One of the greatest leaders I ever met was a Chaplain I worked for in the Military. I didn’t always see it that way, however. He was a traditionalist, to say the least. He was firm in his belief, lived firmly in the Bible and executed life in that manner. In Seminary he studied under John Piper—a leading theologian amongst Christians and the man responsible for the revitalization of Calvinism. It seemed to me—at that time—that this man was too hardened in his ways, his worldview and his thoughts to really make relationships with others outside of his community.
What happened next, blew my mind.
As the lead chaplain over the whole base, it was this man’s responsibility to provide spiritual care, outreach and counseling services to the entire base community. One day, I saw this Chaplain counseling a same-sex couple, who came in on multiple occasions looking as if their world was upside down. After a few visits I stopped seeing them as much and when they did come in they came in with smiles on their face often stopping “just to say hi”. Needless to say, I was confused—especially when you consider all the things you hear about staunch religiosity and how it leads to condemnation and judgment.
After thinking about it and examining my own spiritual identity, I approached the Chaplain and asked how he was able to curb his doctrine to help this couple. His response was simple, “I love them, not judge them”…
Six words and life seemed to become clearer and honestly, so did my respect for this man. We’ve learned this week that servant leaders are those who put their followers ahead of them They seek to heal, listen and empathize with the people they serve; even if that means they need to sacrifice some of themselves for the sake of followers. I truly believe this man demonstrated that to me. We live in a world that is filled with political and community correctness, to see a man go against his personal beliefs to provide healing and love to someone else was the most inspiring thing I’ve seen from a leader in my life.
Great post. This shows that through servant leadership you are not necessarily always portraying your own beliefs, but setting up others for success in the long-run. This can be shown by traits such as listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, and stewardship. All it takes is for a leader to truly believe and act upon a desire enough to make their followers successful.