Every week I receive the bulletin for the upcoming Sunday worship service in my email. It contains the announcements and the Scripture reading which our pastor is going to base his sermon on. A few weeks ago, I decided to read the scripture passage and write a blog entry containing my thoughts on the passage as a way to prepare for Sunday morning worship. I do not know how long I will continue doing this, but it seems to be an exercise that has some value.

    This Sunday our speaker is from Cru, which used to be Campus Crusade for Christ. They changed their name because the word “Crusade” was offensive to some people

Of course, that makes you wonder why they changed their name to something which is short for the word which people found offensive. I can just imagine the dialog
“We need to change our name from Campus Crusade for Christ because people found the word Crusade offensive.”
“Well, what should we change it to?”
“I was thinking ‘Cru’ would work. It is short and easy to say.”
“Yeah, but what do we say when people ask us what it means?”
“Oh, that’s easy. It is short for Crusade!”
Is it just me, or did someone not think that one through? Personally, I think they should have changed the name to Campus Jihad for Christ.

Any way, the scripture passage for this Sunday’s service is Mark 10:32-45. In this passage, James and John seek to get Jesus to promise them special honors in God’s kingdom. From Jesus’ reply we learn the important characteristics of true leadership. According to this passage if we want to be leaders among the followers of Christ the first requirement is a willingness to suffer. However, that is not a characteristic just of the leaders, but for all followers of Christ. Jesus tells us that a leader in the Church is a servant. If we want to be a leader in God’s eyes we need to seek to meet the needs of others. While this definition of leadership is foreign to most of our secular acquaintances, it is a model which will serve us well, no matter what organization we wish to lead, or for which we are seeking a leader. Those who lead by Serving the needs of their “subordinates” will bring the most value to an organization, whether that organization is a congregation, a non-profit organization, or a business.