Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian by Michelle Lee-Barnewall

Author:Michelle Lee-Barnewall
Language: nld
Format: mobi
Tags: REL105000, Sex role—Religious aspects—Christianity, REL006100, Evangelicalism
ISBN: 9781493402045
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2016-02-08T06:00:00+00:00

Rethinking Servant Leadership

Being a servant does not negate leadership, as complementarians rightly note, but their correct relationship to each other is critical. Is there a “biblical balance” between the two11 or some other way to conceive of their connection? The Gospels contain Jesus’s well-known pronouncement about leaders. As noted earlier, in Matt. 20:20–28 Jesus tells the disciples that, in contrast to the rulers of the gentiles who “lord it over” others and “exercise authority over them,” those who wish to be “great” should instead be a “servant” (diakonos), just as Jesus came to serve and to give his life for many.

The concept of authority is set in direct contrast to serving. Again this does not mean that Jesus was against the notion of authority. As Wilkins notes, to pursue positions of power and rule as a means of acquiring significance would be natural in the disciples’ environment under Roman occupation. However, Jesus reverses conceptions of status by declaring that service is precisely what leads to being great in his community.12

In this context, “servant” would seem to do more than qualify “leadership.” Instead it provides an essential component so that one must be a servant before one can be a leader. In other words Christ indicates that servanthood is a prerequisite for being a leader. Thus, rather than considering how servanthood modifies a type of leadership, it may be better to ask how servanthood forms a necessary basis for leadership, even authority, and how a kingdom perspective of reversal explains this paradoxical notion.

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