Some Thoughts on Servanthood

G'day.   I did do some research in the Bible on being a servant.  The first verse that stood out to me was James 1:26.  "If you consider yourself religious but don't keep a tight rein on your tongue, you deceive yourself and your religion is worthless."    So if I do all the right things and do a bunch of things that the world would consider to be religious, or Christian in nature, but I don't have control over my tongue, then I am fooling myself and my religion is worthless.   So that seems to suggest at least a two-prongued approach to servanthood:  (1) doing good deeds for others, AND (2) having a self-controlled tongue.  So one without the other renders me non-religious.  If I have control over my tongue but I don't do good deeds for others, then my religion is worthless. 

Next, Matthew 20:28.  "The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His whole life as a ransom for many."   This verse tells me that the point of service is to assist others.  The ultimate servant showed us the true definition of service by giving His whole life to redeem the world.  In other words, true service in its purest sense, is to give of yourself to death.  Christ did that.  He came to serve.  He came to die.   Could servanthood always mean to give to the point of death?  Maybe not a literal death.  But maybe a metaphorical death is being suggested here.  A death to my selfish desires.   A death to my vain ambitions.  Serving others may kill off my selfish desires.  Serving others may destroy my personal ambitions. 

Quite honestly, I find serving others to be a frustrating endeavor.  It has its rewards, but if I am going to be honest here, I am going to say that we have offered to serve, and then found ourselves being taken advantage of.   Have you ever offered yourself to be of service to a person or to an organization and found yourself being used and abused?  Taken advantage of?  Not appreciated?  Exhausted?  Disillusioned? 

To read the above verses and consider how Christ offered Himself to God as a human sacrifice to redeem the souls of man, it's just almost more than I can take.  To willingly endure the torture, the pain, and the death, is just too much for me to understand.  It's a mystery to me.  It's beyond-beyond. 

Today on the radio on the way in to work, Alistair Begg spoke briefly of this mystery of the Lord.  He is indeed, unexplainable.  He is a mystery.  He is inexplicable.   It just doesn't make sense, what He did for me on the Cross, in my economy.  In my economy, in my set of weights and measures, the scale does not balance out.  On paper, it didn't work out for Him. 

Now, I know by faith that it DID work out for Him, but in the crucible of the attempt at servanthood, I find the prospect of service to be lacking.  It quickly loses its luster.  It's not what it is cracked up to be. 

Yet, the bottom line is that when I wanted to do research on the topic of servanthood, where did I go?  Where did I do my research?  I went to the Bible.  I actually didn't go to any commentaries.  I didn't go to Beth Moore.  I didn't go to John Macarthur.  I prayed and then I went to the Bible.  So I went to a good source of information.  I found a raft of verses that study servanthood and they all eventually ended at the cross.  Here is where we find our object lesson in servanthood.  Matthew 20:28.  The Son of Man came not to be served (sounds more like me) but to serve, and to give His whole life (not part of His life) as a ransom for many."   A case study in servanthood. 
 

Servanthood, part 2

Hey y'all.  I finally opened up my Bible.    It turns out that the Bible has a lot to say about servanthood.  I was so embarrassed and so upset when I went through the concordance.  Oy.  I should have looked there first!   Anyway, this is a promise to let you know that after I complete my research, I'll be back....to let you know what the Word has to say about being a servant.  Love, Lisa

What Does it Mean to be a Servant?

