What do congregations expect from a minister? What kind of minister are they looking for?
The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada sponsored a three-year project that ascertained that local congregations have three major expectations for their minister.
First, they expect the minister to be willing to serve without regard for acclaim.
Second, they expect personal integrity and reliability. They expect him to honor his commitments and carry out his promises, even under pressure to compromise.
Third, they expect him to be a Christian example whom they may respect.
And where do local congregations find such humble, honest, reliable Christian models? They find them among those who, like the Master, are willing to lay down their lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16).
The essential role of a minister is not one of dominance but of service. The servant role was well understood in nineteenth-century England. For much of their lives my forebears were in service. My father and grandfather were gentlemen farmers for Lord Cholmondeley at Siseley Oak Farm in Malpas, Cheshire. My wife's mother was in good service in London; her grandmother was cook at Leeds Castle. They often told us that in those days a servant's main possession was his "character." If you lost your character and could not be recommended by your employer, you lost your ability to secure a job and were condemned to be destitute in a state that provided no welfare.
So all who were in service were compelled to provide good service. Some might fawn, wheedle, flatter, and cringe to gain favor, but in all the desire to please was highly cultivated. The relationships are well illustrated in the BBC television series Upstairs, Downstairs.
In Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village, Ronald Blythe describes the service of Christopher Falconer, the gardener: "His manner is quick and anticipatory. There is in him a kind of craving to give, to assist, to smooth the path."—(New York: Dell Publishing Co.), p. 120.
Those who lived "below stairs" learned from the aristocracy a well-bred courtesy and a polite consideration for others. They became graceful, affable, attentive. They were genteel and refined. They cultivated the art of being gentlemen and gentle women. Those who lived below stairs caught the manners of those who lived upstairs—and today's Christian servant-leaders do the same! By beholding we become changed.
Jesus addressed the problem of false church leaders. He described them (as recorded in John 10) as hirelings, people who for pay follow anybody's orders. They're always ready to fleece the sheep. Instead of dealing with the problems of the local congregation, they ask, "How can I get this problem off my back? How can I work out a compromise?" Far from being willing to lay down their lives for the sheep, they are self-serving.
A further description of this class of church leaders appears in Matthew 23, where they are characterized as interested in appearance, in show, in pretense. They present themselves as genuine and appear very pleasing. But they're hypocrites, playing a part, pretending to be pious and virtuous without really being so. They deceive others as to their real character and feelings. They say long prayers—in church of course. They profit from the poor and needy and eat up the property of widows. They like to be greeted respect fully in the street as rabbi, or master. This should not be, Jesus warned. (What would He say today regarding our fascination with titles and degrees?)
"You travel over land and sea to win one convert," He declared, evidently talking to those with travel budgets. "But you are blind guides. Your teaching doesn't stand up to reason. You say you can swear by the sanctuary, but not by the gold of the sanctuary. Hypocrites! You pay tithe on mint, dill, and cummin, but you overlook justice, mercy, and good faith. You strain out a midge, but gulp down a camel!" (see verses 15-24).
Do you think the Lord would say these same things to some of His church leaders today? Are our priorities parallel with His, or do we keep busy most of the time straining off gnats and midges, majoring in minutiae, frittering away our time on fragments, and neglecting our major business—to communicate the heart of the gospel?
Near the close of this passage, our Lord turns on these sages and teachers, so completely engaged in scruples and scraps, and calls them deceitful, treacherous snakes in the grass, a brood of vipers.
Yet their main problem didn't appear to be so terrible. They were just proud! But the Lord hates pride—it turned angels into devils once and it still can transform infinite good into infinite evil. These churchmen looked dignified, but the Lord said they were haughty and unbending. H. W. Beecher commented: "When flowers are full of heaven-descending dews, they always hang their heads. But men hold theirs the higher the more they receive, getting prouder as they get full."
In contrast, look at the marks of the servant leader who has for his example the Son of man, Jesus Christ, who "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28). Isaiah's four servant songs in chapters 42, 49, 50, and 53 describe our Servant-Master. He will not break the crushed reed or snuff out the smoldering wick (chap. 42:3). He feels He has labored in vain and exhausted Himself to no purpose (chap. 49:4), but each morning He awakes to hear the voice of Yahweh and listens like a disciple (chap. 50:4). He is despised and rejected, oppressed and afflicted, but silent before the ones condemning Him. Full of grief, He recognizes this as part of the Lord's plan, but finally He is satisfied because, through His ministry of suffering, many will be accounted righteous (chap. 53:3, 7, 10, 11).
And so, like the Master, today's servant-leader listens to the pitiful cry—suffers with the brokenhearted, empathizes, helps fill the needs, and works early and late in doing so.
Like Philip, he is subject to the direction of the Spirit of God.
Like Mary, he's willing to be quiet in the presence of Jesus.
Like John, he's ready to stay close to Jesus.
And like his Master, he is sensitive, hurt by the feelings of others, pained by their weaknesses and infirmities, and moved with compassion for his church members. He is troubled because of their broken homes, the continuing power of sin in their lives, their lack of interest in the study of Scripture and attendance at Sabbath school and church services, their lukewarmness, lack of spiritual power and verve, smallness of mind, criticism, legalism, misunderstanding of the great principles of the gospel, and lack of assurance regarding their salvation. But in the face of all this, because of his overwhelming love for the Master and because he gladly considers himself Christ's slave, he goes on working endlessly to bring about reconciliation and redemption in the lives of all he serves.
Our church is built around such servant-leaders—paid and unpaid—kind, generous, noble, Christian servant-leaders. And it is kindness, compassion, and love that hold our church families together. The church flourishes not because of the schemes of its administrators or the promotions of its departments, but through the mutual affection and loyalty of its members. It is the deepest love for the Lord that inspires the most noble Christian actions. The church needs organization—a well-developed, efficient, growing organization—but only to assist those who are personally dedicated to the Lord. The private dedication precedes the public activity.
What, then, does the Lord require of servant-leaders? "To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God" (Micah 6:8).
Humility is so misunderstood. It is not being shy, cowering, inept, fearful. It has to do with contentment. Andrew Murray defined it this way: "Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or irritated or sore or disappointed. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord, where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret, and am at peace as in the deep sea of calmness when all around and above is trouble."
The servant-leader is in service. He never thinks of anything else. He has no other ambition. He is content with his lot. Horatius Bonar says it well:
"Go, labor on; spend and be spent—
Thy joy to do the Father's will;
It is the way the Master went;
Should not the servant tread it still?"
