Boys to Men: God’s Design for Biblical Manhood and Servant Leadership

Can you think of your favorite movie and why it is your favorite? This could be a Disney princess or a Marvel movie, but I know that most of my favorite movies center around a good guy and a bad guy, generally where the bad guy is painted in a poor light. Why is it that we have such preferences surrounding what we think is good or bad, and why is it that we always root for the good guy? Is it because they're always slim and attractive? Well, no because Po in Kung Fu Panda is a big, fat panda. Sorry, “The Big Fat Panda.” I guess we like the good guy because of what he stands for and fights for. We like these men because they are protectors, and ultimately because they personify many traits that God intended us to have; He made us men to be protectors. He clearly states the job of a man is to protect peace, but unfortunately, in today’s society, we have reduced the identity of a man to how much he can bench press or how many ladies he can pull. This is contrary to how a man is supposed to act: selfless and humble, looking to Jesus as the model of manhood.

Christ embodied the traits that men are supposed to possess, namely to protect, uphold the weak, and love one’s enemies. First, Jesus shows how much he cares for us by the protection he gives. Sin is our greatest enemy, and it will always try to ensnare us. Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witness, let us also lay aside every sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race set before us” (English Standard Version, Hebrews 12:1). We are in a race, but we are constantly getting tripped up by sins that impede us. Jesus then intervened and died a gruesome death on a cross just to save us from that sin. He provided a way out so that we didn’t have to keep coming back to it. Mark Batterson, in his book Play The Man, calls this “tough love.” He says, “Tough love is sacrificial love–a love that is willing to be nailed to a cross for someone else’s sin. Tough love is unconditional love–a love that is not dictated by someone else’s performance” (Batterson 27). This tough love expresses Jesus’ protection, and his protection shows how much he cares for and upholds those who cannot do so themselves. His care for the woman in Luke 8 is a great example of this. This woman who had a “discharge of blood” touched Jesus as he was in a crowd, and she was immediately healed. Jesus, having felt the power go out of him, saw the woman and said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” This kind and tender message clearly shows how well Jesus cares for and upholds the weak. Another trait that shows Jesus’ righteous manhood was how he loved his enemies. Jesus was so humble that he even cared for those who persecuted him. On the cross, Jesus spoke on behalf of his persecutors and said, “Father, forgive them for they know no what they do'' (Luke 23:34). These words represent how humble and loving Jesus is. He even forgives those who persecute him, and as men we are supposed to mirror this.

Jesus was not only a general picture of manhood, but he was the epitome of how a man should lead. Where Jesus led, people followed, but he was not necessarily the kind of leader that we might imagine today. Jesus led by serving. To a lot of people today, servant leadership would seem like an oxymoron, yet Jesus continually illustrated the importance of being both a servant and a leader. The way he served was in the most humble manner. He would not seek glory for himself, but always pointed to his father. One of the ways he displayed his service was in the washing of his disciples feet. In that day, people only wore open toe sandals, which made their feet all the more dirty. The washing of feet was usually a job for a household servant; but in this case, Jesus, the co-creator of the universe, is washing his disciples’ feet. There is a beautiful painting by Jacopo Tintoretto called Christ Washing The Feet Of The Disciples. In this painting, Tintoretto depicts Christ with a gleaming light around his head, but what separates this from other paintings is the fact that Jesus is lower than everyone else in the room. This humble position shows just how much of a servant he was. What made him a leader amidst all his service, however, was that he had followers who would do what he did, and soon they knew what it was to be a servant leader.

Men are called to practice servant leadership. We need to watch Jesus for how to act and how to lead as men of God. The Bible is a source from which lessons of true manhood come. God’s word shows us that real men are not only leaders, but they are servants as well. Society has drifted away from this meaning, however, and it has made its own definition which forsakes the teachings of God and Jesus, and rather pursues riches, power, and sexual fulfillment.

Strong manhood is a concept that has been around as long as man. Almost every culture or tribe would have coming-of-age rituals and rites of passage. Every rite of passage is used to symbolize that a boy has gone from a boy to a man. Rites of passage have been passed down by each generation, and we still use them today. The men of the Sateré-Mawé tribe in the South American Amazon endure a most brutal rite of passage. First, they take gloves and fill the insides with the stingers of hundreds of bullet ants. The men must then wear these gloves for ten minutes while they dance and chant in order to keep the blood flowing. The purpose of this ceremony is for the boys to prove themselves men. These rites of passage are to show that a boy has transitioned into a man. They also try to prove that a man has gone through hard trials and is still standing. Even though these rites can be excruciating, they are self-aggrandizing and domineering, based in a structure of power and pride.

