Which is Easier? Lead or Serve?

Back on the issue of what seems to have taken center stage in the Christian ministry world. By way of recap, there seems to be an inordinate amount of leadership gatherings, webinars, seminars, blog posts, etc., especially when compared to what's out there dealing with the area of living the life of a servant.

Sadly we live in a culture that has pretty much infiltrated the church, hence the allure to position, posture and stature. Of course every organization needs great leadership, but what seems to be happening is that we have developed a mentality within the Christian organizational world that says, if you're not a leader then your pretty much not anything at all.

It's kind of like freshman playing high school football - every kid wants to be the quarterback. The sad truth is, if 50 kids go out for the team there might be two or three that have the aptitude to play that particular position. But, quarterback is the glory position so everyone thinks that that's the position to play. Not unlike the church - most people see the person who speaks from the platform as the "key" person in the church, so many of the incoming staff have that position in their sights - everyone thinks that is the place to play.

All the while, any emphasis on promoting the important role of servant, is pretty much left on the sidelines. So what do we do if we continue down this path of glorifying leadership and ignoring the role of servant?

Hopefully I'll have more on this tomorrow - but for now, keep serving and keep bringing the Kingdom to the least of these.

Leadership or Servanthood . . . What's More Important

Trying to answer the question of whether leadership or servanthood is more important is a little like trying to decide which sense is most important, your ability to hear or your ability to see.

This nearly impossible to answer question started swirling around in my head when I began to take notice of all the emails I was receiving inviting me to take part in this "leadership" conference or that "leadership" webinar; and that was not all . . . then there were all the books on leadership, and the podcasts dedicated to building more effective leadership skills, especially in those who are leaders within the church. It seemed as if leadership were the clarion call and that anyone not participating was more or less the class nerd. Worst of all a class nerd with absolutely no leadership skills to speak of!

All of a sudden it seemed that no matter where I turned or tuned, there was someone or some organization selling the benefits of their leadership deal - Each group would roll out their "star" line-up of leaders; groups of people who most of us have heard of and sort of feel like we know. All of this effort in an attempt to capture our attention and our commitment to attend.

After what seemed like months rolling into years of being beckoned into the realm of would be leaders, I began to wonder whatever happened to the value that we once placed on living the life of the servant.

Now that I've set the stage . . . I will do my best to provide a daily contribution to this question of leadership or servanthood - where do we go from here.