I No Longer Call You Servants

From the YouVersion Devotional “BibleMBA”

The ultimate goal for leading any group of people should be to be able to say, “I no longer call you servants but friends.” Servants serve you because you pay them; friends serve you because they love you. There is a vast gulf between the two, and this week's study is supposed to equip us to be able to lead the people on our team across this gulf.

People are the most important part of a business. Building the right team is most of the work of building a business. A functional team is so potent that God said of the team that first attempted to build a skyscraper, “behold, they are one people and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and now nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them." Genesis 11:6.

Beyond getting a team to build great businesses however, the Christian business leader must pay even more attention to his team because leading them provides a unique opportunity to model the life of Christ before them. When all is said and done, leadership is essentially the stewarding of influence, and the Christian must account for the use of the influence that his leadership position offers him.

To borrow an analogy of completely different mindsets with which farmers breed poultry and dogs: Poultry is bred strictly for its ability to lay eggs and provide protein, dogs, on the other hand, are bred for their friendship and help. While the dog is almost a member of the farmer's family, the chicken very often ends up in his pot. Team leadership can be approached with similar mindsets. One person may view his team as factors of production and another may see people and friends.

For the Christian business leader, the right view is undoubtedly the latter. Just as the Lord would not see His disciples strictly as servants to crank out more disciples, but as friends. The Christian business leader must aim to build a relationship with his team that transcends performance metrics. He must aim to inspire, train, mentor and be a blessing to his team.