I believe an important question that people have to consider is when a boy becomes a man or when the manhood journey begins. Different people have different answers, for example some say that a boy isn’t a man until he has done something. I’ve heard some say, “You’re not a real man until you’ve seen the movie Gladiator.” Some people think a boy becomes a man at sixteen or eighteen, or some people like to take the scientific approach. In an article by the National Library of Medicine, they say, “It is well established that the brain undergoes a “rewiring” process that is not complete until approximately 25 years of age” (Arain). Based on this, some people might say you are not a man until age 25 when your brain is fully developed. But whatever the social context, if a boy is to become a godly young man walking in biblical manhood, they have to start on that journey as early as they can. There are different stages to becoming a man, but the first stage starts as early as a boy can think. This stage involves concepts like learning to share, respecting your teachers, and obeying your parents. The next stage comes in the age range of nine to twelve. This is the time to learn about sexual purity and start learning what God has for your life. After that, in the teen years, a boy must start living out what God has for his life. There cannot be a specific age that a line is drawn between boyhood and manhood because everybody develops differently. A boy becomes a man when he sees God’s call on his life, and he acts on it in a way that is biblical and pleasing to God.

Even some Christian men can see this boy-to-man transition as a coming of age ritual, but Biblical manhood is not a rite of passage to see who is the strongest or to prove to yourself that you can endure hard trials. Biblical narratives and Godly standards give definition to the concept of manhood that form a framework for behavior and practice. He specifically gives instruction to man in Micah 6:8. The Bible says, “He has shown you man what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.” We find the standards God sets for his people detailed in the ten commandments. The Lord says not to kill, but Jesus comes along and takes that a step further by saying that if you hate someone you have already murdered them in your heart. This is the kind of instruction that gives definition to manhood. The Lord also says don’t commit adultery because that violates your own covenant in marriage, but you are also imposing that broken covenant on someone else. The Lord also gives the third commandment of honoring parents. Parents are people’s first authority, and they are placed over them by God; that is why it is important to respect and honor your parents. It trains you to submit to authority early on, and that will help you later in life to submit to other authorities, especially God. A man raised with biblical standards maybe won’t cheat on his taxes, shoplift when a clerk’s not looking, or break into someone’s house and walk away with a LEGO® set, but someone without biblical standards might do these things. Someone with biblical standards may not sleep around just because they feel like it. This is more normal for someone without biblical standards. These people also may not sleep around, but they would find pornography much more frequently; they might not steal things or kill people, but they might kill people in their heart by deliberately hurting others’ feelings.

These traits and standards that God gives his men can be seen acted out or not in the lives of several figures throughout the Bible. The first example is David. David was known as a “man after God’s own heart.” One significant testament to his devotion was his faith and trust in the Lord. When he was just a young boy David had no second of doubt that God would deliver Goliath and the whole Philistine army into his hand. Later in his life, after he had just won a major victory, he paraded through the street doing a ridiculous dance. His wife was embarrassed by his display and scolded him for it, but he was worshiping God and didn’t care what anyone else thought of him. David also trusted the Lord, especially in the hard process of his repentance for his sin against Bathsheba. David is an example for how to live as a Godly man should.

There are many, however, that are bad examples, and try to influence us away from being strong men for God. A biblical example of this is the king Ahab. King Ahab was a corrupt man and leader. He broke the Lord’s commandments in many different ways. Not only did he worship other gods, but he encouraged his people to worship them too. His covetousness of another man’s wine vineyard led him to kill that man. He was blasphemous toward God and hated His prophet. Ahab is a perfect model of what not to do as a man.

The truest and most perfect model of a man is the example of Jesus. Jesus not only followed God’s law to perfection, but he himself was the fulfillment of the law. Jesus didn’t covet, steal, kill, or commit adultery. He loved and honored his worldly father and mother. More than that, he loved his true father. The entire point of his existence as a human was to bring God glory and to save his people from themselves. He loved everyone he came into contact with. He truly displayed what it meant to love. He even loved and had compassion on his enemies. His justice was perfect. This can be seen in his harsh judgment of the Pharisees at the Lord’s temple when he flipped the tables, but his merciful justice can be seen in the beatitudes. He says that those who mourn will be comforted, that the poor in spirit will inherit the kingdom of God. There is no example of Biblical manhood that can be more accurate and true than that of the life Jesus Christ led.

