The Unhinged Servant - Part 3

I'm writing for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so my fingers and thoughts have been rather tied up. An Associated Press article released today caught my attention, though, and re-sparked some thoughts I was in the process of growing from and sharing here. 

Part 2: Boundless Leaders

November 7 at You Are Never Alone, an Occupy Sandy
outreach center. AP Photo by Craig Ruttle.

Service has been a huge topic of discussion for Papa and I. The impact of those discussions has been to completely reshape and restore my concept of The Church as Christ's bride, not a religious organization. 

In the first of two previous posts, I shared the point from which I entered these conversations with Papa (Part 1). Mostly rant, wholly honest, it was from that level of awareness Papa held my hand and walked with me the path to new awareness. In the second part, I recalled a few key moments in these conversations where the proverbial lightbulb flipped on (Part 2). From these moments, I was launched into territory I'd never been. Suddenly, fresh fruit was growing from conversations with Papa I hadn't even realized we were having. 

One of those conversations revolved around leadership. Communities I was a part of were dying, and I kept thinking, It's because we have no leadership. 

One day, not long after realizing I had been granted my request for new eyes (and so have you), Papa chimed in again. What does leadership look like? After a moment of imagining leaders I choose not to follow, and those I do, he asked What do leaders do? It took me a little more time to imagine this. Do they direct discussion? Tally votes? Disperse tasks? Make decisions? Teach? Prophesy? Guide? Motivate? 

It took more time to realize that a leader does all of these things, in any way they can, in whatever way is needed. It is a leader's role to step in and fill whatever role is needed for the project, group, or community to flourish. 

Leadership is a limitless gift, by which we release the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, by which we directly reflect Papa God. It is not a gift that grants control or authority. We have control and authority over the powers of darkness, the principalities and rulers of the world. Our authority is over satan, demons, and disease, not over our fellow humans. 

Leadership, like service, is a gift directly from Father God (here's that gifts list again). I discussed in Part 2 that my new eyes (and yours) were capable of seeing areas that once appeared as lack or laziness, but were in fact opportunities to co-labor with Papa. Opportunities to step into a need, and transform it into a blessing. I thought these were servants eyes, resultant of walking in the gift of service. 

Then Papa brought me back to the conversation we'd begun about leadership. Why aren't you leading, if it's leadership that is needed? He asked. 

Leadership is not my gift. I've never been a leader. Im not a leader. As I continue to pull the log out of my eyes, I've started to understand that the more I embrace the gift of service and choose to walk in it, the more I will find myself leading. Leadership is not an identity to claim, but a gift to receive and give. What I thought were servant's eyes, were also the eyes of a leader. The two gifts go hand in hand. The gift of leadership provides a willingness to take action, the gift of service provides a willingness to take the needed action, not the action that best suits us. When a need is presented, it doesn't remain a need after a servant leader gets hold of it. 
I'll go further and say that true leadership is an expression of the gift of service. Even further, I'll say that service is the very foundation every other gift launches from, regardless of what "list" the gift is from. 

Often I've heard certain verses in Romans 12 or 1 Corinthians 12 (to name a sparing couple) interpreted to mean that not all are equipped with all gifts. For example, 1 Corinthians 12:30-31, Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not! So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts..." 

November 7, snow falling outside Occupy Sandy outreach center.
AP Photo by Craig Ruttle

I'm going to break these verses down, starting at the end. By "most helpful gifts," I suggest Paul was referencing the gift of helps (found in Romans 12). He's saying, first and foremost, desire to serve. From that desire, every gift on every list is released. 

Healing? There are those who look at the sick and injured and see lack, see need, then keep walking. There are those who see a person in need of wellness and desire to see them well. This is the gift of service! This is a desire to serve! There are those still who see a person, see a need for wellness, and say I'm going to see them well. This is the gift of service in union with the gift of leadership (and the gift of giving, but that's another blog series!), releasing healing. This is a release of the Kingdom, the possibility to transform a need into a gift, grounded in the desire to serve. 

I could go on. Suffice to say, when our first desire is to serve our King, our Dad, our Creator, we will lead others into a desire to do the same. The gifts are not listed so that we can omit ourselves from the ones we aren't sure we can claim, but to assure us that in any given situation, when we recognize a need put before us, we will be able to meet and transform it. The article I read today, "Occupy Sandy: Onetime protestors find a new cause," reminded me that there is a vital, inseparable link between the gift of service and the gift of leadership: 

"This is young people making history," said Mark Naison, a professor at Fordham University who has been studying Occupy Wall Street. "Young people who are refusing to let people suffer without putting themselves on the line to do something about it." 

Now the group has dozens of relief centers across the city and a stream of volunteers who are shuttled out to the most desperate areas. It is partnering with local community and volunteer organizations. 

A recent post on Occupy Sandy's Facebook page announced: "Attention! If anyone in Rockaway needs to have their basement pumped, please contact Suzanne Hamalak at suzybklyn(at)aol.com. Her family wants to help and have industrial pumps...they will do it for free....." 

In Rockaway Park, Occupier Diego Ibanez, 24, has been sleeping on the freezing floor of a community center down the street from a row of charred buildings destroyed by a fire."You see a need and you fulfill it," he explained. "There's not a boss to tell you that you can't do this or you can't do that. Zuccotti was one of the best trainings in how to mobilize so quickly."

Though I might not recognize the gift of leadership in myself, if I earnestly desire to serve I will naturally begin to take leadership action where and when its needed. Occupy Sandy is a beautiful demonstration of where The Church is headed as we begin to fully embrace and release the gifts of service and leadership. These are gifts not for a designated few, but for every follower of Christ to walk in. To be Christian is to be the reflection of Jesus, to be The Church is to be the manifestation of Jesus. There is no better example of a servant leader than the One we reflect and manifest.