This Servant School talk described what it means to be a leader and illustrated the world’s faulty notions of leadership. Clem Walters described the qualities a person needs to become a consistent, effective leader for Jesus.
Transcript
This document is a direct transcript of an audio recording, and may contain transcription errors and other minor edits for the sake of clarity.
CLEM: Do I have to repeat that school’s out after tonight for those who. . . . [Clem and everyone laugh.] No. No, Servant School is not over. Servant—this—the Servant School will probably run about, you could probably count about nine months from the first time we met that you’ll be involved in service. But, we’re gonna take a semester break as far as the teachings, and which will allow me to sift through some additional material. And I’d like some input during that time for all of you. In the meantime, though, you’ll continue in your regular service. We won’t be gathering here, though, for a few weeks.
I’m going to be very interested. I’m looking over two books. One is used in Ann Arbor [Word of God community]: Watchman Nee’s book. I think it’s The Christian Worker? That the title? And they use that book as a discussion-type book for their service group. So we’ll be reviewing that to see if we could use that. I’d be very interested to hear what anyone has to say about using something like that. And I’d be very interested to know what your views are about gathering weekly to continue working through material that are [sic] not really teachings in nature, but more discussion in nature.
I also have some material that came from Ann Arbor, that they’ve used. I have the outlines of their talks, of the—of their service talk. And I haven’t had an opportunity to work through them and digest them and see if it’s something that we would like to use, or the Lord might want us to use here. That’s kind of where that is. So, what we’ll do is, after tonight, you’ll continue in your service, but we won’t meet here. The—you won’t have to come. And there’ll be an announcement made at a community meeting when we begin again. It could—it’s gonna be at least a couple weeks, could go as long as four weeks before we crank up again.
Questions? I see your hand up.
[inaudible]
Okay . . . good. That’s not a hand up, Gloria?
[inaudible]
Okay. . . . And what we’re going to look at and talk about tonight is what it means to be a leader. So, we’re gonna be talking about leadership. And as we work through this talk, we’ll even be using another name for that—the word, “leader” and “leadership”—and we’ll coin one: we’ll call it “servantship.”
There are reams of material—it’s a lot of books and courses—written on, and on what it means to be a leader, or how to become a successful leader. In fact, in my role at the CRS, I’m opening a lot of mail that comes in. There’s just a lot of companies that dwell on sending out training courses, information about training courses about how to be a successful leader. It’s just reams of materials. And very good courses about that.
I think that the reason for all the interest that people have with regard to that whole topic of leader and leadership is that people see that it’s the leader in the world that controls and dominates. And, he as the head—the head of whatever it is that he’s leading—is the one that, in the worldly view, is the top dog. He’s making the big money, as an example. And the big money, and we’ve talked about that before, it buys the clothes and the houses and the furniture and the cars and the vacations to Acapulco, or maybe even to Hawaii.
MAN’S VOICE: [inaudible]
CLEM: [Clem laughs.] Amen. How I long to go to Hawaii someday, hmm. . . . So, in fact, as we think about that—the reason there’s so much interest in that—is that people have that worldly view—that it’s the leader who controls and dominates. And by virtue of that, he’s the guy that’s in the plush office, who they see propped up on the desk, and he’s the guy that’s making the big paycheck and controlling many lives.
I’d like to look at another view of a leader, and this leader is a national political leader. And they maintain their status and position with wise views of public relations people. They surround themselves with public relations people. They use (very wisely) speech writers. They have a sense for what people want to hear. A national political leader is very wise in the use of wardrobe, wearing the proper clothing, makeup. He might even travel with his own barber—personal barber. A national political leader has organizers and pollsters. And in fact, in recent years, a national political leader even has his dirty-tricks men that he hires that travel with him. So that’s another view of a leader, a very worldly view of, when we think of leader, we think of a national political leader.
And when you consider all of that—the public relations people and the speech writers and the wardrobe and the barber and all of that that goes along with that—that all leads to a big buildup. And it’s giving that leader the proper image, getting the proper image across to the voter. I can’t forget watching President Nixon, as an example, as he traveled to China, and—some time back, now. But I vaguely remember watching the television screen when Nixon came to the door of the jet, and for just an instant, he did not know that the cameras were on him. And you could see the different view. It looked like it was a different man, a man that was standing there without knowing that the cameras were on him, changed drastically in the way—the side that he had to the camera and the way that he stood, and the way he proceeded, the minute that he knew that the camera was on him. So there’s a big buildup with that national leader. And he certainly wants to maintain that.
And now I’d like to take ano—just a brief look at another leader, and that is our local civic and business leader. He might be one of the men that we have pictured with the feet propped up in the earlier example. This man is probably the backbone. At least, we consider, or the papers call him the backbone of the South Bend community. In most cases, they have full-time secretaries. They have staff secretaries, or staff people, to keep up with the community activities, often doing the actual work. The secretary or staff people do the actual work, with the leader getting the credit and building his own image as he uses that material to continue his involvement in that organization or that civic group. In fact, it’s very good for business, in addition to being a good buildup for him. And in the process, there are newspaper articles and pictures, and much publicity, which is very good for him and for his company.
I think in the above examples, those few examples of our view of a leader, it would take a supernatural, or an unnatural resistance, for these leaders not to succumb to being self-centered, prideful people. In fact, they have all the necessary ingredients that we talked about earlier. That is, the ingredients of honors and riches, which lead to pride. And we’ve already discussed that pride is Satan’s tool for dominating. And I believe that in that situation, that Satan, in fact, does dominate those people and those leaders. And in fact, through them, through those leaders, many other people are dominated by virtue of Satan’s hold on them, through that big buildup, leading to honors and riches, and developing into very prideful people. I can’t help but feel that a big part of our problem today in—on the political scene—has to do with that very point. . . that Satan is then in control, of various . . .
