Quotes & Sayings About Servanthood

I concluded some time ago that a major part of success of a team, or of an individual, has a great deal to do with the intangible qualities possessed. The real key is in how a person see himself (humility), how he feels about what he does (passion), how he works with others (unity), how he makes others better (servanthood), and how he deals with frustration and success, truly learning from each situations (thankfulness). I believe those concepts are the essence of a good player, team, coach, or individual in any capacity in life. — Dick Bennett

Servanthood does not nullify leadership; it defines it. Jesus does not cease to be the Lion of Judah when He becomes the lamblike servant of the church. — John Piper

There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. — George H. W. Bush

A leader takes people where they would never go on their own. — Hans Finzel

Don't we see that men's rightful task is to go out to work and wear themselves out trying to accumulate wealth, as though they were our factors or stewards, so that we can remain at home like the lady of the house directing their work and enjoying the profit of their labors? That, if you like, is the reason why men are naturally stronger and more robust than us - they need to be, so they can put up with the hard labor they must endure in our service. — Moderata Fonte

Radical servanthood challenges us, while attempting persistently to overcome poverty, hunger, illness, and any other form of human misery, to reveal the gentle presence of our compassionate God in the midst of our broken world. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

only secure leaders exhibit servanthood. — John C. Maxwell

Acts 10:38 says, "See how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth who went about doing good." He just got up every day and did good. Everywhere he went, even though he had a purpose and he was headed somewhere, he let himself be interrupted by the needs of people. So often we study the steps of Jesus. Maybe we need to study the stops of Jesus. The things that he stopped for, the things that interrupted his plan, where he would alter his plan and help somebody here and there. — Joyce Meyer

Churches are the primary partners that work with Habitat in an almost infinite variety of creative overlapping circles. We cherish these partnerships with churches ... I have always seen Habitat for Humanity as a servant of the church and as a vehicle through which the church and its people can express their love, faith, and servanthood to people in need in a very tangible and concrete (literally!) way. — Millard Fuller

Power is meant to be shared with the goal of empowering others. Hoarded power weakens others and exalts oneself. Power, when grounded in biblical values, serves others by liberating them. It acknowledges that people bear the image of God and treats them in a way that will nurture the development of that image. In so doing, we honor their Creator. — Duane Elmer

The church must not teach the submission of wives apart from the sacrificial love and servanthood required of husbands. — Gary L. Thomas

The High Cost of Servanthood
Jesus warned, however, that this life of servanthood is not lived without cost. He said, "The servant is not greater than his Lord" (John 13:16) and, if the persecuted and hated Him, we can expect no better treatment.
In 2 Timothy 3:12 Paul wrote, " All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persectution," so this is also the cost we as servants must be willing to pay.
This is so difficult for us to accept in our world of man-pleasing, "I'm OK, you're OK" Christianity. No one wants to be disliked, hated or misunderstood
especially by family, friends and loved ones. But this of often exactly the price to be paid by anyone seriously wanting to follow Jesus into a life of servanthood. — K.P. Yohannan

Motherhood is a great honor and privilege, yet it is also synonymous with servanthood. Every day women are called upon to selflessly meet the needs of their families. Whether they are awake at night nursing a baby, spending their time and money on less-than-grateful teenagers, or preparing meals, moms continuously put others before themselves. — Charles Stanley

Christmas was about understanding that servanthood would win the hearts of men for eternity, where raw power might win them only for a moment, if at all. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Tasks don't have to be high-impact to be worthy of high effort. Most things we do in any given day are relatively low impact. The cumulative impact of thousands of low-impact test is huge. These tasks can be transposed into worship. — John Piper

Faith isn't a position of favor
It is a posture of servanthood — Suzanne Eller

True leadership is servanthood. Put the interests of others at the center of your decisions. — Dave Ramsey

Power is to be used in the service of others and only secondarily, if at all, for the benefit of oneself. — Duane Elmer

Love may challenge and love may correct but love will never shame. Love may call us out to uncomfortable places but love will never cast us aside. Love may demand but will never demean. Love will never ask us to dim our light lest we shine too brightly. Love will never ask us to be less than we were created to be.
By this we know God. By this we follow Jesus. By this we serve one another.
Love.
Not fear. — Peggy Haymes

Your best servant is the person who does not attend so much to hearing what he himself wants as to willing what he has heard from you. — Augustine Of Hippo

The covenant of your servanthood is that you be a servant to God, not to someone else, and that you know that everything except God is a servant to God, as He Most High has said, "There is none in the heaven and the earth but cometh unto the Compassionate as a servant." — Ibn Ata Allah

God Most High has said, "Is the reward of virtue aught save virtue?" ... Know, O man, that the covenant of servanthood is incumbent upon you, and that the covenant of Lordship is incumbent upon His magnanimity, as He Most High has said, " ... and fulfill your covenant, I shall fulfill My covenant." — Ibn Ata Allah

Servant Leadership is an oxymoron. All true Leadership is servanthood. — Todd Stocker

The price of greatness is servanthood, sacrifice and humility — Linda Davis

Serving your enemies is the fastest way to learn to love them. — Will Davis Jr.

