Leading as a Servant
By Terance Clark June 29, 2025 7 Minute Read
Week 38
This Weeks Passage: Numbers 16:1 – 18:32
One time I was traveling in Eastern Africa with three Kenyan pastors. They managed my itinerary, but I had requested to spend time in several locations along the way. When we got to one of my desired locations they told me I only had a few hours to spend there before we needed to get to our next destination and my heart broke because I was spending time with my dearest friend who was a bishop over many churches and one of the humblest men I knew. We had become the dearest of brothers like David and Jonathan and we both wept at my short visit. He was so gracious saying he completely understood, but I was not happy.
I was then taken to a resting location. Our tour was packed and there were many speaking engagements and little time for rest. They had arranged for two days at a location with a family at a very nice home but I didn’t know any of the people. I was frustrated because I was spending time with people I didn’t know and given only a few hours with the one person I did know. This happened several times and when I prayed about it the Lord directed me to look at tribal affiliations. Rather than leading me along a path filled with many members of the body of Christ they were connecting me to people along their tribal heritage. My friend was a descendant of another tribe and when I confronted my fellow pastors they admitted it yet they continued to live out of this biased and discriminatory mindset of tribe versus tribe.
Moses Fights Against Rebellion
This week Moses encounters his greatest attack when three separate groups mount a coup against him. Korah accused Moses of showing partiality making his brother high priest. He felt his families position in the tribe was higher. Next Dathan and Abiram complained that they were of the Reuben tribe which was the first born son of Jacob and the leadership of the tribe was given to the tribe of Judah and the priesthood was given to the tribe of Levi. The final group was 250 leaders from all the tribes who complained that it was unfair for one tribe to be given the priesthood. Did God not say that the entire nation were a kingdom of priests so why has Moses made just one tribe to be the priests. There are a lot insinuations in their speech that are easily missed. This was no simple argument they were ready to mount a rebellion. How does a leader respond to such attacks?
“A leader is a role not a person“
Leadership should never be personal and what I mean by that is being a leader is a role not a person. When someone attacks my leadership they are not attacking me, but my role. I must be able to separate the two. Who I am is not what I do. The first thing Moses did was fall on his face, that meant he responded by praying not by speaking. In Israel the prophet spoke the word of the Lord for his time and the priest spoke the word of God for all time. The point I’m making is if they spoke their own word or tried to use their own authority, they were removed from their calling. An example of this is when Moses smote the rock. He didn’t say what God said he acted of his own will and therefore was removed from leading Israel the rest of the way. In this situation, when Moses stood back up it was because he had the word from the Lord and it was a big one.
God Answers the Complaints
Moses said, tomorrow morning God will answer your complaints. He gave the men a full day to rethink their words and to repent and the next day Moses told everyone to move away from Korah, Dathan and Abiram and the earth opened and swallowed them up and closed back. To the 250 leaders fire came from heaven and consumed them all in a flash. Moses never had to defend himself nor answer his critics. That is why humility is the key to our role as leaders and the truth is that humility is forged through years of trial, experiences, pain and trust. We learn to depend on God and not ourselves and in this we learn to serve others in a spirit of what is best for them and not ourselves.
In the world, leaders hold themselves higher than those they lead, but not so in the body of the Lord. Leaders are servants and we see examples of this over and over. Even the king was supposed to write out a complete copy of the Torah that’s Genesis to Deuteronomy and keep it with him at all times so that he will not ever think he is better than the people he leads. Leaders provide a structure to the enterprise so that everyone can move in the same direction and so everyone can benefit. A servant leader will almost always push back against taking the role because they recognize what it really means and the cost of leading. Unfortunately, we live in times when this is a rarity. Lord help us.
“Leading with humility is Gods design for leadership“
In closing, I opened with my own challenge dealing with tribal allegiances and favoritisms. Although my team acknowledged my point, tribal affiliations are deeply rooted into thousands of years of history and shows that bigotry is much bigger than the shades of color we tend to make them about in our country. The enemy will always find ways to divide us even when we look alike. Leaders must turn away from their personal needs and wants and hear what God is saying for situations and then inspire others to achieve through what they are gifted to do and then celebrate the teams success. When we place ourselves as a member of the team rather than over the team we can lead from a different perspective, and are usually given more authority to help others succeed. Leading with humility is God’s design for leadership within His community and that’s to lead as a servant.
