Incarnational Leadership as Servanthood

‘Leadership is cause and everything else is effect’,¹ quotes Ghanaian scholar and former public administrator, Professor Stephen Adei. Many theories of leadership— democratic, transactional, transformational, autocratic, and several others—abound, but which of these is the Christian to live by? How are our cultures motivating Christians to become Christlike leaders?

Servant Leadership: Perspectives from Ghana, Australia, and South Korea

Akan Culture—Ghana

The ‘adinkra’ symbols in the Akan culture in Ghana are used in fabrics, pottery, and on architectural designs. One of these, the Nea opese odedi hene, which means, ‘he who wants to be king’, is a symbol of service and leadership. This symbol results from the expression, Nea ope se obedi hene daakye no, firi ase sue som ansa, meaning, ‘He who wants to be king in the future must first learn to serve.’ Although the ideal of servant leadership among the Akans is culturally evident through the adinkra symbols, the practice of it is uncommon and hardly biblical. It is interesting that Ghanaian chiefs are carried in palanquins and assisted with all sorts of protocols, making it impossible for them to serve their people. David Miller, in his article, ‘Servant Leadership in an African Village’, recounts, ‘Chiefs in the villages had great privilege and the people served the chiefs. He told us that pastors tended to act like church chiefs, lording it over the congregation and expecting to be honored for their exalted position.’²

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture—Australia

In Australia, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples model servant leadership. They were oppressed and denigrated for centuries by their colonizers. However, instead of responding with enmity, they are responding by offering their former oppressors friendship, forgiveness, and openness to reconciliation. The Islanders could have withheld their wisdom and deep knowledge of the land, but instead they are passing it humbly to the next generation. Erica Mandi Manga, assistant minister/justice advocate at St Barnabas Anglican Church in Balwyn, Victoria, says, ‘It is a tragedy that more of us do not listen. But it speaks of their humility and grace that they continue to offer it.’³ 

There is a tension between ’serve-me’ leadership and servant leadership, which has led to abuse of the personnel and volunteers in some Christian organizations. Though the concept of servant leadership exists in Australian culture, it is hardly practiced. However, there are many incredible men and women who are genuine servant leaders dedicated to inviting, dining with, and spending real time in authentic situations with younger people to glean from their character and gifts.⁴ 

South Korean Culture

The South Korean culture appears to be deeply hierarchical and so is its cultural leadership style. Thus, in organizations within the Korean environment there is a clearly delineated chain of command from the lowest to the highest levels. Joshua Rho, a pastor with Onnuri Church, believes that the hierarchical gap between the older and the younger generation is being closed up by the digital age. The younger people are smarter, with easy access to information, whilst the older generation who hitherto appeared wiser now have only material advantage to their name.⁵ Without the influence of Christianity, the South Korean church rarely can show pointers to servant leadership in its culture. 

Not So Among You: Jesus’ Radical Invitation to be Servants 

God invites each culture to a biblical and Christlike perspective to life. Jesus offers a leadership paradigm shift beyond all cultural ideals, explained in the text below.

Mark’s account strongly highlights the distinction Jesus wanted to bring between the leadership style of the world, often characterized today by a CEO posture of rulership or human relationship management, contrary to the Christlike model. Jesus teaches that the shepherd is called to give his life for the sheep (John 10:15) and to be a slave (Mark 10:44). Christlike leadership is a life of service and giving oneself away, even in death! Jesus sealed it with a practical example on the cross when through slaving, he assumed greatness, and by death attained glory. 

John’s account of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet begins, ‘Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God’ (John 13:3-5). It will take a leader with a deep sense of self-awareness and God-awareness to be a Christlike servant leader. According to John Calvin, ‘our wisdom [. . .] consists almost entirely of two parts: knowledge of God and of ourselves’⁶. And Teresa of Avila wrote: ‘Almost all problems in the spiritual life stem from a lack of self-knowledge.’⁷ There are many casualties in leadership because those who are called to lead are embroiled in an identity crisis—often controlling, manipulative, and insecure, defined by their position, activity, and associations.

Jesus, on the other hand, offers a leadership that is ultimately defined by relationship with our Father in heaven. A Christlike servant leader must be conscious of God’s love and acceptance in order to serve and edify others. What Christ is offering is not just servant leadership but incarnational servant leadership. This leadership style identifies with its followers, lives their lives, participates in their mundane activities, and dies their deaths. Professor Asamoah-Gyadu, former president of Trinity Theological Seminary in Accra, Ghana, has a perspective on this that is helpful: 

What Really Transforms? : Images of Incarnational Leadership as Servanthood

So, what does servant leadership of this incarnational model look like in our individual contexts? 

It looks like university professors in Ghana washing the plates of high school and university students during Scripture Union camps. A participant in one such camp recalls an older Ghanaian taking his plate and washing it, then passing it on to his wife to dry it. The next day, the older gentleman wanted to do it again. The boy asked a friend who the man was. ‘Professor Bentsi-Enchill’, was the reply. He recalls his reaction, ‘A professor has washed my plate! From that day, I buried all my pride that was in me.’⁹

This leadership style could also be expressed as Dr Doug Birdsall, honorary co-chair of the Lausanne Movement, has done this week at the Fourth Lausanne Congress, finding the time to sit with, speak to, and listen to younger leaders like myself.

It could look like the experience of Leo Rhee, Lead Pastor of City Light Seoul Church. Pastor Rhee served at a mega church where the senior pastor had every first-year pastor and elder of the church clean the toilets as their first responsibility. The elders were CEOs of big companies, influential people, and they were cleaning toilets. In the second year they were tasked with being parking attendants. In this way, the senior pastor caused the pastors to think about what incarnational servant leadership looked like. 

Paul gives the most profound image of incarnational servant leadership that Christ represents: ‘Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!’ (Philippians 2:5-9). 

Conclusion

As incarnational servant leaders, we are called to be servants of the gospel, servants to the Holy Spirit, to the church, to others and especially to the lost.¹⁰ And it is in Jesus Christ that all the aspirations of all cultures are fulfilled.

Endnotes

1. https://thebftonline.com/2022/05/23/leadership-a-conversation-with-professor-stephen-adei-the-man-who-redefined-public-administration-in-ghana/, 23 May 2022. Accessed 28 September 2024.
2. Dave Miller, ‘Servant Leadership in an African Village’, https://sbcvoices.com/servant-leadership-in-an-african-village/. Accessed 26 September, 2024.
3. Erica Mandi Manga interview by Nana Kojo Aboagye-Obeng, 24 September 2024, Fourth Lausanne Congress, Songdo, Incheon. 
4. Bobby Aitken interview by Nana Kojo Aboagye-Obeng, 24 September 2024, Fourth Lausanne Congress, Songdo, Incheon.
5. Joshua Rho, interview by Nana Kojo Aboagye-Obeng, 25 September 2024, Fourth Lausanne Congress, Songdo, Incheon. 
6. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.iii.ii.html Accessed 27 September 2024
7. Teresa of Avila, The Life of Teresa of Jesus: The autobiography of Teresa of Avila. Transl. E. Allison Peers, 1995.
8. Johnson Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, ‘Christian Leadership’, Trumpet Magazine, Issue One, Ghana Fellowship of Evangelical Students, Accra, 2022, p. 11.
9. Peter Baker and Boadi-Siaw, Changed by the Word: The story of Scripture Union Ghana. (Accra, Ghana: Asempa Publishers, African Christian Press, 2003). pp. 24-25 
10. Philip Ryken, “Christlike Servanthood.” Plenary at the Forth Lausanne Congress, Songdo Convensia, Incheon. 27 September 2024.