The first step to leadership is servanthood. — John C. Maxwell

Take the famous utterance, "I am God." Some people think this is a great pretension, but "I am God" is in fact a great humility. Those who say, instead, "I am a servant of God" believe that two exist, themselves and God. But those who say, "I am God" have become nothing and have cast themselves to the winds. They say, "I am God" meaning, "I am not, God is all. There is no existence but God. I have lost all separation. I am nothing." In this the humility is greater.
This is what ordinary people don't understand. When they render service in honor of God's glory, their servanthood is still present. Even though it is for the sake of God, they still see themselves and their own actions as well as God - they are not drowned in the water. That person is drowned when no movement, nor any action belongs to them, all their movements spring from the movement of the water. — Rumi

I probably felt more resentment for what I personally was to suffer than for the wrong they were doing to anyone and everyone. But at that time I was determined not to put up with badly behaved people more out of my own interest than because I wanted them to become good people. — Augustine Of Hippo

The author sees Luke's loyalty to the apostle Paul "depicted architecturally in the great church at Rome known as St. Paul Outside the Walls. There, a statue of Luke holding a writing stylus commemorates not only his work as a Gospel author but his faithfulness to Paul. — Bryan Litfin

No truth is more pervasive in Scripture and Christian tradition than this one - that real freedom is found in obedience and servanthood. And yet no truth is more incongruent with modern culture. Here we stand before a stark either-or: the gospel message of true freedom versus the culture's ideal of self-creation, autonomy, and living my way. — Roger E. Olson

Some would define a servant like this: 'A servant is one who finds out what his master wants him to do, and then he does it.' The human concept of a servant is that a servant goes to the master and says, 'Master, what do you want me to do?' The master tells him, and the servant goes off BY HIMSELF and does it. That is not the biblical concept of a servant of God. Being a servant of God is different from being a servant of a human master. A servant of a human master works FOR his master. God, however, works THROUGH His servants. — Henry T. Blackaby

Royalty is my identity. Servanthood is my assignment. Intimacy with God is my life source. — Bill Johnson

A faithful servant may be wiser than the master, and yet retain the true spirit and posture of the servant. The humble man looks upon every, the feeblest and unworthiest, child of God, and honors him and prefers him in honor as the son of a King. — Andrew Murray

Alex had cooked, and coaxed, and helped Mark form borders around the shapeless days. Alex had given meaning to the word "servant". — Davis Bunn

Are we really servants when we can become masters again once we think we have done our part or made our contribution? Are we really servants when we can say when, where, and how long we will give of our time and energy? Is service in a far country really an expression of servanthood when we keep enough money in the bank to fly home at any moment? — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Like a lot of other bashful introverts, I discovered that I like teaching a lot because it's like acting. When I stepped into the classroom, I stepped into a role, one that allowed me to forget myself. — Maureen Corrigan

In Love's service, only wounded soldiers can serve. — Brennan Manning

The disciples of Jesus were not to practice politics through the use of coercive power, but through servanthood. — Tim Otto

[The] insistence on the absolutely indiscriminate nature of compassion within the Kingdom is the dominant perspective of almost all of Jesus' teaching.
What is indiscriminate compassion? 'Take a look at a rose. Is is possible for the rose to say, "I'll offer my fragrance to good people and withhold it from bad people"? Or can you imagine a lamp that withholds its rays from a wicked person who seeks to walk in its light? It could do that only be ceasing to be a lamp. And observe how helplessly and indiscriminately a tree gives its shade to everyone, good and bad, young and old, high and low; to animals and humans and every living creature
even to the one who seeks to cut it down. This is the first quality of compassion
its indiscriminate character.' (Anthony DeMello, The Way to Love) ...
What makes the Kingdom come is heartfelt compassion: a way of tenderness that knows no frontiers, no labels, no compartmentalizing, and no sectarian divisions. — Brennan Manning

The best and only way to minister supernaturally is by being yoked to Jesus, just making yourself into His servant, walking in His ways and imitating Him. Allow Him to change you! — Sunday Adelaja

We have all been called to be foot-washers".

~R. Alan Woods [2006] — R. Alan Woods

The most formidable way to lead is to serve. And while the perplexing oxymoron of such a grinding statement absolutely cripples us, it birthed a Savior. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Above all, leadership is a position of servanthood. — Max De Pree

Leadership without servanthood is like an ocean without water. — Farshad Asl

Being efficient is the easy part. Suppressing one's ego completely for hours at a time is really hard. — Colin Clark

Tied to the value of the person is the principle of servanthood. We value what we freely serve. — Douglas Groothuis

Our hearts of stone become hearts of flesh when we learn where the outcast weeps. — Brennan Manning

Older forms of indentured servanthood and the bond-service of biblical times had often been harsh, but Christian abolitionists concluded that race-based, life-long chattel slavery, established through kidnapping, could not be squared with biblical teaching either in the Old Testament or the New. — Timothy Keller

And domestic aspects of life. That would be to forsake the universal claim of the kingdom of God. Newbigin looks to the pattern of Jesus who exercised the sovereignty of God's kingdom through servanthood. How is it possible for the church truly to represent the reign of God in the world the way Jesus did? The answer, he believes, lies in the local congregation. I have come to feel that the primary reality of which we have to take account in seeking for a Christian impact on public life is the Christian congregation. How is it possible that the gospel should be credible, that people should come to believe that the power which has the last word in human affairs is represented by a man hanging on a — Tim Chester