What did I learn when I laid aside every model of leadership I had read or heard about? Who was this Jesus I became reacquainted with when I took off my shoes and walked with him through the pages of the Bible? Let me tell you.

The essential lesson I learned from Jesus on leadership was that he taught and embodied leadership as service. Jesus was a Servant Leader in every sense of the concept. I would describe him as one who served his mission (in biblical language, “the will of [his] Father”) and led by serving those he recruited to carry out that mission.

For Jesus, the Mission Was to Be the Messiah. He was sent to bring salvation to the world as God’s Sent One. He served that mission by living as the Suffering Servant Messiah. This mission was everything for Jesus. It was his purpose and direction for all he did while on earth—including his death.

If we take a high-level look at Jesus’ life, we see that everything he did was in service to his mission.

For Jesus, the Model of Leadership Was Servanthood. He was never self-serving. He led first as servant to his Father in heaven, who gave him his mission. If we take a high-level look at Jesus’ life, we see that everything he did was in service to this mission. His personal mission was to serve not his own will but the will of his Father. He said, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38).

The Mission—and the Vision

And what was the will of his Father? How did that translate into Jesus’ life mission? At least three times Jesus provided what we would call a mission statement:

• When Jesus stood in his hometown synagogue, he read his mission statement from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Isaiah 61:1-2; Luke 4:18-19
• When Jesus stood among his disciples and defined greatness and being a leader in the kingdom of God, he couched his mission statement this way: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45
• When Jesus stood in tax collector Zacchaeus’s home, he stated it another way: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Luke 19:10

Jesus articulated his mission in order to define what he was as Messiah. Where and how he led flowed from a clear sense of why he had come in the first place.

If Jesus was a servant to his mission, he led with a vision of what things would look like when he completed that mission. “What things would look like” was his vision of the Father’s call on his life. Jesus cast a vision of how things would look for his followers—if they allowed him to be the Messiah God sent him to be. Jesus often described that vision of things to come as “The kingdom of God/heaven.” Jesus painted word pictures in the form of stories to show people the vision of God for their lives. These stories, or parables, let people see the implications of Jesus’ being the Sent One of God in their lives. Chapters 13 and 25 in Matthew’s Gospel are collections of vision stories. Luke 15 is also filled with stories about why Jesus came and what lives looked like when God’s love ruled in people’s hearts. Jesus led others by casting a vision of how things would look when he completed his mission.

Seven Principles to Lead As Jesus Led

After seeking to understand the elements of Jesus’ leadership style, I sought out timeless principles that described how Jesus led and that could be applied to my needs as a leader among God’s people. Here are seven observations I discovered that describe how Jesus led as a servant.

1. Jesus humbled himself and allowed God to exalt him.
2. Jesus followed his Father’s will rather than sought a position.
3. Jesus defined greatness as being a servant and being first as becoming a slave.
4. Jesus risked serving others because he trusted that he was God’s Son.
5. Jesus left his place at the head table to serve the needs of others.
6. Jesus shared responsibility and authority with those he called to lead.
7. Jesus built a team to carry out a worldwide vision.

These seven observations about how Jesus led are the foundation for our seven principles of servant leadership. Each principle is based upon a teaching or an example of Jesus as he lived out his mission and led those he recruited to join him. Before you can lead as Jesus led, you and I must move beyond what I call a “head-table mentality.”

Head-Table Mentality

One day, I found myself at a head table. My job was to introduce the speaker after the musician sang. As the speaker began his talk, everyone at the head table stood and moved to sit among those attending the conference. Everyone but me! The speaker, who picked up on those leaving the head table, said, “If you are at the head table and would like to move, you can at this time.” Alone, I stood and said, “I’d love to!” We all laughed, and I walked red faced to sit at a table with those who served in the kitchen. From head table to kitchen-worker status—in front of my peer group! What a demotion!

As the blood returned to the rest of my body, Jesus’ story about where to sit at big meals came to mind. He taught:

When someone invites you to a wedding feast [or conference], do not take the place of honor [at the head table], for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, “Give this man your seat.” Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, “Friend, move up to a better place.” Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Luke 14:8-11

As I reflected on my social blunder and the speaker’s words about leadership, I realized that I had done what was typical of many who sit at head tables. When given a position, we happily accept the status that goes with it and somehow believe we no longer need to go near the kitchen. I was suffering from head-table mentality. I had accepted the myth that those who sit at the head table are somehow more important than those who serve in the kitchen. I even had perpetuated that myth by nonverbally resisting a place among the servers. I wondered if the people in my church suffered from this mentality.

We who lead often overlook that the true place of Christlike leadership is out in the crowd rather than up at the head table.

I realized that we who lead often overlook the fact that the true place of Christlike leadership is out in the crowd rather than up at the head table. People who follow Christ’s model of leadership would never be embarrassed to find themselves among the kitchen help. Such a leader is comfortable working with those who serve in the background and gladly works alongside them until they complete the job. Head tables are optional for leaders who follow Jesus. Service, not status, is the goal of this kind of leader.

Bring Back the Towel and Washbasin

Too many organizations, homes, businesses, and schools struggle because they lack men and women who lead as Jesus did. Head tables have replaced the towel and washbasin as symbols of leadership among God’s people. Often those recognized as leaders in the church, for example, hold positions elected by friends and family. Some of these leaders love sitting at head tables but never go near the kitchen (or nursery). Leaders in civic groups may seek to push their personal agendas rather than work with those in their care to meet the goals of the group.

Churches, organizations, and the communities they serve, however, need leaders who know how God has made and gifted them for service and who willingly serve Christ and those placed in their care. These groups need leaders who have skills to equip others and to “team with them” in ministry. We need leaders who will step down from the head table and serve in the kitchen. Ministries and organizations will survive in the twenty-first century when men and women stop following self-conceived concepts of leadership and adopt Jesus’ teachings and examples.

Head tables have replaced the towel and washbasin as symbols of leadership among God’s people.

Service-centered leadership has found its way into current discussions about leadership. The writings of businesspeople like Robert Greenleaf, Peter Block, Stephen Covey, and Max DePree have called leaders to a service-oriented model of leadership. In the marketplace, the pendulum has swung from personality-centered leadership to character-based leadership. I believe interest in principles of servant leadership has grown out of a desire for organizations to be led by those who will serve not themselves but those they lead. Our culture has wearied of the leadership models of Attila the Hun and rogue warriors. We are seeking leaders who consider us more than a means to an end.

The time is ripe to bring Jesus’ principles of leadership into the discussion of leadership. This should happen in the church especially, because leaders in the church—who should have been paving the way to service-oriented leadership—have actually gravitated toward the self-serving forms of leadership that are now being discarded by secular thinking.

Taken from Jesus on Leadership by Gene Wilkes. Copyright © 2016. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

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