One can see that all throughout his life, Christ set the example for how we are supposed to live. Because of this we should look to his life to find guidance, but he also gave us specific instruction through the rest of his word, so we should also consider the Bible as a whole. Through this word, Christ calls us to love as he loved. This means passion, devotion, and an undying loyalty. He loved us with such a strong passion that he saved us from ourselves. His devoted love is unlike any other that he still loves us even when we curse and rebuke him. His loyalty does not run short even when it leads him to a cross. It is this kind of love, sacrifice, and leadership that creates a model for all areas of life.

One such area is the home, and there are instructions for godly leadership here. Ephesians 5:23, 25 says that men are supposed to mirror Christ and his love for the church in our love for our wives. We are to be the head of the house and lead it well, just as he did.Being the head of a house has several implications. First, we are called to make sacrifices. None of our sacrifices can be nearly as extravagant or meaningful as that which Christ gave for us on the cross, but we are still called to protect, provide, and take care of people. This means that when the economy is struggling, we put in the extra hours to put food on the table. This means that we stop playing video games with our friends and start being a part of our kids’ lives. We need to lay aside our desires so they can thrive.

Secondly, we are to do the will of the father in our lives. Ephesians 5:17 says, “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” We are to walk in calling of the Lord on our hearts. We must do this wholeheartedly and not just on the outside for others to see. Jesus says in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of the Father who is in heaven.” Jesus is our example in this. He only ever did the will of the father; even when it led him to blood, sweat and tears, Jesus said, “Not as I will, but as you will” (Matt. 26:39). This is the extent that we need to follow God’s will in our lives. Jesus set the parameters for how men are supposed to live.

Another instruction that Jesus gives us men to follow is to love our wives as we love our own bodies. (Eph. 5:28). This is the kind of love that Jesus loved us with. Men naturally take care of their bodies through nourishment, exercise, and hygiene (for the most part). This means that we are to take care of our wives with the same attention to detail that we would create a workout schedule or morning routine. This kind of love requires a lot of hard work, but it’s what we are called to because we are to lead our wives as we serve them. We must have a love that gives all it has. With this love also comes defense and protection. This is one of the main jobs of a man and the kind of care that we are called to give to our wives. Jesus set this example for us in the way he loved the church. Jesus cared for the church in appointing leaders for when he died, and he did eventually give his life for her. Now we are to follow his example as he teaches us how to lead.

He is also the one who gave us the example of how to live as a man. David Michael, in his Introduction To The Six Marks Of Manhood, does a wonderful job of outlining six marks of a Godly man and how he should live. He starts with devotion to God as the leading aspect we should live by. Our whole purpose in life is to glorify God and to point back to him. Michael says, “A man who is devoted to God is a man who finds his ultimate fulfillment and joy in knowing, loving, obeying and delighting in God.” We have to truly know God to be devoted to him. This means being in his Word and knowing his will in our lives. It’s being comfortable in sharing Him with others. It is not just a relationship where you must only know God, but rather you must also do what He says. His commandments are very clear throughout the Old Testament, and Jesus makes them even more clear by telling people to love God and their neighbors.

One can see this kind of relationship lived out in the life of Paul. Paul was a very devoted man who found ultimate fulfillment in God. He saw the way that God changed his life, and he wanted to share that fulfillment and joy with others. He was so devoted to God that he risked his life on several missionary journeys where he was able to plant churches and share the good news of God. He didn’t just stop there, though; he wrote letters to the several churches he planted to encourage, rebuke, and guide them in their walk as they mature in their relationship with God. This is what a man that is devoted to God does.

The next mark of manhood that Michael outlines is, “A God-glorifying man rejects passivity.” This means that a Godly man takes up responsibility and action, and yet even more than that it means that he is not lazy. Romans 12:11 says, "Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” A man of God is not slothful in zeal. He is disciplined and focused in everything he does. A godly man has to have courage and energy to fight the fight of faith. A passive man only looks to his own interests, and often this means that he is lazy and uninterested in what he is supposed to do; he does not step up to accept responsibility.

The acceptance of responsibility is seen all throughout the Old Testament: where men have received instruction from the Lord, and they carry it out with enthusiasm. Noah, when told to build an ark, steps up to this responsibility and carries it out even though his peers and friends ridicule him for it. Abraham, likewise, hears the instruction of the Lord to move far away from his home, and he does. He takes his wife and servants and goes to a land without a heading. We are called to do the same. Michael talks about man and says, “He has a will to obey—the will that God has revealed in the Scriptures.” This means that a Godly man is to follow the Lord’s will in his life without thinking twice. This can be a hard calling for most people, but if you asked any one of the men in all of history who took up the responsibility that was given to them, none would say they regretted it. It takes a great level of strength and courage, to take up responsibility, but that is what Michael speaks to next.

His next point talks about courageous leading. He says, “Godly leadership is servant leadership as we see in Luke 22:26, Ephesians 5:23,25 and Matthew 7:12.” This is how we are supposed to lead. Servant leadership is courageous leadership. It takes mounds of courage to go low, but this is exactly what Jesus did. He did not march into the heart of Rome with an army of angels behind him; he came to a poor, young lady and was born in a feeding trough. A lot of the time we see courage as a battle-hardened Marine running into the line of fire to rescue one of his squadmates. Some would say that his Marine was so courageous that he didn’t fear anything in the world. This, however, is not true. In the Disney movie The Princess Diaries, Mia Thermopolis remembers her father telling her, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something is more important than that fear.” Going back to the illustration of the Marine, he was probably afraid of a lot of things, but he knew that he had a chance to save his squadmate, so he laid aside that fear. This is what a Godly man is called to. We are to lay aside our fears for the sake of others. This is courageous leading.

The next thing Michael talks about is protecting and providing passionately. This actually ties deeply into the previous one. He says, “In the act of protecting, men exemplify servant leadership. We serve by being willing to suffer for another’s safety, and this honors the one being protected.” This is one of a man’s greatest callings. This is what Brant Hansen is trying to get at in his book The Men We Need. Hansen says, "We men are at our best when we are ‘keepers of the garden.’ This means we are protectors and defenders and cultivators. We are at our best when we champion the weak and vulnerable. We are at our best when we use whatever strength we have to safeguard the innocent and provide a place for people to thrive" (17-18).We as men are to protect those that God has put in our lives. This means our wives, our kids, our parents, our siblings, our friends, etc. As Hansen said, “We are at our best when we champion the weak and vulnerable.” We are called to be a safe refuge for those that cannot protect themselves. Not only are we called to protect but also to provide. This means that we are to lay aside our own interests so that we can provide for the physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental needs of those around us. This is how we are supposed to live.

The last point in Michael’s essay is that a man of God expects a greater reward. If we’re completely honest, this world has much to offer. The only thing is, it’s nowhere near as good as what God has to offer us. A man of God sees that God’s gifts are so much better than those of this world. He hears God’s call, and he responds to the promise of eternal life rather than the fleeting things of this world. These are the marks of a Godly man and how he should walk, but this is not the way the world sees manhood.

The worldly definition of a man and his job is very different from that of the Bible. The world tries to distract us men from becoming what God wants us to be. There are many different voices that try to tell us what to do and what to be. One such example would be David Goggins. David Goggins is a man I deeply respect and admire, and I am very thankful for his service to this country. He is not necessarily at fault, but society has turned him into the model of a perfect man. Many men see him and say, “if only I were as strong as him, I would be a real man.” Because some see David Goggins as “the hardest man alive,” anything that’s soft or vulnerable is seen as unmanly. We see being the strongest we can be as being the best we can be. Physical strength is not what defines a man, but, as seen in this example, that is the mindset of the modern culture.

Another thing that distracts us from being the men God needs us to be is the constant enemy of pornography and the lies of sexual fulfillment that Satan throws at us. The threat that these things pose towards men cannot be overstated. In today’s society, people see pervasive sexuality as a mark of manhood, and they are even glorified. Society now applauds men for how much sex they’ve had or how many female roommates they have. This kind of thinking has overtaken our world; it is everywhere. There are restaurants that affirm and encourage this. There are specific TV programs dedicated to explicit material. There are entire organizations in colleges that encourage this by providing materials to make sex more accessible. The poison of sexual immorality has spread to almost every aspect of life, but its foremost tool in ensnaring young men is pornography.

