The Disciplines of a Serving Leader at the DOING Level

Serving leaders practice several disciplines that help them build trusting relationships: 1) Responding personally to unconditional love, and, 2) Building supportive relationships through the art of encouragement.

Before we can truly love others unconditionally we must know what it means to be unconditionally loved. Understanding brings gratitude, and with gratitude comes expression.

A classic story on the personal response of thanksgiving comes from Luke 17:11-19. Jesus healed ten men from their leprosy but only one returned to thank him. The text notes that he praised God in a loud voice, similar to the loudness of voice described minutes before when all ten sought pity on their wretched condition. The text notes Jesus’ surprise at the lack of gratitude of the other nine and then points out that the one who did return was a religious outsider (“Samaritan”). As an insider , do I consciously thank God for his unconditional love, his blessings, provision, and even trials he sends my way to develop character? Consider making this practical by doing two things: 1) Daily offer up prayers of thanksgiving, and 2) Write a “Thank You” letter to God (if you care to share it with us send it to i nfo@reverbnetwork.org ) .

Building supportive relationships through encouragement deserves much more attention than I will give in this post. Rather, I’d like to point you to a series of seven posts ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ) I’ve done elsewhere on a Biblical character who was defined by a character trait vital to every serving leader.

[Next week we will begin Phase 3 of the Serving Leadership Journey that focuses primarily on building effective teams.]