As I mentioned last week, I was recently called to be the Sunday School president in our ward. I reached out to my teachers last Sunday to touch base with where things sit with them. All of them are lacking one thing or another to help them fill their callings.
While I was finding things to help them meet those needs, I came to a realization regarding my new calling, and even regarding leadership callings in general.
You see, it seems to me that often we view those in leadership callings as set up to tell us what to do, whether that is in our own callings or how we live the gospel. And even some who serve in leadership callings have that idea, that they are to tell people what to do, that they are to manage the ward (or stake or whatever).
But as I was going about getting the resources my teachers need, it hit me that this was not what I was doing. Getting something for someone else wasn’t a form of control or management: it was a form of service.
And it reminded me of the Last Supper, when Jesus washed Peter’s feet. At one point, he said:
Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
John 13:13–16
He taught the same thing at another point during his ministry:
Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the achiefest, shall be servant of all.
Mark 10: 42–44
and:
Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
Matthew 23:10–12
and:
And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.
Luke 22: 24–27
These scriptures helped me to realize that if we aim to follow the example of Jesus in our lives, then a leadership calling isn’t about directing and managing and controlling: it’s about service.
In my specific calling, as a Christlike leader, I am to serve my teachers. I am not to tell them how to teach or control their classrooms. Instead, I am to serve them: my purpose is to get them what they need so they can magnify their teaching.
This is by no means the first leadership calling I have held, but this new realization has completely changed how I view my new calling and the role I am to play over the next year or two. And should I serve in additional leadership callings after this one, I will use the lessons I learn as a I try to serve my teachers to guide my efforts in those callings.
Very well said!!