Have you ever had the privilege of working for a great leader? I have. It was about 20 years ago, and I had recently started working for a large furniture company in what I thought was going to be a “bridge job”, expecting to only be there for about a year while I looked for a better long-term position, but ended up staying for almost 18 years. As I reflect back, I wonder if part of the reason I stayed beyond that first year had to do with the leader I was working for. It begs the question, what made him so great? It’s a good question and one that’s well worth considering. He wasn’t a large personality; in fact, he was often one of the quietest unseaming people in the room. He wasn’t the smartest; in fact, the “good ideas” that came out of our engineering group were rarely his. He wasn’t a visionary; in fact, he sometimes struggled to see the bigger picture. I’m virtually certain that within that company, almost no one would have mentioned him among the “great leaders” that have worked there over its many years of business. However, anyone who had the privilege to work directly for him would have put him up against any other leader in or outside the company. Many of us had opportunities to work for other parts of the company under other leaders that, from a career perspective, would have offered better opportunities, but many of us chose not to pursue those opportunities because it meant leaving this leader. So, the question remains, what made him such a great leader? In a word – service. There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t look for ways to serve those who worked for him. That’s what made him great! This Sunday, we’ll open God’s word to Matthew 20:20-28 and will look at a part of scripture where we see the disciples once again confused about what being a Jesus follower was all about. They were confused about what made a man or woman “great”. While they were jockeying for positions of authority and power, Jesus, the greatest of greats, showed that “whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.”

See you Sunday! - Guest blogger Pastor Matt Mead