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Servant of All: Status, Ambition, and the Way of Jesus
There exists a deep tension between the biblical view of servant leaders and the status that Christian leaders today often desire and pursue. Many pastors and other church leaders, like it or not, struggle with ambition. In this book Craig Hill shows how the New Testament can help Christian leaders deal with this problem honestly and faithfully.
Hill examines such passages as the Christ Hymn in Philippians 2 to show how New Testament authors helped early Christians construct their identity in ways that overturned conventional status structures and hierarchies. Status and ambition, Hill says, are not often addressed forthrightly in the church, as Christians either secretly indulge those impulses or feebly try to quash them. Hill's Servant of All will help Christian leaders reconcile their human aspirations and their spirituality, empowering them to minister with integrity.
Hill examines such passages as the Christ Hymn in Philippians 2 to show how New Testament authors helped early Christians construct their identity in ways that overturned conventional status structures and hierarchies. Status and ambition, Hill says, are not often addressed forthrightly in the church, as Christians either secretly indulge those impulses or feebly try to quash them. Hill's Servant of All will help Christian leaders reconcile their human aspirations and their spirituality, empowering them to minister with integrity.
- GenresLeadership
217 pages, Paperback
Published November 12, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 24, 2022
This is a frequently deep but short and practical guide to humbly contextualizing oneself within meaningful community, emphasizing what it has looked like, should look like, and doesn’t look like.
September 15, 2022
While the concern of this book is of great importance, especially for those in ministry, I was disappointed with it. Some of the reasons are:
1. It is not clear what the dynamics of hierarchy in the animal kingdom in the beginning of this work have to do with the NT teaching on status and ambition.
2. Some chapters read almost like a number of NT citations connected with brief commentary. The depth of reflection on the NT text that the reader might expect was not there.
3. There seems to be a certain tension for the author between noting questions that are important for scholars (like the priority of Mark) and speaking to a general audience. So he notes the scholarly perspective on the priority of Mark and then goes on to write as if it does not matter for his exegesis. But is this correct? If Matthew is prior to Mark, how does that change the way he reads the Markan passages?
I did appreciate some of his work on honor in Roman culture, especially in the chapter on Corinthians. This background helps the reader to understand what was going on in Paul's relationship with that church.
1. It is not clear what the dynamics of hierarchy in the animal kingdom in the beginning of this work have to do with the NT teaching on status and ambition.
2. Some chapters read almost like a number of NT citations connected with brief commentary. The depth of reflection on the NT text that the reader might expect was not there.
3. There seems to be a certain tension for the author between noting questions that are important for scholars (like the priority of Mark) and speaking to a general audience. So he notes the scholarly perspective on the priority of Mark and then goes on to write as if it does not matter for his exegesis. But is this correct? If Matthew is prior to Mark, how does that change the way he reads the Markan passages?
I did appreciate some of his work on honor in Roman culture, especially in the chapter on Corinthians. This background helps the reader to understand what was going on in Paul's relationship with that church.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews