A Leader of No Reputation: A Divine Blueprint

In a recent and informal poll taken of Christian leaders across myriad professions and walks of life, a consistently identified fundamental requirement for success as a Christ-follower at any level of leadership was… You guessed it – Humility.

Humility is so inextricably linked to the character and value identity of God that He chose to lace His inspired Word with some derivative of the word more than 100 times; meanwhile, its arch-nemesis, pride, is used more than 50 times, and as I’m sure you can imagine, is not painted in a particularly positive light. Given such a profound library of opportunity, we could choose any number of verses to drive home the importance of servant leadership, but there is one passage on which I’d like to affix the spotlight for the next few minutes:

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” – Philippians 2:3-11, NIV

Each line is a sermon in and of itself, but let’s focus for a moment on this, specifically: “…He made Himself nothing…”Or as the King James Version reads: “…made Himself of no reputation…”

This is a fine concept, but none of us reading this (or writing this) is God, and likely, none of us has even the slightest hint of personal experience with effecting the Divine art of incarnation, so how would I apply this? I’m glad you’ve asked, but first, a little background…

Our world’s concept of success looks an awful lot like personal kingdom building, doesn’t it? We amass things, people, money, and prestige unto ourselves, and we use this amalgamation of worldly accomplishment to fashion rungs on our personal ladders of success, or if the analogy suits you better, as bricks in the walls of our personal fortresses. Whichever of these analogies you prefer, the concept is the same – extract and employ every ounce of potential from every amassed resource in order to achieve our defined measure of success. This tactic has a proven — if not occasionally sinister — track record across both time and vocational application. On a large scale, this tactic has worked for both corporate and military empires – Walmart, Microsoft, the Roman, Babylonian, Persian, British and Ottoman Empires to name a few — but this tactic is universal and flexible enough to have worked for organized crime syndicates, street gangs, religious/social extremist groups, and terrorist organizations. A list of star pupils of this personal power expansion philosophy includes industry power-houses such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffett, and also more than a few less heralded entrepreneurs such as Pablo Escobar, Joseph Stalin, Caligula and Adolf Hitler. Expand your boundaries, add your newly acquired territory’s resources to your storehouse, exploit the unique characteristics of your new treasures in a way that best serves your greater goal, and move on to the next conquest. There is, however, another way…

Much like the path that leads to eternal life (Matthew 7:14, NIV), this leadership path is narrow, and only a few will find it. Simply put, this scarcely travelled path goes against every fiber of our beings and the price of admission is not a price we’re capable of paying. This leadership path requires emulation of Christ’s humility – a divine character trait – and emulation, in our own strengths, is imperfect at best. Our saving grace as leaders is exactly that – saving grace. In our own power, we are wholly incapable of true humility – that is, truly valuing others above ourselves. Left to our own devices, we are likely to twist the worshipful act of humility into one of two forms – an unhealthy devaluation of self on one hand, or an unhealthy overvaluation of self on the other.

If we hold a distortedly diminished view of our own worth, we dishonor God by failing to recognize the value of the very image He’s imprinted upon us; we, as Believers, are valuable in His sight because we:

a) have been created in His image

b) are seen through the filter of the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, and

c) are indwelt by His Holy Spirit

If He has saved us from our sins, we are ‘His’ in every imaginable sense; from the deepest depths of our souls to the outermost tips of our outstretched fingers. As a result, while we oughtn’t to think that we are grandiose in our own strength, we ought to regard His workmanship with a healthy and worshipful awe. This, then, should be the starting point for our evaluation of self-worth. If this is our view of self-worth, then we are starting with a healthy perspective on what it truly means to ‘value others above ourselves’. To pervert the process of valuing others above self by first artificially diminishing the value of God’s handiwork in us is to disrespect the Lord’s investment in us, and in turn, to diminish the value we are to attribute to others.

Conversely — and perhaps more commonly encountered – is the overvaluation of self. Ironically, the undervaluation and the overvaluation of self both stem from a lack of trust in the Lord. One indicates a lack of trust in the power and efficacy of the Lord’s work in our lives, while the other indicates a lack of trust in the sovereignty or omnipotence of the Lord. One says, “He could never use me,” while the other says, “He sure could use me.” The overestimation of self – pride – is the subject of a great many passages of scripture, and we really need look no further than to ponder this particular verse:

God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble – Proverbs 3:34

What does it look like to be actively opposed by the God of the Universe? I may be wrong, but it seems like a fairly significant ordeal to me. The same God who spoke the heavens and the earth into existence. The God who, in His righteous judgment, cleansed the earth of sinful man with a flood the likes of which had never been seen and has not been experienced since. The God who orchestrated an amazingly intricate love story with His obstinate people, Israel, to accomplish the ultimate salvation of Jew and Gentile, alike. The God whose ultimate plan will bring about the downfall of all who would oppose Him, however mighty the ruler or nation. This is the God against whom we set ourselves when we choose pride. If that is not a sobering thought, then I’m afraid you will not find much value in the remainder of this exposition.

