Submission Archives - Bob on Books

Leadership or Servanthood?, Hwa Yung. Carlisle: Langham Global Library, 2021.

Summary: Contends that, contrary to our focus on developing or training leaders, Jesus was concerned with the formation of servants.

Almost everywhere you turn in Christian circles, (including the organization in which I work) you come across discussions of the urgency of developing leaders and various efforts to “train” leaders. Years ago I heard a lead pastor of a large megachurch speak of how people love being lead well. This pastor later was forced to step down from his position for moral irregularities. And this is a story we hear with nauseating regularity.

The author of this work challenges this focus on leadership. He notes the sparing use of the term in scripture (often negatively) and how the words used for those in roles of oversight largely were terms that might be translated “servant” or “slave,” often translated as “minister.” It is not that there were not people serving in leadership capacities, but that they understood their work in the light of Christ as servant.

The author contends that this is not “servant leadership,”: as has been popularized, because this still centers leadership. He would contend, rather for “leader servants” He notes the work of Jim Collins in Good to Great describing the Level 5 leader as a good description of the kind of leader servant of which he is speaking. In contrast, Christian leaders are often self-promoting, even while they lack spiritual and theological depth.

Yung discusses the matter of authority, differentiating moral, institutional, and spiritual authority. The latter comes, in the case of Jesus, out of his entire submission to the Father. Yung then develops the biblical case for submission as the basis of spiritual authority for leading servants, and how crucial this is for ministry with true spiritual power. This submission includes submission to scripture, to God’s voice in conscience, prayer, conviction, and prophetic word, as well as submission to those placed over us.

The joy of submission is to be utterly secure in the love of the Father. Yung spends a couple chapters on this. He highlights the protection and provision of those who call God “Abba, Father”: we may pray freely, boldly, and simply, we need not be anxious, we are heirs of the kingdom, and needn’t fear anything. This security also means we may uncover our deepest wounds, and experience over time the healing of our memories.

This security leads to an unself-consciousness that allows the leader to serve with humility: doing the lowly but needful things, appreciating the contributions of others, while being self-effacing. Other qualities that characterize humble leaders are compassion, faithfulness, and sacrifice. All of this arises through a process of transformation as we move from self-sufficiency to submission as God breaks and remakes us.

In the conclusion of the work, Yung asks if all are leaders, as servants. He allows for the distinctiveness of gifts, that some may serve as organizers or administrators. Not all have these gifts but all may aim for serving. Above all, in submission to Christ, all should seek to serve in his authority, enabling us to be effective wherever we are called.

This book comes as a breath of fresh air, challenging Western leadership models that have so often been patterned after worldly values. As a Malaysian, he comes as a voice from outside, raising important questions of how we read fleshy leadership into scripture rather than following the pattern of Jesus the submissive servant who comes with spiritual authority. He challenges us to the harder work of character transformation rather than picking up a few leadership skills.

There has been a great exodus from ministry, indeed from Western churches, in recent years. Perhaps with the need to raise up a new generation of servant-shepherds, it is time to re-think how they are first recognized and then prepared. Do we call those who have proven themselves in humble service to God’s people? Do we look for those whose lives are already marked by the spiritual authority of submission to the Father? Yung’s book comes at an important inflection point, a time where the old paradigms of leadership have failed.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

The Rule of Saint Benedict by St. Benedict of Nursia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For most of us to read this work is to enter another world. Not only is this written in the 6th century AD but it is written about a kind of experience, the truly monastic life, that few of us will experience, much less understand. So what is the worth of this work?

First of all, the choice of a monastic life is the choice to pursue a greater love of God and holiness of life through poverty, simplicity, submission, and stability in a community. For those who don’t choose monastic communities, it seems there is much we can still learn from Benedict, if we are willing to accept the challenge implicit in the “rule” he develops.

Benedict covers all matters of life in the monastery from the qualifications of the abbot to entering the monastery to the ordering of Psalms used in the prayers of the hours to times for meals, amounts of food and drink, the care of the sick, the treatment of guests and even the qualifications of the porter and the cellarer (the person responsible for keeping the monastery in food and drink).

Perhaps most challenging are some of the rules pertaining to excommunication. It seems on first reading harsh, because one can be excommunicated for even minor faults. Reading more carefully, it is evident that much of this has to do with resistance to the authority necessary to sustain such a community. There also are clear provisions for the abbot to work with the excommunicate to restore him and specific steps to restoration. What all this speaks into is the recognition that sin is deceitful and its roots go deep into our lives and that if one cares deeply about pursuing a holy life, such drastic measures may be necessary and that we cannot do it ourselves but only as we come under the authority of Christ and those who minister on his behalf.

Much of this challenges our “I’m basically a good person” culture that embraces radical personal freedom. It recognizes that freedom often comes through submission to the rule of another that brings order to lives out of control. And so, I think there are a number of insights from Benedict’s “Rule” that apply to those of us not living as monastics:

1. If loving God above all else is indeed the one thing in our lives, then this implies the simplicity that removes all that distracts from this pursuit.

2. Some “rule of life” is necessary for all of us–a rhythm of ordering our hours and days around the pursuit of our first love.

3. We cannot do this alone. Work and prayer in community with others of like mind is important to sustaining our resolve.

4. “Submission” is a nasty word to most of us in contemporary society and yet if we do not submit to Christ and those seeking genuinely to act on his behalf as shepherds to us, how can we hope to flourish “in green pastures and beside still waters”?

This particular edition is preceded by an essay by Thomas Moore and a helpful chronology of monasticism. Even if all the details of monastic life seem irrelevant, I would recommend reading the first seven chapters which include discussions of humility, the restraint of speech and seeking the counsel of others that have relevance for all of us. But the rest will not take a great deal of time, the whole “Rule” only occupies 70 pages in this edition.

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