If you’re pastoring a church or leading a team, chances are you’ve felt the effects of delegating gone wrong. It can cost you time, energy, resources, and even people. For example, delegation done poorly can have you spending extra hours and lots of emotional energy fixing a massive problem created by the person you delegated a new responsibility to.

Let’s get a little nerdy today and dive into servant leadership. I’ve heard too many off the wall things said about it that I know many of you will appreciate some clarity. Servant leadership is not a preference thing like ice cream or cookies, it is a specific leadership model with specific behaviors associated with it. I’ve literally had to refrain myself from running up to a stage to take the mic when hearing servant leadership being encouraged as a means for keeping people from leaving a particular organization. It couldn’t have been further from the essence of servant leadership, which is all about serving others for their sake, not the organization’s (in fact, a servant leader would encourage someone to leave if their current assignment wasn’t the best fit for them). So, let’s dive in.