     Hey y'all.  Wondering today what it means to be a servant.  Over the last several months, Tom and I have had to really excavate this word "servant".  We're wondering what it really means.  We've had occasion to see the term "serve" and "servant" be used, quite frankly, in vain.  We've seen true servanthood, too...or at least what we had traditionally seen as servanthood.
   Let me tell you...this excavation has been painful.  Pain-full.  Full of pain.  Difficult.  Eye-opening. 
      An analogy is in order.  When you excavate something, you dig down deep to its roots.  When you pull out weeds from your garden, you really need to dig down to the root.  You need to pull out all the tentacles and pathways where the root of the weed has traveled.  If you don't, it'll just grow back.  It might grow back even if you pull out all the roots.  It's just the way it is.
    We've heard this root analogy used when discussing the concept of sin..bitterness...anger..resentment.  When one goes into therapy, or when one prays to God over a matter, one needs to dig deep and get to the heart of the matter.  Usually getting to the heart of the matter is a painful process.  But it almost always involves confession, forgiveness, and a letting go (a pulling-up) of the issue.  Giving it back over to God.
      So to transfer this metaphor, or analogy, over to the concept of servanthood, I've needed to dig deep.  The Lord has assisted me in this process.   I haven't been too grateful for His help.  "Gee, did You really need to be so obvious about it, Lord?"  The pulling-up of the root of servanthood has been painful, because I've seen people say they want to serve but it comes with a caveat.  It comes with a price.  Is that servanthood?  
    "I want to serve"  but "it has to be done my way."  
    "It's my way or the highway".
    "I refuse to do it your way."
     "Let me serve" but with a spirit of grumpiness.
    "I want to help" but they never show up.
    "Anything, I'll do anything"  .....except that. 

These thoughts from the Bible come to mind.
  Our Lord was The Suffering Servant...Isaiah 53. 
  "Greater love hath no man than this...than to lay down his life for his brother."
 Christ came to seek and save the lost.
  We love because He first loved us.

Lord, would You continue to help me to understand what it means to be a servant?  This is a prayer request that You would help me to understand what it truly means to serve.  Why does it end up looking so ugly?  Why does serving others come with a price tag?   Is that how You wanted it?  When I sign my prayers off in this way, "Love, your servant, Lisa".....why do I do that when I'm no better at being a servant than those I criticize?   Diving deep into the waters of servanthood, I find rough waters ahead.  Lord, smooth it out for me so that I can see what you meant by the term. 

Shepherding the Flock Vs. Ensuring that the Flock is Shepherded

I heard an interesting talk by Chip Ingram recently. Wanted to share it.
First, let me address pastors. I know your job is difficult. Your job is impossible, really. You all work so hard caring for your flock. You are preacher, teacher, administrator, boss, father, husband, counselor, exhorter, encourager, organizer, prayer leader, and more.
So a few weeks ago on the radio I heard Chip Ingram talk about this very subject. He talked about a period in his pastorate where he was, you know, "up to here" ....with the demands of his job. Just full-on working like a dog. A parishioner called him and berated him for not coming to visit her when she was in the hospital .... for (evidently) something on the minor side. When queried, Chip replied that yes, he knew she'd been in the hospital. Then he asked her if anyone from the church had come to visit her and she said that yes, a member of her small group had visited her more than once, and she'd had meals delivered to her home several times. So he was able to determine that she had been visited and she had been prayed for and she had had her needs taken care of, by and large.
His point was this: (and I paraphrase) The pastor's job is not to shepherd everyone in the flock. The pastor's job is to make sure everyone in the flock gets shepherded.
Evidently Chip started up small groups in his church after it got upwards of 200 attenders/members/whatever. They were grouped according to some reasonable organizational pattern, and it was basically working. But, he indicated, there will always be those who think that the pastor needs to drop everything, disregard the set-up organizational plans, and tend to a particularly needy or demanding person, just because.
So when I heard this talk on the radio, I began to understand afresh the uncompromising pressure that pastors are under, when faced with unreasonable demands. This was an eye-opener. Chip explained it so well. His job is not to shepherd everyone! His job is to make sure that everyone is shepherded. Setting up the small groups by and large serves this purpose. He said that when a church grows bigger than 100 or so -- that's about the maximum number of people that a pastor can "handle"..... so then you start splitting them up into groups so the needs are more manageable.
I like Chip's approach. I guess he and his church (and radio program Living on the Edge) have helped to set up thousands of small groups across the country and maybe even on a broader scale.
Bottom line... I think Chip was assisting us in understanding a fundamental concept about leadership. He helped me to realize there is a difference between being a micromanager and a delegator. Micromanagers control everything; delegators keep things controllable. Delegators empower others to take control. Micromanagers grab power and control.
This concept is important in any workplace, yet I am seeing that it's much more significant in the church. I would like to explore this more in detail in future postings. Bear with me as I struggle with an understanding of this complex topic.