Matthew 20:20-28 (NIV)

Inside of this passage of scripture I see a slight similarity between James & John and our current generation of young leaders rising up in the church.  It’s a quality that must be dealt with and refocused or else it will surely lead to the demise of these young leaders.  Our generation is quickly rising up and desiring to take it’s place in the church and put it’s hand to leadership, but before we get too hasty and ahead of ourselves, let’s examine what Christ says about real, genuine, selfless leadership.

James and John, who were probably around 19-21 years old in this passage, went with their mother to ask Jesus a question.  The question in its simplest form was this:  Can we have status?  Can we be better than the other disciples? Can we have more visibility?  They simply went to Jesus because they wanted to lock in their place of leadership and be recognized amongst the masses.  In fact, the other disciples that heard this question became upset and indignant, not because they disagreed with the question, but because they didn’t think of it first!  They all desired the recognition and status.

You see, most people have a warped view of leadership.  They think that leadership means you get to tell people what to do… and they do it… no questions asked.  They think leadership means climbing the corporate ladder and gaining more and more visibility as people marvel at your promotion.  Yet Jesus contradicts this mindset.  Jesus says, if you want to be great, be a servant; and if you want to be first, be a slave.   Jesus helped them recognize how leadership works in the world’s system, but then He says four jaw-dropping words, “Not so with you (v.26).” The world likens serving to weakness… but the mindset inside of the kingdom of God is much different.  Jesus brings greatness and servanthood together!  This was monumental!  This had never been done before!  Jesus is completely changing the game right in front of His disciples.

It’s important that we understand this – Jesus is ok with people desiring to be great.  The Bible says in 1 Timothy 3:1 – “Here is a trustworthy saying:  Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task.” God wants us to win in this life and even reign with Jesus Christ (see Romans 5:17).  But notice what Jesus says about greatness… YOU MUST SERVE.  Every generation needs to understand this:

SERVING LEADS TO GREATNESS AND GREATNESS IS FOR SERVING.

So you see, you might start serving and even gain visibility for it, and become “first”… but you’re now the first so that you can be the first to serve.   And many of us have messed up these concepts in our western world to the point that we have to walk around and “act humble.”  If you have to act humble to be humble, you aren’t humble.  For humility is not thinking less of yourself… it’s not thinking of yourself at all. Can you imagine a generation of leaders who think of themselves last?  A leader who serves not to gain more followers, but serves because they simply love people?  It would be a generation that undoubtedly sees a powerful move of the Spirit of God.

You see, here’s the deal, if we all leave here and we simply look at our lives and say, “Man, I need to serve more”, then we’ll go home and help out at church for a couple weeks and serve food at the soup kitchen for a few days, but then we’ll be right back where we started… doing nothing.  And it doesn’t last because we haven’t caught a true revelation and understanding of serving.  And what have we gained for it?  Nothing except a momentary attempt to live out scripture.  Understand this, the key to servanthood is not preaching a message on servanthood where we all try to be servants.  More times than not, it goes in one ear and right out the other.  We don’t need more messages on servanthood; we need more messages on Jesus – the greatest servant of all time!

The key to living this whole thing out is found in Matthew 20:28 – “… just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The key is “just as.”  Somewhere along the lines we have turned serving into “just do” when Jesus clearing points out that the power of serving is actually in “just as.”  Most people try to “do” a lot after they hear about servanthood.  They leave the pastor’s message and go “do” more good things in their own strength, and it never lasts.  That’s because the power is in “just as the Son of Man.”  The power is in Jesus!

If anyone had the right to be served instead of serving… it was Jesus.  But yet, our God put on skin and bones and served all of us with His very life.  Notice the way Jesus came to us… “to serve and not be served.”  Jesus came to planet earth with every right to be served by what He created.  Yet, He humbled Himself, laid down His life, and did the serving.

My prayer is that people would start coming to church like Jesus came to the planet… to serve!

When it all boils down, the key to the kingdom is serving.  Willingly laying down our selfish desires and spending our lives to reach people for the glory of Christ… in whatever way, shape, or form that may look.  Just as Jesus willingly laid down His life (see John 10:18), we are to do the same.  If we all start going to our churches like Jesus came to the planet, then I believe those places will explode with servant hearts that genuinely love people… not for selfish gain, but for glory to Jesus.  And where there is unity and humbled hearts, Christ can command blessing.  Jesus Himself prayed the ultimate selfless prayer, “Father not my will… but your will be done.” Let’s be a generation that will follow our risen Lord and do the same.

