ABC’s Core Values: Servant Leadership

December 2025

Servant Leadership

We strive to follow Jesus’ example of servant leadership, Who came not to be  served, but to serve. We lead by serving, valuing humility over hierarchy. We will prioritize the needs of  others, empowering those we serve and lead through kindness, integrity, and a posture of service.  (Luke  22:26-27, Matthew 20:26-28)   

"But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” Luke 22:26-27

For a moment, let us travel back 2000 years. We have joined Jesus’ disciples in an upper room in the city of Jerusalem. We have walked with Jesus for three years. He has made the blind see, the lame walk, and cleansed the leper. He has walked on water, stilled the sea, and even raised the dead! He has preached and taught like no one before him.

Tonight, Jesus spends his last evening with us. By tomorrow, one of us will betray him, another will deny him, all will abandon him. Jesus will hang on a cruel Roman cross and die for the sins of the world. After he rises from the dead and ascends to the Father, our shoulders will bear the weight of mankind’s salvation, for we must spread the gospel of his grace to the lost. We must serve as kingdom leaders. 

But serving others? The last thing on our minds! We argue over which of us will sit with Jesus in his kingdom. We all want to be the BIG MAN. We have not yet learned that the secret to Christ’s kingdom is not in others serving us, but in our serving others. Not in becoming BIG, but in becoming little. 

So, Jesus provides a vivid object lesson, one we will never forget. He gets up from supper to do the work of the lowest of servants. He washes our feet! Shocked, Peter tells Jesus, “You shall never wash my feet!” (John 13:8)

After rebuking Peter, Jesus explains what a kingdom leader is to be: “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” (John 13:12b-17)

Reflection

The secret to kingdom leadership is serving others. Who are you serving?

Prayer

Dear Lord, please help us to be servant leaders. Thank you that Your Son has showed us the perfect example of a servant leader and Your Spirit empowers us to do so. Open our hearts to lead and love well to those around us and to show who You are like to all the world. Amen.

About The Devotion Author

After thirty years of pastoral ministry, the Lord called Dr. Timothy K. Hoke, Instructor in Biblical Studies at African Bible University Kampala, Uganda, and his wife, Cheri, to African Bible University in Kampala, Uganda. Tim has taught biblical studies at ABU since 2008. When not studying and teaching the Bible or Bible-related subjects, Tim may be found riding a motorcycle or flying an airplane.