Effective Leadership Is Based On Service Series

It has been said that, “A church wrapped up in itself makes a small package—too small, in fact.” Christ has commissioned His church to win the lost for Him. The most effective way to accomplish this mission is through leading in service. To be an effective leader one must have a servant’s heart and a kingdom view. It is not enough to simply ask, “What is best for us,” only for your local congregation. An effective leader needs to see every decision in the light of the church’s mission. Unfortunately many church leaders are like the man who was telling his friend about a speaker he heard on television. “This guy was great,” his friend declared. “He said that all the world’s problems could be reduced to two things—ignorance and apathy. What do you think of that?” The fellow replied, “I don’t know and I don’t care.” The great temptation is for church members to be satisfied with what they are already doing for others. We are guilty many times of looking out for number one. We try to justify it by saying, “Charity begins at home.” We want to make sure that our own are taken care of and whatever is left we can give to those outside the church. Too many churches never reach out beyond their own comfort and convenience. Biblically qualified leaders know that there needs to be something more. They seek to direct the local church out of the comfort zone of easy Christianity into the thrill of trusting and following Jesus wherever He may lead. Scripture teaches that Servant leaders are the ones the Lord desires to lead the church. Today I would like us to discover the areas of service that effective leaders should lead in.

I. Effective leaders participate in loving service to others.

A. We need to model the type of service that Christ modeled, selfless and motivated by love.

1. CS Lewis put it this way, “The rule for all of us is fairly simple: do not waste time bothering whether you love your neighbor; act as if you did.

2. At the heart of servanthood is our willingness to go out of our way to meet a need in someone’s life and to accomplish something that needs to be done.

3. The acts in our text do not require any special talent; they are really quite common and are given with no strings attached.

4. Jesus wants us to be personally involved in caring for the needs of others.

5. True servanthood, as is depicted in the Bible is more then just a desire to do what is right. It is dying to ones own desires and attending to the needs of our God and others.

B. For every situation and different need we must strive to offer a service that will reveal God’s love.

1. The greatest motivation for acts of service needs to be sacrificial love.

2. True disciples will love one another and serve the least of the brothers with compassion; in so doing they unconsciously serve Christ.

3. When action oriented compassion is absent, there are definitely some deep rooted spiritual problems.

4. Notice the simple responses God noted in the actions of the righteous. Giving someone a drink, something to eat, clothes to wear and a visit. These are simple and basic things. No pomp, no plaque, no prestige.

5. We need to realize regardless of how unlovely a person is we will never come across a person who is not valuable to God.

6. When Christian people become one in heart & mind, and are committed to service they can unleash a power greater than any in this world.

II. Effective leaders serve by a displaying a commitment to evangelism.

A. It is really easy to become sidetracked from our primary mission.

1. A very wise man gave this practical advice for success in any organization; “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

2. Every Christian needs to remember that our primary mission, “the main thing” is evangelism.

3. A recent survey found that 41% of Americans attend church regularly so that means that 59% of the population is unchurched, so the church needs to remain on task.

4. Growing churches have evangelism as their priority and are willing take bold risks to accomplish their mission.

5. In order to become truly committed to the primary purpose of the church we need to truly adopt the attitude that “people matter to God and therefore they matter to us.”

6. This begins by seeing every person as a unique creation of God that is loved by Him.

7. As leaders we need to have this value instilled within our hearts before we can effectively instill it within the hearts of others.