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I've recently been reading "Spiritual Leadership" by J. Oswald Sanders. (Click on the title to check it out.) For anyone interested in the topic of leadership, I highly recommend this book.

One of Oswald's insights that I've most appreciated is how leadership plays itself out in Scripture. The Bible actually uses the word "leader" very little when it refers to leaders. Instead, another word is used almost exclusively: servant. (For example, Moses, David and Joshua are always called "servants" as opposed to "leaders", though they are undeniably some of Scripture's greatest examples of leadership.)

Leadership means many things, but the heart of biblical leadership is servanthood. This is leadership that's motivated out of one's love for God and for other people. It's a commitment to influence others, not for the sake of gaining personal gain, but for the good of the people being served.

This is the kind of leader that Jesus was, and the kind of leadership that He modeled. In John 13, He gave the disciples an example of what this servant-leadership looks like. He took a basin and a towel, knelt down, and washed His disciples' feet. (In their culture, this was something that only lowly servants did.) Then he said, "A knew command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (vs 34-35)." And later, in John 15:13, Jesus defined this love: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Then, Jesus put his money where His mouth was, and did that very thing.

The world is full of examples of leaders who are motivated out of selfish gain. Authentic Christian leadership stands in sharp contrast to this. It's leadership that is first and foremost servanthood.

Though we've all been entrusted with varying degrees of leadership, in truth, all of us have relationships where we have the ability to influence others. (That is leadership!) Think of the influence you have among family, people at school, church, coworkers and friends. What is your core motivation in these relationships? What would it look like for you to embrace Jesus' model of servant leadership in them?

These are all questions that God has been asking me lately...

As we continue to follow Jesus, may He transform us into the kind of people who lay down their lives daily in service to Him and others. And may we continue to live out our calling as disciples by embracing Jesus' brand of leadership.