Yes. No.
We don’t see clear New Testament examples where people of God ONLY served a man, but we do see how part of serving God meant submitting to, and as a byproduct, “serving” a man or woman.
Some of you are already thinking about armor bearers, I can feel it.
This can so quickly go off the rails, it makes me nervous even adding this FB post. Now that some readers have run off with their fingers stuck in their ears, let me continue.
On one side, the person that should ensure that the other person called to serve the assignment, and submit in a healthy way to assigned leadership of that assignment, is the leader, not the one serving until the one serving is matured, by the help of that leader.
I respectfully say dear leader, that you might need to tell that boy no, send him home, and sweep the floor yourself. It will be good for you. You might have gone too far away from the dirty feed you are called to clean. You may need to get used to having that towel around your waist again.
It would be easier for a leader to avoid this tension, and just let that one faithful individual serve. Otherwise, that leader runs the risk of being the only one completely invested, and that will burn a leader out.
The one man show has set some to be partakers and others to a degree, co-laborers. The issue is, that the partakers tend to stay in consumerism, and the co-laborers can be after something.
The minute you have someone as equally invested in the assignment as the leader, they are quickly looked at with the stinky eye, as if they may have an impure motive. They may be after something, or a Judas, or a wolf, and of course, all of those things could be true. It certainly doesn’t have to be.
You can’t say, leaders need to let go of some of their responsibility and look to label them controlling because nobody else does anything when that leader hasn’t yet been able to develop someone to the point they can make a piece of toast without onlookers being thankful that some piece of wonder bread escaped hell… barely. I enjoyed that joke.
You can’t say there is no leader when someone starts to invest leadership into a person who isn’t perfect. There is none perfect other than God. So some on that crew say, let God just do it all.. and nothing gets done. Why is that I wonder?
So, what you need to do is simple, to move into what is next, adopt the following reality as hard as it is to do so.
1. Understand that the assignment you lead by serving, is ultimately the purpose of an almighty God that has secured the outcome. He won’t control it, but will be in charge to the degree that keep Him properly placed there through your submission. This means being wiling to say the hard stuff, fast, pray, be labeled all kinds of stuff. I have found the minute strong leadership dynamics come into play people scream, “Shepherding Movement, NAR!!!!”
2. If God sends someone into the assignment you carry the blueprint for, it is their assignment AS MUCH as it is yours. As a matter of fact, it is neither, but you are both STEWARDS of an assignment with measurable roles, responsibility, authority, favor. At no point will any of that take away from another person sent into the assignment to steward their portion. They have to understand that, and so do you. This is where the 5 fold works best.
3. Foundational leaders are at the bottom, not the top. You don’t increase in the kingdom by going higher, you do so by going lower. Don’t let yourself forget in all the travel, preaching, when all the big offerings come in, and people start laying houses and lands at your feet that your still the same person that was saved from Hell, and your joy is to do the will of the One who sent you. This is your worship-that-looks-like-work.
As you walk in these things, people will come and tell you God sent them to serve you. Receive them, but push them forward, onward, and upward (and sometimes downward) so that they can move into their purposes. As they mature, and begin to adopt their share of assignment, don’t hold back because of how they served you in the past season, let them go and grow. You can pick up your own laundry. God will send others that need that position for a season as they mature. Yes, sometimes God will have you pickup some laundry, sweep some floors that aren’t yours, and get creative in how you honor as you mature.
God will have you serve a man, and only when you do so in response to Him, are you truly submitting to Him by serving that man.
SELAH
Dr. Joshua Todd