The twisted, life-altering, and demonic invention of pornography is something that has been trapping men for years. When pornography proliferated, the war on men’s purity escalated dramatically. When a man watches pornography, there is a level of dopamine that is released in his brain that is unmatched by any drug he might encounter elsewhere. This leaves him with only one option to get that high again: keep coming back to it. One problem with pornography is it trains the mind for variety. God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman, but when a man watches pornography, he is training himself to be sexually intimate with several women. This is a danger not only to a man’s self, but also to the women he is supposed to be protecting. In 1 Timothy, Paul commands us to treat “older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.” This is immediately lost for a man who has lost his purity. In this verse scripture is calling us to a higher standard than we sometimes set for ourselves. Pornography is the antithesis of servant leadership and how a man is supposed to live. It makes a man look inward at himself and his own desires rather than what Jesus calls us to, which is to look to the interests of others and protecting and providing passionately. When a man watches pornography, he is hurting the women he is watching by stealing their privacy and dignity. Jesus calls us to a higher standard, and he is our model. He very clearly paints a full picture of manhood. There are several strokes and pieces to this painting, but the focal point that Christ depicts is servant leadership.

Without servant leadership in our lives, the portrait that Christ is painting would be incomplete and lacking in the beauty he intended, but what is servant leadership? Robert K. Greenleaf’s book, Servant Leadership, talks about a leader being a servant. He says, “ ...The great leader is seen as servant first, and that simple fact is the key to his greatness” (Greenleaf 21). He goes on to make a big point of how a leader should first be a servant. Servant leadership is having the will and humility to go low while teaching and setting an example. It is truly caring about your followers and showing them that. This is the whole concept of servant leadership that Christ demonstrated. The prince of the universe came down to earth and was treated like he was the dirt. He wanted us to follow his example because he was the better Adam, the man God intended us to be.

God’s whole design for men is to serve, and in serving, to lead. This doesn’t mean we should take over every group project, but rather that we must be good models and set the example for people. Many see leadership as something to be won as if it were only for the elite. This can give leaders a high view of themselves, but this is not at all how the Bible tells us to lead. We should lead by Christ’s example, in humility and service. There is a strong difference between a servant and an arrogant, stuck up leader. This is best understood through examples and illustrations.

An example of a servant leader would be Aeneas from The Aeneid. Aeneas was a strong leader of many Trojan men, but his forces suffered many casualties, and their numbers dwindled on a long journey. Aeneas is so weary of the journey, but he knows his duty and his commitment to his men. Even though he himself is overwhelmed with exhaustion and sorrow, he cares for his men by encouraging them onward. His speech towards his men gives them hope and energy to move forward because Aeneas lays aside his own hardships for their sake. This is how leaders are supposed to act; they have to care for their followers even if they themselves are burdened. A contrast to this in a poor example of leadership would be the emperor Nero, a man who did not care for his people. He only ever thought of himself, and he enjoyed the pleasures of being a leader without truly leading. He would hurt other people without ever caring for them. A leader is supposed to see the needs of their followers and act on them.

It takes great humility for a leader to do this, but that is one of the key characteristics of a leader. A leader is supposed to be able to admit when he is wrong, listen to other people, and accept advice. In Craig Groeschel’s podcast on leadership he brings in a guest, Dr. Henry Cloud. In the conversation between these two men, Dr. Cloud talks about how a leader should sit down with his followers and ask them for advice or what it is like to be a follower under him. He says, “We need to be getting a full circle of feedback from people above us, peers, and people below us” (Be A Leader). He talks about how we need to get feedback from everybody in our sphere of influence so that we can be at the highest level we can. It is not easy being open to critique, but that is one of the sacrifices of being a leader. This sacrifice is what is key.

With true leadership there comes sacrifice, but what would be considered a sacrifice in this context? A leader should be willing to sacrifice all he has, but often this does not have to be as big as one might think. A sacrifice could be so much as time. If a leader gives their time to help their followers, it shows that they care. Sometimes, however, a large sacrifice is needed. A huge sacrifice is what our United States military gives every day. Many soldiers give their lives to defend their country. One such sacrifice was given in 2010 by a Seal Team Six operator named Adam Brown. Adam Brown and his team were tasked with neutralizing a high level target in Afghanistan. Before he could take the shot, he was shot himself. He gave his life so his brothers-in-arms could keep theirs. This sacrifice echoes the commitment of Biblical manhood. The Bible says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). The way that we as a society now see sacrifice, however, is different. We watch an Avengers movie and see what Iron Man did to save New York and think that is the purest and only kind of sacrifice. This is just not true. What Iron Man did was honorable, but his sacrifice was nothing like what Jesus did for us. Jesus died the most brutal death and took all of our sin upon himself so that we might live forever with our God. Because of this, we are meant to sacrifice our lives for Him. This does not mean we have to die for the sake of Christ, but we must commit our lives to him. We must give everyday sacrifices for the sake of his glory alone. This is what it means to lead as a humble servant, like Jesus led.

