Our five-hour drive ended at an abandoned lot. Across the street was the office where we would spend the next five days with 15 leaders of an indigenous African ministry.
Nicholas, our team leader, began unpacking the van, and we followed his lead. During the week, he worked tirelessly, pouring the wisdom of 50 years of leadership experience in the lives of the seminar participants. He led by example. He served. No task was too low for him to do. As the week progressed, I learned that he had been the leader of a large denomination. He had the ear of the highest religious and political leaders in his nation and across the region. Yet he carried his bags, helped set up chairs, drove the van, and never complained. Nicholas exemplified Philippians 2: 7 – taking on “the nature of a servant”. He led from below, not from above.
Nicholas was following the example of Jesus who told us in Matthew 20: 25-26 to not follow the example of the leaders of the day. They were leaders who expected to be served and who took joy in telling others what to do. Instead, Jesus told us that the way to power is through service. The way to Kingdom greatness is from below, not from above.
As we think about what it means to redeem power, we must reimagine how leadership looks. We cannot take our cues from the world around us. We cannot take the “old leadership wineskins” and put “new leadership wine” into them. Rather we need to throw out the old wine in the old wineskins and replace them with new wine and new wineskins.
But what does that mean? In Matthew 20:25-28, Jesus tells us that the new wine is the leader’s heart to serve, and the new wineskin is a leader with no concern for status or power. This is the heart of Kingdom leadership. This is leadership from below, not from above.
We will explore this in following blog posts. Until then, let’s begin to imagine a world where all our leaders exhibit true Kingdom leadership.
by Karl Mueller
Karl Mueller is the Senior Consultant for Church and Leadership Services for Development Associates International.
Original article: www.frontiersusa.org/blog/article/from-below-not-from-above
