The most sought after spiritual gift of this generation is leadership. That’s no secret. Leadership is blogged about and idolized. We have trainings on leadership, encourage young leaders to pursue it, there are books on leadership and an entire Christian conference dedicated to training millennial leaders. Leadership is impossible to ignore- we are told to desire it, seek it, become it. But what about the less desirable gifts? Does God have a plan for the person who isn’t a leader? What about the gift of serving? Is anyone writing books on this gift?

The other day a friend of mine was telling me about a boy in pursuit of her. She had no interest in said boy which was somewhat surprising to me as he was a staple member in our church. He spent time getting to know her and the two of them seemed to get along. So I asked her what the issue was, and she said, “he serves others almost to a fault.”And I was like,  “That is a problem because…?”

This interaction left me thinking- why wouldn’t you want someone near you who would serve deeply? My hunch is that this girl was seeking a husband in leadership, not just in the home, but also in the world. The reality is as much as we desire someone to lead us or “cast a vision” for us, we so much more greatly need someone to serve and care for us in our times of need.

Service Over Leadership

Once while sitting across the table from the people steering of the fastest growing churches in Dallas, I asked them why families are joining their body at such a rate. “Well, the area is growing,” one said. But another quickly chimed in, “that can’t be it, we were growing before the area.” We conversed on the topic for some time and finally came down to a theory- this church puts its members into service almost immediately. They send them to various areas of the city, organize projects at the church and plan service trips around the world- all in an effort to create more places for service than there are places to lead.

We need to remember that there are more worker bees than queens. We need to provide opportunities for the workers to do their thing.

Now, it has been said that “the greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for him.” Some point at selfless servants and say those who serve are only doing so to gain recognition and approval (as if any leader hasn’t had that struggle before). Those who selflessly seek to serve do so out of an overflow of their heart. Servants seek to free-up those around them burdened with responsibility and care for folks when they are not able to serve themselves.

Everyone wants a leader, but not everyone wants to follow a leader. No one wants to serve, but everyone wants to be served. It would be interesting to see the difference in this world if we had even half as many sermons, conferences and books on serving as we do on leadership. Jesus came to seek and serve the lost. It may be time you take a moment and ask yourself which gifting you truly desire. And, regardless of where you land- remember 1 Corinthians 12 reminds us that regardless of our gifting we are called to love.