June 2000 Newsletter

Casting Down Your Crown
By Renee Bennett

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing "worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created. Revelation 4:9-11

Such a dramatic image: twenty-four enthroned elders, robed in white and wearing crowns of gold, sit in a circle around the great throne of God. Giving glory and honor and thanks to the One who sits on the throne, they worship him and cast down their crowns before him. This scriptural image can be seen as a wonderful metaphor for the whole concept of servant-leaders: ones who, although wearing the crowns of elders, cast them down in service, love, honor, and praise of the One who is their reason for being, their center, their heart, their home.

Perhaps you've seen the chart which sketches out the "Ten Principles of Spiritual Leadership" (Susan Komis spoke of it at the Coordinators' Conference in San Francisco this year, and much of the material in this article derives from charts which Susan distributes on this topic). The essence of the servant-leader is to be found in: discipline, vision, wisdom, courage, decision, humility, integrity, humor, inspirational power and listening. 

The essence of this understanding of servant-leadership is not comprised of the qualities of leadership usually esteemed in our culture; or put into more familiar terminology, the qualities of leadership exhibited by the "false self": self-confidence, knowledge of men, making one's own decisions, ambition, creating methods, enjoying command, seeking personal reward, independence. Instead, the essence of servant-leadership is comprised of the qualities of the "true self": confidence in God, knowledge of God, seeking God's will, humility, following God's example, delighting in obedience to God, loving God and others, and depending on God. Another chart on servant leadership says: "We allow our own false self (and others!) to gently disengage with dignity....We do not conquer the false self through our own efforts, but depend 99% on the mercy of God to come to our assistance.

The qualities of servant-leadership manifest in a cause and effect relationship: our faithfulness to Centering Prayer gives us the ability to transmit the vision and the purpose of the prayer. We are enabled to set forth guiding ideas and provide unconditional love and support. Our ability to utilize our accumulated knowledge, experience, intuitive faculties and judgment enables us to create innovative solutions to complex problems. We become architects and builders of small communities in which all grow together. Our ability to bounce back quickly from disturbance, to free ourselves from past pain, to tap into the spirit of giving to others enables us to become healers, to inspire in others hope for transformation. Our ability to establish caring relationships with others based on our understanding of their uniqueness, their strengths and weaknesses enables us to collaborate with others, to listen to them to accept their diversity. Our ability to perform the tasks to which we have committed ourselves and to contribute to the greater organization enables us to take risks, to learn from our mistakes, to be secure enough to live with questions and not always demand answers. Finally, our ability to perceive our own part in the whole of things, to appreciate our own value and worth, to take responsibility for our own part in our personal transformation enables us to have the objectivity to distinguish how the vision is being enacted or neglected. We learn how to defend and sustain our mission.

As Fr. Thomas has said of "leaders serving leaders": service is identifying with utmost charity, patience, forbearance...the charity that manifests in the face of the Father. When we deeply appreciate our ministry, we abandon the "just me and God" mentality. Instead, we commit ourselves. We recognize: "I have been served by this ministry; therefore, I am willing to serve." We cast down our crowns.