By virtue of our living experience in the world, I believe our views of leadership to be faulty, by virtue of our life and what we think about him, what we think of a leader. I’d like to state some things that are very positive, that’s very different than our worldly mold or view of leadership. I believe that being a leader does not refer only to those that are shouldering responsibility, whether that responsibility is an institution or association, that is, companies or organizations of any kind. It does not refer to being a leader even in the People of Praise, as an example.
I think that everyone is or should become a leader—that everyone is right now, or should become a leader, in some sphere or area of their lives. Really what I’m saying is that everyone can and must do something with a sense of responsibility. In other words, everyone can and must be a leader.
For example, we become a leader when in some area of our daily lives, we are sensitive and open to seeing a need. That’s the first element, is that we’re open and sensitive to seeing a need, and then assuming personal responsibility for doing something about that need. And then, followed by action, and that action of filling the need or doing something about it. When stated quite simply, we become a leader when we see a need and go about filling that need. And that’s very simple, and it’s very different than the view that we might have had of a leader, or of a lead—of leadership. We become a leader when we see a need and go about filling it.
Although the definition can be stated rather simply, there are some very necessary qualities that each of us must acquire to become a consistent, effective leader for Jesus. And the key word in that sentence was “consistent.” Because without the qualities that I’m going to mention, we can only occasionally be a leader. It’s almost—without the qualities that I’m going to mention, we become a leader almost by accident, kind of like by being in the right situation at the right time. With the qualities, each of us can consistently and effectively be a leader. And in fact, we can become a dependable leader—that is, almost as dependable as Dodge was, some years back. That’s very dependable, consistent.
I want to cover some of the qualities, then, that will allow us to be a consistent, dependable leader. And I’ve got them in two categories. The first category is that of a natural—we’ll call “natural qualities.”
So, the first of these natural qualities that we need to be a leader is to know and always remember the ideal. And that ideal, I might suggest, would be to love and serve the Lord, our God, with all our minds, hearts, and souls—in other words, our whole being. By loving and serving one another—in other words, being a leader for our brothers and sisters by serving, by serving them with a pure heart, wanting only to serve and to love God. So, the first thing in that natural quality—the first natural quality is knowing and remembering the ideal, and that is to love and serve God by serving our brothers and sisters.
The second item in the area of natural qualities is knowing reality. And that is, being realistic enough to know what is attainable and what is not. It’s a very important quality in becoming a leader.
Another of the natural qualities that we must acquire is that of self-discipline. That is, once we’ve decided to act, even when the going gets tough, we force ourselves to continue on. In other words, it’s a matter of the song, “there’s no turning back” [from the song, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”]. So, self-discipline, then, is one of those natural qualities that we must acquire, to consistently and—be a leader and be dependable.
Another of those natural qualities is that we must have a feeling for others, that is, an ability to identify with them and their needs—in other words, place ourselves in their shoes. Or, another simple term is “to walk a mile in their moccasins.” But it’s a very important quality in being a dependable, consistent leader—having a feeling for others.
Another of those natural qualities is that we must show initiative. We’ve got to adopt a mentality that if I personally don’t fill the need, whatever that need is that we notice, that if I don’t personally fill the need, not another single person in the world will fill that need. The—whether that thing gets done or not depends entirely on my initiative.
Another item in the natural qualities is that we must be generous, remembering that everything that we are and have has been a generous, free gift from God, and can we do less for others and with others than to be that generous?
In addition to those natural qualities that we need to acquire to being [sic] a dependable, effective, consistent leader, there are several supernatural qualities. And what we have to do with supernatural qualities that we desire is to ask God to give them to us; but they’re God-given.
The first is faith—the supernatural quality that we must acquire—and we have to ask God and depend on him to give that to us—to give us a lively faith. The second supernatural quality to being a leader is hope. And I bet you could guess the third: it’s love, or charity. And then, the fourth is—the fourth supernatural quality that we must acquire is that of humility if we want to be a leader for our Lord.
In 2 Peter, chapter one, there’s a brief summary of these qualities. Verses five to eight:
For this very reason do your best to add goodness to your faith; and to your goodness add knowledge; to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control add endurance; to your endurance add godliness; to your godliness add brotherly love; and to your brotherly love add love. These are the qualities you need, and if you have them in abundance, they will make you active and effective in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, to become consistent in our personal leadership by serving others, we must form a habit of putting the qualities into practice—in other words, training ourselves so to become automatic in leading, and that leading, then, is to be translated into—to be automatic in serving whenever an opportunity arises. Once we’ve disciplined ourself [sic] to form a leadership—that is, a service habit—that is, training ourself by doing, by actually serving, being a leader in that way—we will find that being a leader will become spontaneous, and the more we practice it, the easier it will become.
The world 2,000 years ago was given an example in leadership that will never be surpassed, when Jesus, our Lord and Savior, filled the need of all mankind by reconciling all mankind to God, the Father, by laying down his life for us in the ultimate service of dying for us.
I’d like to quote from Isaiah, and it’s found in Acts 8, verses 32 to 34. . . . It’s speaking of our Lord Jesus, when it says:
He was like a sheep that was taken to be slaughtered. He was like a lamb that makes no sound when its wool is cut off. He did not say a word. He was humiliated, and justice was denied him. No one will be able to tell about his descendants, for his life on earth has come to an end.
[Recording ends here.]
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