By Mutua Mahiaini
Many Navigators serve in roles that require us to lay ourselves down for other people. True sacrificial leadership in this way isn’t flashy: it’s costly, risky, and humbling. It even looks wasteful. So why would anyone do it? Let’s dig into the meaning and the characteristics of sacrificial leadership.
The Bible gives us many examples of leaders who sacrificed themselves for others. Of course our best example is Jesus himself. He demonstrated sacrificial leadership, saying “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11) and washing his disciples’ feet (John 13:1-17). Then we have Paul who stated, “I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well” (2 Corinthians 12:15). Another example is found in 2 Samuel 23:13-17 where David’s warriors took great risks in battle to bring David a drink of water. Esther demonstrated this spirit as well when she approached the king on behalf of others, saying “If I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16).
What does sacrificial leadership look like? I invite you to explore four characteristics: risk, suffering, giving what is needed, and willingness to seem wasteful.
Risk
Sacrificial leadership means a willingness to take risks for others, even to the point of doing things that seem crazy or laying down our lives. We may have to take courage to step outside our comfort zone or take initiative. It is more than just maintaining the status quo of our organization and writing newsletters about meetings we’ve had; we need to take opportunities even to do scary things when God presents them to us. We need to ask ourselves: In the position God has given me, if God were to do all the things he wants to do through me, how much risk would that take and what might that look like?
Willingness to Suffer
The cross is always present at the heart of Biblical leadership (2 Corinthians 4:7-12). Someone said that we see a lot of people wearing the cross, but not many people carrying it. The cross is a place of painful suffering, not just a pretty gold accessory we wear.
Giving What is Needed
Leadership includes being caringly relevant, being willing to provide what people need as opposed to what I’d like to give or what would be convenient for me. In fact, Ezekiel 34:2 warns against self-serving leadership: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?” Sacrificial leadership means pausing long enough to figure out what people really need and taking initiative on their behalf, like the faithful and wise servant in Matthew 24:45-46.
Waste
Sacrificial leadership is a willingness to give extravagantly – to the point of being “wasteful” in others’ eyes – like the woman who anointed Jesus in Mark 14. Our worship can feel wasteful because it doesn’t visibly achieve anything, but Jesus says it is beautiful, and he uses it to lead us to areas that are not under our control. Sometimes sacrificial leadership costs us more than what seems reasonable, and we might not even get a thank you in return.
Why would anyone willingly volunteer to take risks or pour out oneself for others? How can we grow to lead like Jesus led? I propose four secrets to sacrificial leadership. The better we understand them, the more likely we are to lead like Jesus.
True Greatness
It is OK to want to be great; there is a hard-wired need in us for that. When Jesus heard the sons of Zebedee arguing about being the greatest in Matthew 20:26, he didn’t tell them not to stop trying to be great. Instead, he said, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” The way to be great is sacrificial leadership. Knowing and embracing what true greatness is frees me to be a humble leader in the present. Small, seemingly unnoticed sacrifices can make a great difference. If I miss out on serving others, it probably means that my ambitions are too low and I have missed the memo that God is calling me to true greatness.
Embracing Joy
We endure suffering for the joy set before us, just as Jesus did (Hebrews 12:2). People are our joy (as Paul says in Philippians 4:1). More sacrificial leadership will make the Navigators a place of greater joy. This is a great paradox: we are invited to joy, therefore we are invited to sacrificial leadership. This is why it is good news that leadership involves suffering and taking risks on behalf of others. I can do these things willingly because I actually want the joy that I know will follow.
The Principle of Life
I must understand that I’m not alive unless I die. It’s by dying that I’m alive. I read a challenge from John Stott in which he reminded us of the need to live simply so others might simply live. This is a Kingdom principle: “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24). If I understand what it means to be fully alive, then I will be able to die to myself and serve. In 2 Corinthians 13:7, Paul says “Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed.” Often we protect our reputations and try to look successful, but what if we were free to lay down our lives and do things that would make others think we had failed?
The Glory and Purposes of God
This is the most fundamental principle of leadership. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” The glory of God shows up when we serve in humility. I can only give of myself joyfully if I am preoccupied with God’s glory and his purposes. If I understand that God’s glory is what’s on the agenda, then I won’t go around grumbling that the hand I’ve been dealt is unfair. If God is asking me to take pain on behalf of other people, it’s not unjust. I will be capable of serving people even when they are not thankful if I’m sure that God sees and values what he has asked me to do. For example, Joseph and Mary were invited to the awkward experience of being Jesus’ parents when this involved misunderstanding from society. The shame factor was a very significant burden at the time, but it paled in comparison to the glory that would come later because they agreed to serve God in this way.
Jesus can give us freedom – even freedom to willingly suffer, to take risks, to give ourselves to others and to stop calculating what is “wasteful” or valuable. He can set us free to participate in true sacrificial leadership with joyful hearts. Are you taking initiative on behalf of the ones you say you love, and are you willing to take risks or endure some suffering for them? Jesus invites us to the hard but eternally rewarding road of sacrificial leadership.
