How Pride and Fear Affect Leader-Follower Relationships (Part 2)

Serving leaders are followers of “The Way,” also known as the way of Jesus (see Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22). More specifically, serving leaders practice the way of forgiveness and grace.

In terms of forgiveness, serving leaders forgive, correct, and move on. Matthew 6:14-15 shows a direct correlation between us forgiving others and our heavenly Father forgiving us. Forgiveness means letting go of the right to require either payment or an apology for a wrong doing from someone who offends us. Forgiveness is choosing to love regardless of how others respond to our offer of forgiveness.

Serving leaders are agents of God’s grace. 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 states: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.​” If we have been reconciled to God we have also become ambassadors of that reconciliation to others. We are agents of grace!

[Next week we will discuss the disciplines of a serving leader at the DOING level.]