The Power of Servant-Leadership by Robert K. Greenleaf

Author:Robert K. Greenleaf
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Published: 1998-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

THE GROWING-EDGE CHURCH

Years ago I wrote an essay on “The Institution as Servant” in which I made a comment on The Growing-Edge Church. Such a church, I suggested then, is “one that accepts the opportunity all churches have to become a significant nurturing force, conceptualizer of a serving mission, value shaper, and moral sustainer of leaders everywhere.” Since then I have not made a systematic study, but I have kept a close watch and I have not found a church that I think qualifies as a growing-edge church in these terms. I have wondered, why? Are the criteria suggested unrealistic, do any really want to be growing-edge churches, or is something standing in the way? I have concluded that it is the latter. If so, what is standing in the way?

As I get about among churches and church-related institutions, I am impressed by the extent to which they, rather casually it seems to me, employ commercial consultants to advise them and rely on procedures on which I would place the opprobrious label “gimmick.” Both, it seems to me, are evidences of inadequate religious leadership. Well-led institutions are not good customers for either consultants or gimmick salesmen. If these are valid judgments, might they not account, in part at least, for the inability of churches to achieve the healing influence they might have on the two pervasive problems; alienation of persons and failure of institutions to serve? Why would one look to any church for moral and spiritual guidance if that church is seen, even to a small extent, as simply a broker between those in need and facilities that might serve that need which are abundantly available elsewhere? And, further, how can a church in this posture infuse religious leadership, a critically needed quality, into the fabric of society as a whole? If churches, in these chaotic times, are to lead, they must originate and not be seen as sponges for the fads of the day, and they should work from their greatest asset—inspiration.

A church might choose another mission than to become growing-edge by the criteria I have given. But if it aspires to that distinction, then I submit that recourse to consultants, as they are commonly used, and gimmicks will stand in the way.

Let me speculate on why some churches, because they are not clear about their missions, or have not thought through their implications, may have turned to consultants and gimmicks. Could it be that this diversion to do the “in” things and to look for “answers” from experts is an unconscious escape from the much tougher and more demanding course of nurturing seekers? Seeking is an opening to prophetic vision which could have disturbing consequences—and not many are likely to undertake it unless they are given exceptional leadership. And seekers are a resource that cannot be bought with money.

I have followed one thread of this diversionary influence in churches for 35 years. In the summer of 1947, I attended the very first group development conference at Bethel, Maine.

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