The value of the servant leader to God's people
Author
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
Summary: The world is in a leadership crisis, and the church needs servant-hearted leaders with integrity and spiritual maturity. Nehemiah is an example of an exceptional leader who had a firm identity, dependence on God, and dedication to guiding God's people. God cares more about a leader's spiritual maturity than their skills and abilities. The Lord uses humble, obedient, and devoted people who seek to please Him alone. The people of God need leaders who aspire to grow to the stature of the fullness of Christ and reproduce His virtues in their lives. If you feel called to be a leader, examine your heart, and serve God for the sole purpose of pleasing Him alone.
I believe in Christian leadership that serves God's people with integrity and virtue. Personally, I prefer to forget the disappointments in this regard. We well know that no one is perfect, much less the one who plays the role of leader, permanent sufferer of the many temptations that come from the world and of the particular dealings that God has with him. Instead the servant is a condition, a position of humility and submission to the will of God. Servant-leader is both position and condition and is a very serious matter for the Lord. Sociologists say that the world today is undergoing a profound leadership crisis. Most theologians agree that the church of Jesus Christ requires virtuous leadership with a servant's heart today more than ever.
Nehemiah proved to be an exceptional leader. Integrity, supervisor, wise, sensible and with a foolproof identity (character). His dependence on God and his word, his faith and firmness to do God's work, his personal commitment, his renunciation of comforts and his dedication to guide the people, gave him a colossal spiritual testimony to become the leader that God needed in context and time for the people of Israel.
Where are the spiritual leaders of these times? One thing is certain; God cares more about the spiritual maturity of the leader than his skills and abilities. He wants servant-hearted men and women to lead his people, consecrated people like Nehemiah to feed his sheep. Character and spiritual maturity are more important to God than the skills and abilities of his disciples today. The leader is made. No one is born a leader, much less within the people of God.
The Lord often uses the leadership of humble people, but obedient and devoted, willing to serve him for nothing. They are the ones who bow down like Joshua and say, how can I serve you, Lord? (Joshua 5.14b). They are those who yearn with all their hearts to please God and not men. The apostle Paul said to the brothers in Galatia: Why am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or do I strive to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. (Ga 1.10).
The people of God need servant-leaders who aspire to grow to the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4.13), who reproduce in their lives the virtues of the leadership of Jesus when he walked through this world. A world in spiritual ruins requires supernatural leadership, I don't mean mystical, but miraculous because it comes from the only one who has the power to do it and to transmit it, to you and me.
If you feel called to be a leader in the Lord's work, that is of great value to God, (1Timothy 3.1) but first examine your heart by asking yourself the same question that Paul asked the Galatians. Serving God for the sole purpose of pleasing Him alone is a challenge worth tackling. Live for Christ, serve Him! If you truly love him, the Lord's only command will be "Feed my sheep." (John 21:15).
God bless you!
Suggested Reading: 1 Timothy 3.1-7