“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”- C.S. Lewis

Sometimes Christian leadership feels like God is continually handing us Sauls, saying, ‘you wanted a leader, now deal with it.’

It’s funny – evangelicals have such disgust for hierarchy in the more liturgical ways of church, but are seemingly oblivious to the way they do the same thing with pastors and authors and heads of organizations.

Maybe wanting someone to rule over us is just part of being human.

But when we idolize people to the point that no matter what shit they spew, it ends up on the best-seller list, there’s a problem.  Or maybe it’s that we don’t want someone to rule over us, as much as we just want them to tell us what to think and what the Bible really says. (Which confuses me, because wasn’t that the point of the Reformation?)

Somehow the role of pastor has become king.  When I hear people say a pastor needs to just tend the flock and not deal with the mundane chores of a Sunday morning, I think we’re missing something.  The church is not supposed to be a medieval manor with lord and peasants.  Restocking the bathrooms shouldn’t be beneath a pastor.

When we view pastors as being the only ones who have a special word from God, we get tunnel vision.  (Also, idolatry.)  Maybe they’re actually no more (and no less) special than the person in the back row.  Maybe they’re just really good at putting things in a 5-point format and can speak in front of people without throwing up.

What if we didn’t choose who taught on a Sunday morning by who went to seminary, but who has the most experience in different venues?  I’d love to hear a sermon (ahem, a ‘teaching’) from the woman who faithfully serves at the food pantry every week.  She has life to share with us.

“Everybody wants a revolution but nobody wants to do the dishes.” – Shane Claiborne

But the leadership model Jesus offers is one where everyone does the dishes.  It takes intentional effort to seek out servanthood, because for thousands of years we have been unintentionally seeking kings.

We need to value servant leadership because we need a variety of people to show us, inspire us, even teach us what it looks like to follow Jesus the best we can.

What would it look like if a member of the congregation spoke – even for 15 minutes, once a month?  Is giving up your platform ever discussed at leadership conferences?

Maybe cruciform leadership really does start with the least of these.  The people in the pews who don’t want to make waves.  The ones who get condemned for speaking out.

Maybe servant leadership is modeled in the blog posts and Facebook conversations that flesh out what it means to love others.

Maybe cross-like leadership is intangible, the blowing of the Spirit that passes by unseen.  It’s in the haunted eyes, the whispers of honesty, the stories that everyone has, but aren’t heard.

What if we really believed and practiced the priesthood of all believers?  What if our thoughts on Jesus and faith went beyond ‘getting saved’ and morality?  What if we actually practiced the messy art of love and Spirit?

What would that look like in our churches?

Because we are the priesthood of believers!  We are all leaders, teachers, learners.  In a way of life where there is no greater, no less, we all have a voice.

Holding our leaders accountable is a form of leadership.  Using our voice to remind them that ‘tending the flock’ is a job for all of us is necessary because it keeps them off the throne.  There are needed voices in every church, in every christian organization, that pull us back to servanthood.  We need the reminders that laying it down is what it’s all about, for all of us.

The view of pastor as king is what enables the idolization of a man and his thoughts. If the church is going to try and follow Jesus, there must be freedom to call out religious leaders for peddling shit.

If we talk a big game about following the One who came to lay his life down, why don’t we talk more about what that actually means? If Christians are serious about imitating Jesus, there must be discerning eyes on those we exalt as leaders.

There can be no Christian unity if we keep condemning each other to hell.  If you are going to stock your church libraries with an author and recommend him to people time and again from the pulpit, then you also have to speak up when they go off the rails.  That’s part of effective leadership, servant or not.

But it’s hard when you’re in a system that believes your way is the right way.  When being dogmatic is essential to your beliefs, it’s hard to call it out in someone else.

Using our voice can be a powerful form of leadership, but too often fear keeps us silent. We can’t discuss the demons that haunt other people when they haunt us too. It’s hard to be a servant when we have to keep our own fears and secrets hidden. When we are so afraid of what’s behind the curtain, we can’t be vulnerable.  And so we rely on power and dogma.

But what if pastors threw out their bulletpoints?  What if churches stopped using isolated verses to prove their beliefs?  What if it wasn’t ‘courageous’ to speak out about abuse and violence?  What if churches threw out the one-size-fits-all mentality?  Could their Jesus still stand?

If you gave up your power and your certainty, would Jesus still be there?

I don’t know that servant leadership is realistic or practical. But I don’t really know if Jesus is realistic or practical either. The only thing I do know is the way of love is worth pursuing.

“Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.” – Dostoevsky