Slaves of the Most High God
A Biblical Model of Servant Leadership in the Slave Imagery of Luke-Acts
Description:... Servant leadership has been broadly and enthusiastically embraced by Christians as a model of leadership marked by humility and modeled by Jesus. But behind that attractive veneer is an approach to leadership that is problematic theologically and anemic biblically with humanistic goals and assumptions that are derived more from secular theory than biblical research. Careful examination of the servant metaphor in Scripture reveals that a leader is not primarily called to be a servant after all, but rather a slave who is obedient and ultimately accountable to God as his or her Master. This provocative picture conveys a much richer and more demanding model of leadership than servanthood when understood within its cultural context. Slaves of the Most High God provides a rigorous exegetical, historical, and theological analysis of the slave metaphor in Luke-Acts. The pattern of Christ’s slave leadership in Luke and the practice of slave leadership in the early church in Acts outline a paradigm of a leader who is in authority and under authority, redeemed by God to serve his people. The author proposes a countercultural model of slave leadership outlining seven practical principles drawn from the metaphor of slavery and shaped by personal pastoral experience.
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