Not only must we lead as Christ led, but we must serve as Christ served. He must be our ultimate model. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, and we are called to do the same. Jesus came to serve rather than be served. A great application for how men are supposed to do this is by protecting–protecting is the plan that God has for our lives. We as men are supposed to protect our neighbors, and Jesus told us that our neighbor is not only those close to us, but everyone. Brant Hansen describes what happens when men follow this calling when he says, “The vulnerable will be allowed to grow and bloom. People will sense that they’re safe around us. Our neighborhoods, workplaces, and homes will be safer simply because we’re there” (30). The thing is, nothing guarantees you to be the best father, the best husband, the best brother, or the best boyfriend, but as soon as you start owning up to your role as the man God created you to be, the people around will see, feel, and benefit from the product.

This perception of “the good guy” is sought after more than one might think. Men all over the world strive for a chance to show how much of a gentleman they can be or how chivalrous they are. This kind of striving is innate. We are meant to want to be the good guy. People want to feel like they are the good guy, so they will strive for real manhood, but in that pursuit, sin and the temptations of this world pull us away. This is why some men still want to be chivalrous. They see chivalry as the means by which they can become the good guy, so they will hold the door open for someone. Achieving “success” as a man can happen in many ways. You can own your own business and make a lot of money, you can be the strongest man in your sphere, or you can be the nicest guy people know, but this must ultimately be evaluated against the true and lasting measures of success. What is true success as a man, and does it come from being the good guy? Many people would say that Genghis Khan was a very successful war leader, but he was very much not the good guy. Oftentimes people strive for true manhood, but they cannot find it. This is because they are not looking in the right place. True manhood comes from the Bible and Jesus and the lessons he communicates to us.

I have personally gotten the opportunity to learn these lessons through camps, training experiences, and life experience. One such experience was when I was thirteen; my father took me on a retreat called Quest. This was a father-son weekend where we spent hours together growing in our relationship with each other and where I learned more about manhood. In fact, it was at Quest that I learned what it was to be a man. We would go to sessions that talked extensively about what God calls men to be. My father would take me on walks, and we would talk about how I am supposed to live as a man for Christ. This was very helpful as I grew up and learned more from my father, brother and counselors. They taught me how to live as a man for Christ.

Another experience that taught me what true servant leadership was a summer program at a camp called SALT. This stood for Servant And Leadership Training. It was at SALT that I served the kids coming for camp. We would serve food, clean the cafeteria and chapel, and do many other miscellaneous jobs. Sometimes it was annoying grueling work, but that is why it was so eye-opening. I remember thinking that servant leadership was doing a little bit of hard work so everybody would think you worked hard and then they all looked up to you. I thought that being a servant leader was still being a regular leader, but with just a few extra chores. I soon came to realize how mistaken I was. At SALT, I did a lot of work for these campers, but they didn’t know it. We all cleaned and worked so hard, but we didn’t get any sort of recognition. This is what I found servant leadership to mean. It is working hard and getting your hands dirty. It’s genuinely caring for your followers even if they don’t know it. Leaders have to be willing to make sacrifices without praise or recognition. They have to actually care. This is the kind of leadership that Jesus displayed for us, and it is the same leadership that he calls men to.

Ultimately, we are called by God to Biblical manhood. This is the truest and only kind of manhood that we should strive for. It is when we make Jesus that master of our hearts, when we do his will in our lives, and when we rise up to what he made us to be. Jesus sets the example for men and how we are supposed to live and lead those around us. We are to be servant leaders; we have to be willing to go low and watch Jesus. Servant leadership is how we become men of God. This, however, is not how the world sees it. Society has reduced manhood down to the strongest, the most successful, or the most handsome, and they fail to see that God’s plan and calling for them is so much more than that. They see leadership as a way to gain power, but Jesus led with humility and service. His example set the bar for how we are supposed to lead.

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