Called to Lead

Leadership in God's Economy

Before we learn a single skill of leadership, we have to change the way we define it. The world and the kingdom of God run on opposite economies of greatness. In one, you rise by gathering power and getting others to serve you. In the other, you rise by spending yourself for the good of those you lead. This session is the foundation for everything that follows: a leader in the kingdom is not someone who is served, but someone who serves. Everything else in this course is a working-out of that one conviction.

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Opening Reflection

Finish this sentence honestly, with the picture you actually carry, not the 'right' answer: "A great leader is someone who ___." What shaped that picture?

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Two Economies of Greatness

In Mark 10, James and John ask Jesus for the top two seats in His kingdom. The other ten are angry. It was not because the request was wrong, but because they wanted those seats too. Into a room full of leaders fighting for position, Jesus says something that changes everything.

⁴²Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ⁴³ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”Mark 10:42-45 · NIV

Notice what Jesus does not do. He does not rebuke the desire to be great, He redirects it. "Whoever wants to become great among you" assumes some of them will. What He overturns is the method. The Gentile rulers "lord it over" people and "exercise authority" downward onto them for their own benefit. "Not so with you," Jesus says. In the kingdom, authority still exists, but it flows the other direction: spent for people rather than over them.

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Servant and Slave: Two Words Jesus Chose

Jesus reaches for two deliberately humble words. To be great, become a diakonos (verse 43), a servant, the word behind our "deacon," someone who waits on tables and meets practical needs. To be first, become a doulos (verse 44), a bondservant, a slave, someone whose life is fully given over to another. These were not flattering job titles in the first century. Jesus is saying the path up is down.

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The Model: A Towel and a Basin

Jesus did not just teach this; He lived it out the night before He died. He took the role of the lowest household slave to wash His disciples’ feet.

³Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.John 13:3-5 · NIV

Verse 3 is the hinge: Jesus did this because He knew the Father had put all things under His power. He knew He had come from God and was returning to God. His security was the soil His service grew in. Secure people can stoop; insecure people have to posture. We will return to this in Session 2, but mark it now: you will only serve as freely as you are secure in who you are in Christ.

Where in your current sphere of leadership is God inviting you to pick up the towel, to do the unseen, lower task you feel is "beneath" your role?

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The Pattern: Descent Before Exaltation

Paul gives this same movement its fullest shape and tells leaders to make it their own mindset.

⁵In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ⁷rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! ⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.Philippians 2:5-11 · NIV

The shape is clear: Christ did not grasp at the status that was rightfully His; He poured Himself out, taking "the very nature of a servant," obedient even to death, and then God exalted Him. Descent first; exaltation as God’s gift, in God’s timing. This is the opposite of climbing. The kingdom leader lets go and trusts God with the lifting.

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So What Is a Leader, Biblically?

Pulling the threads together, we can offer a working definition we will sharpen all course long:

A leader in God’s economy is someone who stewards whatever authority, gifting, and influence they have been given for the good of others and the glory of God, after the pattern of Jesus.

The key word is stewards. Authority in the kingdom is never a possession to be enjoyed; it is a trust to be spent. The question is never "How do I get people to serve my vision?" but "How do I spend what I’ve been given for the people God has put in front of me?"

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Reflection

Reread the working definition above. Score yourself 1–10 on each phrase: "for the good of others," "for the glory of God," "after the pattern of Jesus." Which is lowest right now, and why?

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Memory Verse

⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”Mark 10:45 · NIV

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Going Deeper

Optional resources to carry this session further. The books are leadership tools, read under the authority of Scripture and with discernment.

• Study: Mark 10:35–45; John 13:1–17; Philippians 2:5–11
• Book: The Motive by Patrick Lencioni, leading to serve others rather than to be rewarded
• Book: Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek, the cost and credibility of going last for your people