Christian servant leadership gives us our political and legal systems, universities, medical care, child adoption, and freed most of the world from slavery.  And it was all done, almost for free! 

It’s free!  Hold it, don’t you often say “There’s no free lunch?”  Yes, but when people donate their time to be servant leaders, society gets a freebie.  It’s really quite amazing.  Christians are not surprised, because they have seen this since Acts 2.  But economists can’t quite figure out why people would give their time for free.

That’s why you’ve heard me quote my fellow Christian Economist, Art Lindsley so often, when he wrote, “Government should punish evil, but not do good.  The church should do good, but not punish evil.”  You see, we’re okay without tax dollars being spent to punish evil.  But the Biblical command is for the CHURCH to do good.  The economic reason is that: They can do it for FREE!  Well, at least they can do it without forcibly extracting taxes.  

Servant Leadership

With the publication of the book Servant Leadership in 1977, a new management paradigm entered America's boardrooms and corporate offices. Robert K. Greenleaf, a retired AT&T executive, proposed that service ought to be the distinguishing characteristic of leadership.  He said, “The first and most important choice a leader makes is the choice to serve.”  Winston Churchill said it this way, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”

This GIVING is what distinguishes a Christian society, and it’s why we have so many services, essentially for free.   

The Enlightenment

Daniel Pinker and I agree on most of the effects of the Enlightenment.  In his book Enlightenment Now, he writes, “The world is about a hundred times wealthier today than it was two centuries ago, and the prosperity is becoming more evenly distributed across countries and people. Within the lifetimes of most readers, the rate of extreme poverty could approach zero.”  We really do live in the best time on earth.  Looking back, Pinker and I agree.  It’s looking forward to where we part views.  He says “Do people need to believe in magic, a father in the sky, a strong chief to protect the tribe, myths of heroic ancestors?  I don’t think so.”  Well, he said he doesn’t THINK so, but what he really meant was that he doesn’t BELIEVE so.  However, the economist looks back at all the good things done for free, because Christians were following the command from Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”  So Christianity gave us our political and legal systems, our university systems, our medical care, adoption, freed most of the world from slavery, and the list goes on and on.  But Pinker says that now that we’re enlightened, we don’t need God anymore.  He’s made the mistake of reading Adam Smith’s second book The Wealth of Nations, without reading his first book The Theory of Moral Sentiments. 

Servant leadership provides services for free, because it says in Mark 9:41, “Anyone who gives a cup of water in my name will not lose their reward.

Dog & Cat Theology

I attended a multiple-session seminar on missions some ye...