Servant Leadership

Num 10:35-11:11         11/8/2017

The Israelites began to complain about the manna. Moses began to complain about the Israelites.

The great challenge of leadership within the Authentic Community is that the leader is servant. Leadership isn’t about self-service, self-aggrandizement, pride, wealth or any other kind of self-seeking. The model is service.

Moses’ heart was to serve the people.

But service isn’t easy. On the one hand, Moses hand to contend with the wants of an aimlessly wandering people whose principle concern was the satisfaction of their stomachs. On the other hand, there was the vision of God who intended to bring these same people into an unimaginable greatness. It’s a greatness they didn’t necessarily understand and might have actually rejected if they had realized all that was entailed.

A leader’s lament.

A prophet’s lament.

“This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?…From this time many disciples turned back and no longer followed him”.

A king’s lament.

So now I hear, “accept the refugee” and I say, “This is a hard teaching… It makes me feel vulnerable.

Will I accept it?

“Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” John 6:68