Servant of All: Status, Ambition, and the Way of Jesus
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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'sServant 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'sServant of All will help Christian leaders reconcile their human aspirations and their spirituality, empowering them to minister with integrity.
Richard B. Hays
"In the midst of our culture's wistful and slightly desperate clamoring for programs to create 'strong leadership,' Craig Hill's Servant of All speaks a much-needed, biblically grounded word, calling us to recognize 'the way of Jesus' as the true model for leadership in the church. All of us who are caught up in institutions that foster competition, ambition, and self-assertion will find this study to be a bracing, challenging reminder of the true nature of our vocation, and of the character of the One who calls us."
Elaine Heath
"In this welcome volume Craig Hill invites readers—let's make that leaders—to an honest discussion about the problem of unchecked ambition and status-seeking in the church. Framing his discussion with New Testament narratives and the teaching of Jesus, Hill draws from a wide array of sources to help leaders in the church and theological education to choose the way of Jesus. Thoroughly built on scholarly research, this book is readable and edifying for a lay audience as well as clergy and theologians."
William H. Willimon
—from the foreword
"A fast-paced, revealing, scholarly-without-being-showy, and pointedly practical book on status and ambition. . . . Servant of All will elevate Craig Hill's status as one of our premier New Testament scholars who writes in service to the church and its leaders."
"In the midst of our culture's wistful and slightly desperate clamoring for programs to create 'strong leadership,' Craig Hill's Servant of All speaks a much-needed, biblically grounded word, calling us to recognize 'the way of Jesus' as the true model for leadership in the church. All of us who are caught up in institutions that foster competition, ambition, and self-assertion will find this study to be a bracing, challenging reminder of the true nature of our vocation, and of the character of the One who calls us."
Elaine Heath
"In this welcome volume Craig Hill invites readers—let's make that leaders—to an honest discussion about the problem of unchecked ambition and status-seeking in the church. Framing his discussion with New Testament narratives and the teaching of Jesus, Hill draws from a wide array of sources to help leaders in the church and theological education to choose the way of Jesus. Thoroughly built on scholarly research, this book is readable and edifying for a lay audience as well as clergy and theologians."
William H. Willimon
—from the foreword
"A fast-paced, revealing, scholarly-without-being-showy, and pointedly practical book on status and ambition. . . . Servant of All will elevate Craig Hill's status as one of our premier New Testament scholars who writes in service to the church and its leaders."
Product Details
- Title : Servant of All: Status, Ambition, and the Way of Jesus
- Author: Hill, Craig C.
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Publication Date: 2016
- ISBN: 9781467446976
Craig C. Hill is dean and professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. His previous books include In God's Time: The Bible and the Future.