Sermons

Faith for the Future: Servant Leadership

John Wilkinson	Third Presbyterian Church
May 4, 2008	I Peter 5:6-11, Acts 1:6-14

    
A church I was privileged to serve in Chicago was located within walking distance of a well-known Bible institute. It was a fine school, with whom we shared a very cordial relationship. They were, to be sure, more conservative than we were, and, as things go, oftentimes more literalistic in their biblical interpretation.

There would be times that students from that school would attend worship at our place on a Sunday morning. Preacher beware! If you said something, or suggested an interpretation, that did not square with theirs, they would politely, but resolutely, approach you after worship, a group of 2 or 3, with Bibles firmly in hand. The interchanges were never dull.

So, I would invite you, in that same spirit of biblical rigor, to find the pew Bible in front of you. Dust it off if need be. My Old Testament professor Robert Boling called the New Testament the little pamphlet in the back of the Bible, so please turn to the New Testament and find page 142.

Acts 21:17-19. “When we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers welcomed us warmly. The next day Paul went with us to visit James; and all the elders were present. After greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.”

Now turn to page 209, I Timothy 4:14. “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders.”

And finally Titus 1:5, on page 214. “I left you behind in Crete for this reason, that you should put in order what remained to be done, and should appoint elders in every town, as I directed you…”

OK – books away! The link is the word “elder,” of course. And the Greek word used here, and throughout the New Testament, is “presbyter” (or a variation), from which our name, and our way, “Presbyterian,” flows.

As we think about our future, and the vision and values of our capital campaign, and as we ordain and install churches leaders today, perhaps a little review is in order.

“Presbyterian,” with an upper case “P,” is the formal name of a denominational stream; we are a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). There are other denominations that use that same label.

But in the lower case form, the “p” of presbyterian indicates a way of doing things, a way of being the church, a council of elders, who oversees and provides leadership.

Lutherans are Lutheran because of Martin Luther. Episcopalians are Episcopalian because “episcopal" has something to do with having bishops. Methodists are Methodist because of a theological system, a “method,” derived by John Wesley.

And we are Presbyterians because we believe in presbyters, in a system of governing the church. We are named for the way we organize ourselves, which seems a very Presbyterian thing to do.

Elders, elected by church members from among their membership, from the group that makes decisions. Such a value is so important to us that we ordain them, give them an ecclesiastical office and ecclesiastical standing.

The southern stream of Presbyterian called them church courts; the northern stream called them judicatories. We now call them governing bodies. But whatever they are, the groups in the church that make decisions are all elected and are all comprised of elders.

The most local is called the Session; it’s what we highlight today. The next most local is a presbytery, comprised of ruling elders, a term we don’t use much anymore, and teaching elders, or ministers. Our presbytery, Genesee Valley, is comprised of 73 churches in five counties. Our synod is a regional cluster of presbyteries; we live in the Synod of the Northeast, which includes the state of New York and New England, where there are about three Presbyterians in total. And then the most inclusive governing body, the General Assembly, which makes decisions for the whole church, and again, which is elected and representative.

It is sometimes a challenge to explain to others how we do things. We don’t have bishops, and yet we aren’t congregational. We can make some decisions locally, but not all decisions. We make the same kinds of decisions that bishops do, but we vest those decisions in groups of people, rather than individuals. We are connected to other Presbyterian congregations beyond our doors, but all congregations don’t all agree on everything, believe you me!

There are two ways of thinking about these things. The first is the negative way. We so distrust human nature that we deem it unwise to place very much power in the hands of any one person, so we assign it to a group.

The more positive way, my case this morning, is that we have such an abundance of leadership, an overflowing of gifts and graces given to us by God, that we seek to involve as many as we can, to make the best decisions, to set the most faithful course, to produce the most inclusive and expansive vision, as we can.

It is a biblical reality. After Easter, Jesus ascends to heaven, and the disciples are left with a leadership crisis. Their leader has left them; what now? Back to Jerusalem, to the upper room, and to a whole lot of prayer. But finally, they emerged. Next week, the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit will arrive and the church will be born.

I Peter describes what is needed. “Be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers.” That is to say, church leadership is spiritual leadership – that even when dealing with things like budgets and leaky roofs and falling ceilings and coffee hour and health care benefits, this is a spiritual task, and it requires prayer.

“Maintain constant love for one another,” Peter says, “for love covers a multitude of sins.” We are who we are wherever we are. And we all fall short. But what distinguishes leadership in the church is the knowledge of that going in, the ability to recognize our shortcomings, and rather than to address them with judgment or cynicism or scorn, to meet them with love.

“Be hospitable…be good stewards of the grace of God…serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.” These are good words by which our newly ordained and installed church leaders might seek to serve. But the Presbyterian point is that they are good words by which we are all called to serve. Prayer. Love. Hospitality. Stewardship. Leadership that flows from baptism.

For many years Robert Greenleaf served as an executive with AT & T. He lectured and consulted with many groups. And he wrote books, including a life-changing book for me, called Servant Leadership. It is required reading in management courses, business courses, a few seminary courses, and its thoughts are embedded in every new rash of management books that flood the shelves of Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.

The great leader is servant first, Greenleaf argued. It was not a popular notion in the 1970s, he asserted; it may be less popular now. Nonetheless, it is powerful. This was true for business, Greenleaf believed; a case that needs to be made now as much as ever. But it was true for schools and universities, for governments and bureaucracies.

And it was true for the church. No theologian, Greenleaf however insisted that the church, as a human institution, needed the same kind of servant leaders that all institutions did. Leaders that care. Leaders that know how to follow. Leaders with a sense of urgency. Leaders that lead for the sake of the institution – the church – and are able to acknowledge and move beyond their known and unknown sense of self.

Greenleaf wrote some 30 years ago of a “growing edge church,” that focuses not internally, but on the common good of all humanity. Filled with servants who serve from a sense of joy, and who will build institutions that serve. “Will not the growing edge church,” Greenleaf asks, “become the chief nurturer of servant leaders, institution builders for the future?” (Page 248)

He doesn’t use the word Presbyterian, but he could. The New Testament does not call its church Presbyterian, in the formal sense, but it is certainly lower-case presbyterian through and through.

It is the invitation to our new trustees and deacons and elders. It is the invitation to all of us. Peter puts it this way: “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ.”

Serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Not some; all. We are not leaders because of our credentials, our skill sets, our financial resources. We are leaders because we have been baptized, and because God has supplied us with gifts.

What do Presbyterians believe, I am often asked. My very short answer is the absolute sovereignty of God and the absolute grace of Jesus.

How do Presbyterians behave, I am also often asked. As gifted, servant leaders.

Not a bad way to run a church. Not a bad way to live a life. Amen.