Leading isn't easy for a servant. The problem was best described by Craig Barnes, pastor of National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.

"There was a day when we were clear on what it meant to be a leader," he writes. "It meant getting to the top of the organization where it was possible to run things. The great power that was attached to that model was easy to abuse, but it also made it easy to get things done, and it was obvious who was in charge.

"That form of leadership has generally been rejected for many years. We criticized the old bosses as 'hierarchical, top-down managers' and sought a new model of leadership that would empower, enable, and facilitate the aspirations of even the lowliest in the organization. For a while that sounded pretty good. In time, however, what began as a corrective has become something of a problem itself …

"Leadership has now come to mean satisfying the people. Pastors and elders spend enormous amounts of time and energy responding to complaints. ...