Servant Leadership
“All I did was pick up a broom and a dust pan and started cleaning the streets. When people asked what I was doing I just said, 'I am loving Portland like I think Jesus would.'" This was Marshall Snider's explanation as he shared about how Bridgetown Ministries began. If you haven't heard about the impact this ministry is having on Portland, I encourage you to look it up at www.bridgetownministries.com. But let me share how Marshall's simple statements have encouraged me as a leader.
I sometimes think that everything I do has to be BIG and maybe you feel the same way. I think my definition of success is BIG. My heart is to do BIG things for God, have BIG impact on my world, have BIG dreams and to accomplish them. I don’t know about you, but sometimes that thought leaves me feeling very small.
I can’t always get to the BIG ideas. I sometimes feel, I’ve reached something BIG, but when all is said and done, it wasn’t that big. Ministry is difficult, and “success” is defined in so many ways, but if you get a little disillusioned, like I do, looking for the BIG, remember: Jesus looks for the small things. (Or perhaps the things we think are small). He looks for a servant heart (the broom and dust pan in hand), he looks for faithfulness, he looks for compassion, for mercy, for leadership, for love, for truth. In a way he looks for the small and He makes it BIG.
I think we get too caught up in the world’s definition of success; our minds need to be renewed. Romans 12:1, 2 says, So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.(The Message)
The NIV says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
It was such an encouragement and really a stress reducer, to know that some of the biggest things, come from doing some of the smallest. Keep doing BIG things for God by doing all the small things well! Be a servant!