My prayer for everyone is that we would love Christ so deeply that we would seek out revelation of Him in His Word, and that we would surrender our pride and selfishness and pursue a heart of servanthood and obedience.  And may God be merciful to us in our pursuit.  It’s time for a revolution of serving… SERVOLUTION.

Grace,

Clayton Baird

Student Ministries Pastor | Free Chapel
Twitter:  @claytondbaird

When Cause 6000 first started out in July of 2010 all we had was a goal. We knew that we wanted $5,000 by Christmas in order to build one clean water well. We didn’t know how we were going to get that money, so we began talking to people and researching. I decided that a 5k might was the perfect idea and knew of a local organization that had helped friends in the past set up 5k’s. However after the lady realized that I was young and wasn’t an adult like she was used to working with, she instantly became rude and told me that a 5k would fail and it was the dumbest idea for a fundraiser. I sat out in my car and cried. I was so excited about this 5k, and the first person I talked to shot it down and it felt like they shot me down as well. To be honest, I moped around for a couple of days and felt like giving up. But then I felt God telling me that he had everything taken care of, he would give me the people and resources in my life that I needed to make his mission possible.

A year later, here I am still working at building up God’s mission for Cause 6000. No, it isn’t a breeze and it can be stressful at times. However, I now am surrounded by such an amazing support team and have been blessed by so many people jumping on board with this cause that I know God has provided. God has provided encouragement and strength when we felt like giving up and we couldn’t succeed. He has opened doors when we felt like we had exhausted our resources. He has also given us strength and confidence to spread the message and goal of Cause 6000 to everyone we meet. You never know who is sitting next to you and how they can contribute to your cause, I used to never talk to strangers. However, God has given me the ability to talk to strangers, speak in front of crowds, and to trust others. If it were not for God picking us up and holding our hand through the process, Cause 6000 would not be where it is today.

- Kayla Sutton

Ruco van der Merwe is an Emergency Relief Team Leader, for Samaritan’s Purse. He recently traveled to Northeastern Kenya distributing food for those suffering from the widespread famine. The famine is the worst they’ve seen in 20 years. Limited water sources and dwindling food supplies are causing the deaths of cattle and families across the entire Horn of Africa. Children are growing malnourished, and entire villages are being forced to relocate into other communities in hopes of improving their desperate situation. We may not be able to travel to Africa to give food like Ruco van der Merwe, but we are still able to make a difference. Through prayers, donations, or giving our time, we have the ability to give hope to those who need it most. The question is though, are we willing to let God use us? Whether locally or globally, lives will be changed when one person has the courage to take action.

- Hannah Mapes

So here is the challenge.  Be thankful today for what you have, and as gratitude shapes your new perspective, watch opportunities appear in your life, local neighborhood, family and your city to do good.

- Logan Claypoole

Our response to what we saw was to form Hands4others (H4O), a movement of young people (who together with our families) have been called to change the world one person, one family, one village at a time by providing sustainable access to safe, drinkable water for those in need.

Since we started H4O a little over 2 ½ years ago, we have been able to provide the first taste of clean water to nearly 100,000 people living in 25 villages in 8 countries around the world. However, we feel our work is just beginning, as our current goal is to provide clean water to over 2 million people in 500 villages by the year 2015.

Equally important, H4O has grown from three teenagers to a movement of hundreds of young people all around the United States. We now have vibrant chapters in various cities and hope to create many more chapters and rise up a generation of young people who work together all across the country and the world to help people in need.

If you have any interest in getting involved or starting a chapter we would love to talk to you! Feel free to email us at spencer@hands4others.org. Please consider joining us; together we can be the generation!

We began to practice with our Sparkles in the high school cafeteria in August of 2008. The first few weeks of practice were bumpy, to say the least. One of our Sparkles repeatedly threw tantrums. Another kept hitting, kicking, and scratching her teammates. Many of the girls lacked impulse control and all of the girls seemed to lack focus. Undeterred, we decided to go back to basics. We slowed the pace. For awhile, we focused less on skill-building and more on structure, consistency, and earning trust.  After a few weeks, the Sparkles began skipping into practice, a cohesive group ready to learn new skills.

