Servanthood is, by Definition, Incarnational, Leadership Ain't

In the CGGC, the people with whom we invest the greatest authority choose to attempt to use that authority to lead us.

That decision is their fatal mistake.

Near the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus noted, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me..."

Jesus used that authority to serve...always.

He, "being in very nature, God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant ..." (Philippians 2)

The essence of the ministry of Jesus was to serve to the extreme.

The fact that He became human was itself an act of servanthood. His entire life on earth was service. He taught servanthood and He lived the life of a servant.

Jesus was always there, among the lost and broken, and, being with people, face to face, He lived as a servant.

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The people of the CGGC hierarchy with whom I'm familiar, walk a different path than Jesus walked in two ways, and we suffer for it.

1. They seek to lead, not serve.

2. Their there isn't among us. Their there is in fancy offices, behind impressive desks, or in tucked away together in staff or committee or commission or conference meetings in headquarters buildings.

Fascinatingly, Jesus lived to serve and people fell over each to follow Him. Our self-proclaimed leaders in the CGGC aren't followed.

If the numerical decline and spiritual decay of the CGGC is to be reversed two, among many things, will have to change.

1. The people who think of themselves as our leaders will have to begin to think of themselves as the slave of all of us. And,

2. They will have to step out from behind their desks, walk outside of their offices, cancel many of their staff and committee, commission and conference meetings, and put themselves in the place where they can look us in the eye...

...and we can look back into theirs.

Servanthood is incarnational. Leadership ain't. Our leaders aren't.

We all must repent but, in this way, the first step will, probably, have to be theirs.