Now that we’ve got a pretty clear picture of what genuine humility is not, let’s focus on what genuine humility is. If ever there was a situation where a man had the ‘right’ to receive recognition for who he was, or what he had done, it would have been Jesus. We know the story, but this is a history worthy of repetition – the God of the Universe took on flesh in the person of Jesus, and although He was tried and tempted in all ways, just as we are, He lived a sinless life – not only did He keep the Law, He fulfilled it; He put meat on the dry bones of the lifeless Law, and brought clarity and context to the shadowy prophetic representations of the Law. He answered ‘the Why’. As God in the flesh, He had absolute power and authority to call an audible to a plan He knew would subject Him to horrific suffering, and yet, He did not. He chose to abdicate the honor and glory due His station in favor of submission, committing instead to humble servitude of others.

So, as current or aspiring leaders, what are our takeaways from Christ’s modeling of humility in this passage? Well, first of all, we see that He considered the mission as more important than His personal comfort. Jesus understood and embraced the mission He was sent to accomplish, and His belief in the mission’s criticality helped to fuel His submission to the mission, even during periods of uncertainty. Secondly, He valued the welfare of others above personal prestige. Throughout His ministry, Jesus routinely refused to embrace accolades or recognition from both earthly and spiritual influencers, recognizing that glory deferred or deflected would bring about the greatest good for mankind. And finally, He tucked in His collars, came alongside His people, and rolled up His sleeves to get dirty.

Allow me to explain that last one a bit. The United States Military Services are comprised of regimented and extraordinarily hierarchical organizations. Concepts like position, rank, and authority each hold a great deal of significance in this setting, so the concept of intentionally obscuring any of these demarcations is rare and purposeful. Imagine, if you will, a conference room filled with officer and enlisted personnel ranging from new recruit to salty veteran – there’s a problem afoot. Solutions to this intentionally unspecific problem have run dry, group-think seems to have taken hold of the traditional decision-making collective, and the problem persists. The most senior person in the room glances from eyeball to eyeball searching for any sign of fresh perspective; finding none in the faces of his leadership team, he makes a sudden and bold decision – in a last-ditch attempt to gain insight from a wider variety of perspectives and experiences, this leader grasps one of his collars in each hand and deliberately tucks each collar inside of his shirt, intentionally obscuring the rank insignia he’d sacrificed so much to achieve. “I’m no longer in charge,” he said, “and rank has no place until the problem is solved.” Amazingly, this simple gesture leads to hours of open dialogue and countless solutions offered from those who would never have spoken with the collar devices visible.

The military leader in the scenario, above, had every right to lead from on high in keeping with the position, rank, and authority due him, but in that moment, he recognized the value of stepping into the crowd, of looking them squarely in the eyeballs, and of viewing life from their perspectives. Now, did this leader’s gesture actually signify a genuine abdication of authority or responsibility? Of course it did not, and neither did Christ’s voluntary donning of mankind’s flesh result in a genuine diminishment of His station or authority. The point, here, is this – if we as Christian Leaders are to follow the example of Christ in humility, it will take much more than a symbolic demonstration of collar-tucking; the illustration, however, draws from precisely the right place. Even with his collars tucked, Jesus understood full well that neither His glory nor His authority were truly diminished, but He voluntarily stepped out of eternity in order to pour Himself out as an offering for those He came to serve – “He made Himself of no reputation.” From throne to stockyard because it was the best means of serving His people.

So, how do we, as Christian Leaders, overlay Christ’s example onto our everyday leadership of the men and women God has placed in our care? Do we need to donate our paychecks? Give up our offices? Turn down promotions? Not necessarily. Although there will surely be people and seasons in life that will cause you to question this truth, hear this – God has placed each of us in our positions of leadership for a reason; you are not promoted, hired, or selected by accident; rather, you are specifically placed with purpose and intentionality (Romans 13:1-2; 1 Peter 2:18; Daniel 2:36-38) by a God who knows what He’s doing. I believe this comes down to a fairly simple question – where does your position create distance or disconnect? Between you and the Lord? Between you and your people? Between you and your mission? Examples of some questions we might ask ourselves about our commitment levels to leadership from a position of no reputation:

– Is there enough evidence to suggest that your position is an avenue for ministry to your people? To your organization?

– Do you know more about the budget than you do about your team’s personal and professional well-being?

– Does time spent behind closed doors overshadow time spent in the cubicles?

– Would your team notice if you were to leave for a week? Would they rejoice?

– Would your team be surprised to find you rolling up your sleeves to assist with the daily grind?

– Would your team be caught off guard by your asking them for their input?

– Is your team comfortable offering unsolicited input on an idea or a project?

This is not intended as a checklist; these are merely examples of areas we all need to evaluate carefully and routinely as leaders. If we’re honest, each of us is in a constant cycle of failing, asking the Lord to pick us back up, and moving forward in partnership with the Spirit to invest lessons learned from our failures into team and personal successes. Wash, rinse, repeat.

The less traveled, but infinitely more God-honoring leadership road of humility is a delicate dance between Holy Spirit intervention and tenacious intentionality. Although, in and of ourselves, we are entirely incapable of producing genuine humility, my prayer for each of us is that through the inner-prodding of the Holy Spirit, He would conform each of us, as leaders, into the perfect image of His Son – a Leader of No Reputation.

https://crossanchorreflections.wordpress.com/2021/12/22/a-leader-of-no-reputation-a-divine-blueprint/

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