By Hakim Hazim
“Leadership is internal elicitation. Authority is external imposition.” Hakim Hazim
A Mother’s Request for Authority
Matthew 20: 20-28
20Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. 21“What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” 22“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered. 23Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.” 24When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers.
The Lesson of Servant Leadership
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25Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom
for many.”
The brothers wanted authority, the ability to impose their will upon others. This desire for power, spiritual or otherwise, was pointed out immediately in the second portion of scripture by our Lord. Let me state clearly that authority and leadership are neither good nor evil. They can be used for either. However there is a difference- leadership deals with extracting and eliciting responses from within the heart and mind, whereas authority can impose its will by applying force to secure compliance. The key difference is one is primarily aimed at being influential while the other is external and imposing -sometimes-coercive in nature.
Keep in mind it is important to note that a person with authority can be an influential leader, the difference is that a person with authority can resort to coercion if he chooses. The history of man is replete with memorable figures. Some were influential; some coercive and some were both. Christ was influential, never coercive. He modeled this for belivers. The authority He gave to believers was spiritual authority directed at destroying the works of the evil one, that is to say, authority of spiritual forces of wickedness. The command to disciple to shepherd with love were real. There were some occassions when God judged in the New Testament book of Acts, but these were anomalies- far from the norm.
You see leadership is about, serving and drawing out from others the intrinsic motivations, gifts and talents that they have. It is really about serving them until they are fully equipped. It is not about having people follow you at all. It is about getting them to follow their own impetuses, drives and purposes God has put in their heart.