Faith Venture

Boxing legend Muhammed Ali generated a lot of publicity in the 60s with his boast, “I am the greatest.” The rock group Queen followed in the late 70s with the perennial sports anthem, “We are the champions of the world.” But it’s not just 20th Century America who is concerned with being the best.

The closest followers of Jesus became embroiled in a heated discussion as they were walking toward another city. Imagine an animated yet whispered (because they didn’t want the teacher to know) argument–who is the greatest disciple.

So Jesus naturally asks, what were you discussing? They were ashamed. Of course. Ever see a kid get “busted?” Even a dog has a look of shame when you call it out for doing something even it knows it shouldn’t be doing. But for Jesus every life experience is an opportunity for teaching. So he throws out one of his paradoxes. If you want to be the greatest, you must be the servant.

He then pulls a child to him to emphasize the fact. You see, children were not romanticized in the ancient world as they are today–especially in Britain and America. They were little people, and being little and unable to do much work, they had little value. We, on the other hand, tend to get gushy sentimental about kids and think our goal in life is to provide them everything they could possibly want to make them happy. (That doesn’t work, but that’s a different teaching.)

Organizations have been built on the principle that all honor and glory should be given to the CEO (or bishop, or whatever role). That person gives orders to people who give orders to people and so on until finally work gets done. This has been the manufacturing model–a model upon which schools and churches have been built.

But all that is changing. We’re seeing a change in manufacturing, where the insights and ideas of every person in the company is solicited and valued. We’re seeing CEOs (often the most successful) who understand their role is to support others. We’re seeing the most successful churches are those where the leadership gifts of everyone are encouraged, and missions and ministries are built from the ground up–rather than ordered from the top down. Maybe we’re finally learning from Jesus.

If you want to be the greatest, be the servant of all.

This entry was posted on June 12, 2010 at 7:41 am and is filed under Christianity, Leadership, Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.