Servant Leadership

There is a call that must be answered. We can try to ignore it by overworking, over achievement and self indulgence but the beckoning continues. We can plead that our resources are limited but the summons persists. We can appeal that the physical or emotional barriers in our lives make it impossible but the invitation will not be dismissed. We are called to serve others. We do not have to abandon our lives and lifestyles to answer it but we must respond with direct action. Serving the needs of others connects us to our common bond. It allows us to go beyond the narrow range of daily activities to a place in which we feel fully human. We have the ability to become servant leaders.

Servant leadership is a philosophy of compassion. The phrase was derived from the work of Robert Greenleaf in 1970. Centers from The School of Servant Leadership in Washington, DC to The Greenleaf Center in Indiana and countless other schools around the country have risen to the call of the leader as a servant. It is a philosophy that, when embraced, calls the individual to community. Mercy and justice become overriding concerns. Competition yields to cooperation. Servant leaders not only nurture but embolden others. Their compassionate mission welcomes the poor and the wealthy, the prisoner and the executive, the mourner and the celebrant. They erase the distinctions that divide us and provide a vision of an interconnected human family.

Starting out on a path of servant leadership requires only that we pose the following questions to ourselves:


• How can I spend more time other people?

• How can I bring some joy into the situation that faces me?

• How can I listen with greater intensity?

• How can I share my love?

The behaviors will follow the questions. We will find that we are engaged in the most meaningful and enriching times of our lives. It takes some effort and some courage but it can be done regardless of who we are. This is the way of spiritual living. It is what every religion tells us to do. We have not yet realized what we profess to believe until we rise to follow the call.

The Memory of Terrorism

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was 15 years old when she left the comfort of home in Switzerland to find herself. It was a time when World War II was raging in Europe. Hitler's Nazis were leaving millions of people dead or dying in their wake. Cities were being destroyed, people were starving, children separated from their parents, and thousands upon thousands were being exterminated by the 'master race'. Her journey continued after the war when she visited the concentration camp at Maidanek. The walls of the waiting area just outside of the gas chambers were filled with drawings of butterflies drawn by children who were awaiting a horrible death. This is the message that they left behind. Elisabeth encountered a girl who was a Jewish survivor of the death camp and asked her how it was possible that men and women could so brutally kill such innocent children. The answer changed her life. The girl said to her "Oh my God, if I spend the rest of my life telling about all these horrible things, I would not be any better than Hitler himself. I would plant seeds of hate and negativity."

It is incomprehensible that beautiful, innocent, delightful children can be killed by monsters. It is just as incomprehensible that beautiful, innocent, delightful children can grow up to be the monsters that do such things. Dr. Kubler-Ross did not become bitter. She developed a lifelong passion to help, to heal, feed and clothe the less fortunate. Her work soothed the ravages of grief for countless people.

The memory of September 11, 2001 reminds us all that horrible things happen. The thought of it can lead us to seek revenge or it can lead us to service. It is our responsibility to make choices built on the foundations of love rather than fear. We have the obligation to help shape the lives others so that they will choose not to be terrorists but rather to be healers.

Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday, or Maundy Thursday, is one of the most sacred days of the year. It is filled with mystery, symbolism and confusion. The most compelling image to me is that of Jesus washing the feet of his friends. He expresses the fullness of his love by pouring water into a basin and assuming the role of a servant. Only days before he had experienced Mary washing his own feet with water and her tears. This self giving is not only offered as a gesture of compassion but is accompanied by the direction to follow his example. He asks us to live our lives in service to others.

I will never forget the profound and personal affect that a Holy Thursday washing of feet had for me. I was about 30 years old when my life-long best friend, Steve Magin, went with me to a service at St. Elizabeth Hospital Chapel in our home town. The mass was going to be offered by Father C. B. Motsett. Father Motsett had been a significant person in Steve’s life and important in mine as well. He was the parish priest at St. Paul's Church and principal at Schlarman High School in Danville, Illinois when we were youngsters. His kindness, encouragement, civic leadership and love of sports had provided important guidance. Father Motsett was in his late seventies, and semi-retired, when we attended the Holy Thursday Mass that year. We were both pleased to see him. He was very popular in our home town and the church was filled. The old man saw Steve and I sitting among the flock and came over to greet us prior to the service. What an honor! His words, however, were almost shattering. “Will you boys kindly allow me to wash your feet?” We nodded in numb acceptance of his invitation. The time came for the ceremony and 12 men walked up to the alter where chairs had been arranged. We each removed our shoes and socks. Father Motsett slowly and gently bathed each of us. I felt unworthy and was overcome by so many emotions. There was a deep sense of how Jesus’ disciples must have felt. Here was a great man kneeling in front of me, washing my feet. I wanted to raise him up and wash his feet just like Peter had implored in the gospel story. Then I felt a great sense of calm and peace. Father Motsett was teaching us again, just as he had when we were kids. He was demonstrating the importance of serving others with kindness and humility. None of us is greater than the other.

I have tried to live out the call of servant leadership. It is never easy. So many occasions seem to demand elevating myself to higher positions, to command others to react to my directions, and to take charge. It is much more difficult to just be a good example and allow others to join my efforts. Jesus asks us to follow him. He sends us people like Father Motsett to remind us. He wants us to kneel and provide relief to each others wounds.

Servant Leadership ~ The Path To Freedom

The idea of a humble servant who provides inspiration and leadership is paradoxical and difficult to fully comprehend. Not to be confused with the public servant or civil servant who lends magnanimous support to an organization, the true servant is regarded as one who performs domestic chores. The servant is retained for substandard wages to perform tasks that the employer would rather not perform. The position is regarded as a lowly one and the servant is someone who does not have the skills to do more lofty things in life. How could a servant be a leader? How could a servant provide insight or encouragement? Can a servant be taken seriously?

It is important to understand that the concept and fad of corporate servant leadership in which the “priority needs of others are being served” is a way to improve the bottom line. It is not the spiritual challenge that is implied in true servant leadership at all. The servant leader is one who is compassionate and who embraces suffering, who loves without conditions, who shares power freely and recognizes, claims and proliferates our unique and individual identity as the beloved children of God. They seek forgiveness, healing and liberation for themselves and for others so that we may all grow into God’s vision for the world. They create loving communities and institutions where peace and social justice are paramount. They nurture and embolden others. They follow the path of the one who washed the feet of the disciples. They serve without expectation of compensation.

Wouldn’t it be transforming if we could begin to practice these principles in all of our affairs? Such change would create a world in which we would no longer strike preemptively at supposed enemies. We would become empathetic, practice diplomacy and treat each other with dignity. We would listen attentively. We would share our resources. We would finally be at peace. Starting today…let’s love our neighbors as ourselves. It is the path to real freedom.