Of course, it was one thing to practice during the summer months in the cloistered environment of the school cafeteria. It would be quite another to perform before the entire student body at the first home football game. We wondered, “Would the fired-up senior boys with their painted chests and blue-and-silver hair respond appropriately to this new group? Would the spectators become restless, bored or, worse yet, be angered that we were not “entertaining” them?”

As it turned out, our fears were unfounded. As the Sparkles took the field arm in arm with us, the entire student section – including those unruly senior boys – stood up and began chanting, “Here We Go Sparkles, Here We Go!” When we were finished, the Sparkles took bow after bow as their proud and grateful parents watched. Slowly, the stadium full of spectators rose to their feet and began to cheer. They haven’t stopped cheering since.

In fact, in the year and a half since their debut, the Sparkles have managed to change the face of our high school and community. Working together, we have helped our community to understand that the creation of our squad was never about doing a favor for those less fortunate. Instead, it was always about committing to the idea that when we open our arms and our hearts to individuals with disabilities, everyone benefits.

Belonging to the Spartan Sparkles cheer team has changed all of us who are involved. The Sparkles’ parents report that their girls have improved coordination, physical fitness, self-esteem, and social skills. They also say that these new skills have extended into their schoolwork.  Most importantly, the Sparkles and the Pleasant Valley Cheerleaders have become close friends. We attend each other’s birthday parties and hang out together at the mall. We have managed as a squad to break down social barriers; to replace fear with joy; to appreciate what it means to see the person and not the disability. Simply put, we have helped each other see what Sparkles within us.

After witnessing the profound effect the Sparkles had on our community, I teamed up with another cheerleader, Sarah Herr, and created “The Sparkle Effect.” The goal of our non-profit corporation is to educate high school students across the country about the value of including students with disabilities in high school sports programming and to empower those students to create squads similar to the Sparkles. To this end, Sarah and I have created an online “Quick-Start” kit that includes sample letters to administrators, ideas for how to reach potential participants, tips for successful practices, and more. Our website (www.thesparkleeffect.org) includes a complete program that can be produced with a few keystrokes. Our goal is to generate 100 new high-school based squads (that’s just two more in each state) over the next two years. The result will be profound: 100 new squads will touch more than 1,000 special-needs students and their families. This moves the hearts and consciousness of 500,000 students and fans and millions of neighbors. That’s the Sparkle Effect!

From working with our Sparkles, Sarah and I know that young people with special needs are often underestimated. Too often, people see only what they cannot do. We are passionate about working to change that perception. The time has come for high school students to make more room at the table for students with special needs – to include those students in mainstream sports programming whenever and wherever possible. As teens, Sarah and I certainly understand that socializing with our peers is a huge part of what high school is about. Without it, self-esteem and confidence suffer. And, those feelings of isolation and loneliness can negatively impact our overall quality of life. So, we take every opportunity we get to let other high school students in on two secrets: First, teens are powerful beyond measure. We have the power to positively impact the lives of other people and, in doing so, raise the spirit of an entire nation. Second, the more we give, the more we get. By enriching the lives of others, we enrich our own lives. By helping others in need, by showing them that they matter, we matter.  As teens, we must take responsibility for the role we play in the quality of each other’s experiences. In fact, no one is better positioned than we are to send the simple and powerful message: It’s cool to care.

You don’t have any talents, you say?  False.  God has given all of us things that we are good at, and all we have to do is use these things to make a difference.  I am probably one of the least talented people I know, and I could even find something I was good at in order to make a difference.  I like business.  What did I do?  Started a business with my brother called Original Rebel, and now we are working to inspire and equip people to make a difference.  Do you like to sing, dance, play basketball, jump rope, talk, or even run?  You can use anything you love to do to make a difference!  You just have to find your talents and get creative.  Everyone can do something.  You may or may not bring in millions of dollars for your cause, but everything you do is still huge!  You are still making a difference.  Don’t sell yourself short.

- Mickey Hungate

On June 14-15 2012, students will converge in Atlanta, GA to serve the city, learn about pressing issues that hinder healthy culture, and be inspired to do good in their local communities.