When considering the relationship between Christianity and servant leadership, it is possible to note the ways in which both seek to subvert and overturn conventional notions of the relationship between a leader and the person whom they lead. The Gospel of Matthew contains a statement from Jesus to two brothers who have requested to sit “at the right hand of God” in the kingdom of heaven. Rather than stating that it is possible for someone to rise to a high position based on their own power, Jesus insists that those who wish to lead should follow his example and only lead out of a desire to serve, just as he himself has come into the world to serve humanity (Matthew: 20.26-28). This attitude of serving is described in direct contrast to the leaders who “lord it over” those whom he leads (Matthew:20.25). There are two crucial elements to these verses. The first is the suggestion that one may only reach heights of true greatness by humbling oneself, making oneself vulnerable and by therefore exposing oneself to the will and desires of others, and, the second is that the only legitimate motivation for leading is a desire to improve the lives of those whom one leads. The Christian leader therefore draws power from their humility, and does so only for the sake of those whom they lead.
According to recent commentators, servant leadership may be defined as a model of contemporary leadership in which the “moral virtue of humility co-exists with action-driven behavior” (Sousa & Dierondronck 2017, p. 13). In this sense, a servant leader is someone who necessarily acts towards certain tangible and attainable goals, but who does so from a position of humility. Greenleaf’s thoughts on servant leadership may be seen to draw particular attention to the potential strength that a truly capable leader draws from considering themselves as being in a subservient position to those they serve. According to Greenleaf (2012), the most important element of this emerges from the order of priority between serving and leading. While he insists that certain conventional leaders may discover the advantages of a servant attitude at some point in their career, the true servant leader is marked out by a desire to serve “first” and only comes to leadership as it appears to be the most obvious way for them to fulfill their desire to serve (p. 12). In this sense, Greenleaf, like the passage of the Bible discussed, considers the desire to serve to be the only desire which is capable of making an individual a worthy and legitimate leader, and not someone who simply dominates others out of self-interest.
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"Christianity and Servant Leadership".
In conclusion, it is the virtue of humility combined with the pursuit of leadership as a secondary aim that defines both the Christian subject and the servant leader. What is arguably modern about the latter, however, is the suggestion that this humility is combined with an action-based focus that aims to use the advantages of servant leadership to solve material problems.
- The Bible: An Ecumenical Study Edition. (1989). Translated by Michael D. Coogan et al. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Greenleaf, Stephen. (2012). The Servant as Leader. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership: New York.
- Sousa, M., & Dierendonck, D. (2017). Servant Leadership and the Effect of the Interaction Between Humility, Action, and Hierarchical Power on Follower Engagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 141(1), 13-25.
