Servanthood

As a lot of you know, I feel some dissonance about the terms "leader" and "leadership" in the context of Christianity. As I've repeatedly noted for myself, Jesus invites us to be servants, not servant-leaders.

This morning, I started reading James since there will be a lengthty passage of James read in our worship service on Sunday. James begins "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ."

That led me to do a quick survey of the openings words of New Testament letters to see how the authors presented themselves -

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ
Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus
Paul, an apostle . . .
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ
Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place; and he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John

Nothing about leadership there. Servant, apostle, prisoner - I believe these are all pretty un-exalted and are not power-oriented concepts. I'm thinking that "apostle" has a churchy and authoritative context for us today since we only use it in the context of referring to people who were pillars in the church. But I bet that word did not have those overtones when the scripture writers chose it. It means "messenger" or "one sent."