Rome’s leadership—a sword
- The symbol of the Greek’s leadership—a pen
- The symbol of secular leadership—a chair
- The symbol of the Christian’s leadership—a towel and basin
Maybe a better title for this topic would be, “Developing a Foot-Washing-Driven Church.”
Servant Leadership is what the entire Bible is about!!
The Problem
In the last 50 years, “the church” has been experiencing an identity crisis. She has unfortunately been receiving her cues from the secular market place rather than the authoritative Scriptures. Preachers have courted the world’s philosophy so long it’s become second nature, the norm, and embraced as a viable style of leadership.
The by-product from this type of secular thinking is a non-spiritual hierarchy in the Church (2 Cor. 4:5). Service, not status, is the goal of a leader who has Christ as his master.
- Natural Ability vs. Spiritual Giftedness
- CEOs vs. Shepherds
- Executives vs. Servants
- Managers vs. Leaders
The church does not need only strong-natural-leaders. The church needs strong-servant-leaders. Two many preachers are building resumes rather than people and churches.
“Most of us would have no objection to being masters, but servanthood holds little attraction.”
- J. Oswald Sanders
The Servant Paradox (the top is through the bottom)
A leader starts by first being a follower.
A servant-leader is not a title or position. It is a lifestyle.
The principle is simple The way up is the way down in God’s economy.
A successful servant-leader in ministry descends not ascends. So many leaders excel at climbing the ladder but fail at coming down the ladder.
The more authority, giftedness and natural abilities you have the more you have to work at servant-leadership. The flesh is a menace to servant leadership. Me-ism is the idol of today’s leadership and it is antithetical to Christ leadership style.
Let me draw your attention to some key texts:
Mark 10:35-45
- This, without question, is the key text in the Gospels to define Christ’s leadership style.
- Christ has already made three predictions about his impending crucifixion (Mark 10:32-34 being the third).
- James and John ask an inappropriate question that is still being asked, or at least being thought, today.
- Jesus’ closest disciples were looking for a messianic “secretary of state” not a suffering servant.
- Notice that their ambition is not wrong. However, their ambition is certainly misinformed and misguided. Notice they are not condemned for seeking greatness. Aspirations are not wrong as long as they would seek the right kind of greatness. Their error is in the goal. (Self-centered vs. Others-centered)
- On the spot, Christ transforms their concept of greatness. Jesus redefined greatness and being first. True greatness is when you serve. You are first when you are a slave.
- The paradox of all paradoxes is the way to the top is through the bottom!
- God’s standard for leadership is selfless-servanthood! Servant-leaders give up personal rights to find greatness in service to others.
- Jesus spent his whole life and ministry serving others. The cross, a case in point, is the ultimate sacrifice/service to others. Jesus wanted James and John to know that following him would cost them their lives, not gain them places of position.
- Servant-leadership is two-sided. On one side it requires drinking the cup and being baptized with the baptism of Christ’s suffering (Mark 10:38-39). On the other side serving others is a tremendous privilege (Acts 20:35).
- These exhortations are unqualified! Jesus did not call us to servant-leadership only when it…is convenient, fits our schedule, or if fits our personality.
Servant-leadership is God’s standard for spiritual leadership! To say it another way, servant-leadership defines spiritual leadership.
