Servant Leadership
While there is some overlap in the understanding of the concepts of shepherd and servant leadership in that both entail a particular disposition or posture, the connotation of the term servant in servant leadership seems to be more centralized on the attitude, posture, or disposition of the Christian leader rather than merely on outward signs that identify one as a servant. Though, outward evidence often does indicate the inner condition of the leader, as with most people.
According to Forrest and Roden in Matthew 20:20-28, Mark 10:35-45, and Luke 22:24-30, which is the only place in Scripture that Jesus directly deals with the topic of leadership, there are two points worth mentioning in relation to leadership in the kingdom of God.[1] The first is that service in the kingdom is not optional. Secondly, leaders in the kingdom are not leaders that happen to serve, they are servants that happen to lead.[2] In linking servant leadership to the incarnation of Christ and his voluntary humbling for the sake of others, Christ became a servant.[3] As He illustrates in Matthew 20:26-28 “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” This is a paradoxically difficult concept for the finite human mind to grasp. It counters human conventions on the understanding and desire for obtaining the highest possible position in any given worldly system. Albeit difficult from the human side of the equation to comprehend, still, if one is to lead in God’s kingdom, they must humble themselves to the point of being a servant to all. Jesus’ statement demonstrates that He came to serve rather than be served. If the Son of God came to serve, then likewise those that He has called to lead His people must take on the form of a servant.
Conclusion
As can be ascertained throughout these two posts on the topic, it can be challenging to create a clear demarcation between servant leadership and shepherd leadership. Nevertheless, they both are integral to Christian leadership. One must be both a servant and a shepherd. As these posts have demonstrated, shepherd leadership, while embodying love for God’s people and a servant’s disposition, also includes more specific and tangible responsibilities for the shepherds, such as protection, teaching, discipline, correcting, discipling [training in general], and organizational oversight.
From the information gleaned for servant leadership, it primarily appears to be centralized on the posture of the Christian leader, which is submissive and humble. Though, this posture, which is shared with the concept of shepherd leadership, will result in outward displays that concur with those of a shepherd leader. Thus, in a sense, they really appear to be one and the same.
Regarding the applicational value for the modern Christian leader, they must be both a shepherd leader and a servant leader simultaneously, fused together. The term elder appears in the NIV many times more than the term pastor. In reality, the term pastor appears once, while elder (s) appears sixty-four times in the New Testament (NIV). In a pericope that is pertinent in this matter, in 1 Peter 5:1-4, Peter gathers the terms elders and shepherd, serve, and flock. He calls the elders to shepherd God’s flock. As outlined previously, this would entail teaching [preaching], protection, correction, discipline, training, and organizational oversight. Thus, considering that the term pastor is listed just once in Ephesians 4:11 in the NIV as one of the offices of the church (fourth in order after apostles, prophets, and evangelists), and that said term appears to be synonymous with elder, one may surmise that a pastor among elders would be considered the primus inter pares. Concurrently, the pastor-elder, elder, shepherd [spiritual leaders] must embody the heart of a shepherd and fulfill the shepherd-pastor-elder's responsibilities as delineated in Scripture with the disposition or posture of a submissive humble servant.
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