A Leader's Humility
Posted on 24 Jun 2021
by Abner and Nissi, Navstaff
Designed to bring together some of our emerging leaders from across the region for personal and leadership development, the Asia-Pacific Navigators organised the Asia-Pacific Emerging Leaders (APEL) programme. Conducted through a series of online workshops, participants had the opportunity to learn from experienced leaders and peers from other countries. The first workshop was titled ‘A Leader’s Humility’. We got our young couple, Abner and Nissi, to share with us some of their personal takeaways from the workshop, and how they can apply what they have learnt to their leadership role in ministry.
“The speaker shared an interesting illustration of getting ‘sugar hits’ (praises from others) from serving. He pointed out that praises from others can become our motivation for service. He recounted an incident where he organised a conference and the terrible feeling he had when no one praised him for his efforts after the event. He shared a question for us to consider: ‘It’s one thing to serve, but how do I feel when I’m being treated like a servant?’ His sharing and question struck a chord in my heart. I asked myself, ‘What is my motivation for serving? Do I serve just to receive praises from others? Wouldn’t that mean that I am serving only to benefit myself and to satisfy the desires of my flesh? Or, given that a Christian community often values humility as a praiseworthy virtue, am I trying to be humble so that I can be proud of it?’
Interestingly, the Singapore Polytechnic (SP) Ministry’s theme this year is an exhortation to ‘Live as a Learner’ while the accompanying theme verse (Matthew 11:28-30) has Jesus calling us to learn from Him for He is ‘gentle and humble in heart’. There is therefore a natural consonance with what I have learnt from the APEL workshop to enrich me with deeper insights into the topic of humility (my growth focus for this year). This has been timely in sharpening my focus on being a learner and a servant — remembering that serving in the ministry is not so much about trying to put a smile on man’s face, but on God’s face. This refreshing challenge for both my life and ministry has renewed my purpose to learn from Jesus and to live as He did, for He is humble in heart.”
– Abner
“Being a part of the APEL programme has afforded me the privilege to witness people from many nations coming together to grow and learn to become more like Christ. My heart was encouraged as I got to see how God is raising people from different nations for His work. It was also heartening to learn together with them.
At this workshop, we considered a leader’s role in relation to God and to people. This is apt as humility is about having a right view of ourselves in relation to God and to others.
My personal takeaway is the fact that I can only be truly free to serve when I am secure in my identity in Christ. Notions of restraint usually come to mind when I think of service but the truth is that serving others can be a natural outpouring of our lives if it is anchored in who we are in Christ. If I do not look to God to derive my identity, I will look to others to define my identity, but this sort of benchmarking can be variable and untrue, and thus should not be counted upon.
A group mate at the workshop posed a question to us: ‘Are you a leader who serves or a servant who leads?’ Jesus’ example came to mind. Jesus made Himself nothing and took on the nature of a servant. If my leader, Jesus Christ, is a servant, how much more so should I be to serve Him and others? Should I expect to be treated better than my Master? I can be free to serve just as my Master Jesus had freely served me.
All in all, I see that I do not need to be constrained by expectations of me as a leader in the ministry. All I need to do is to choose to serve freely the same way Jesus did, out of His love for me.”
– Nissi
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