Servant Leadership and the Black Church Serving as Jesus Served
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Introduction Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. —Martin Luther King Jr. This book about servant leadership and the Black Church examines the following question: “Do Black Church pastors serve as Jesus served?” Servant leadership occurs when a leader has “the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first and make a conscious choice to lead” (Greenleaf 1977, 27). Servant leaders embody specific characteristics (Spears 1998), constructs (Patterson 2003), and attributes (Russell & Stone 2002). Servant leadership characteristics, constructs, and attributes cause servant leaders to put others’ needs and interests ahead of their own (Olesia et al. 2014, 77). Servant leadership was modeled by Jesus: For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45 ESV) Jesus served others by prioritizing the needs of others ahead of his own. The Black Church is the oldest social institution in the African American community (Allen 2023, 2), and it has historically provided leadership for the African American community (Walker 1997, 52). Black Church leaders have had a prominent role in leading African Americans from the slavery era until the twenty-first century. Research for this book proved that the Black Church has been a place of stability and strength for the African American community (Calhoun-Brown 2013, 169). It has been more than just a place of worship; it has been a place of spiritual, political, economic, social, and cultural influences that is grounded in values, beliefs, faith, and traditions that united families seeking better futures (Collins 2015, 194). Despite these efforts of Black Church leaders, research has also determined a decline in the influence, membership size, and self-sacrifice and service of the Black Church. Can serving as Jesus served address these and other current challenges Black Church leaders face? This book explores various leadership approaches through research before suggesting that servant leadership should be preferred for Black Church pastors to address the challenges and ensure a sustainable future for the Black Church. Interviews were conducted with Black Church members and pastors to prove the validity of the question posed in this book (Do Black Church pastors serve as Jesus Served?). The qualitative data collected during these interviews revealed that pastors involved in the interviews embody some servant leadership dimensions, and church members were made better when their pastors performed acts of service. Based on these results, it is suggested that Black Church pastors practice servant leadership to reverse the decline in the influence, membership size, and the evaporation of self-sacrifice and service among pastors. Pastors should not be concerned if they do not possess the servant leadership characteristics, constructs, and attributes because, as with any leadership approach, servant leadership can be learned and enhanced through learning and practicing (Spear 2020, 30). Ten recommendations are suggested for Black Church pastors to consider if they wish to serve as Jesus served. As van Dierendonck and Heeren (2006) noted, pastors must begin with a mindset that “servant leadership is not a trick; it is a way of life that demands great commitment and discipline” (161), and pastors must be cognitive of the fact that servant leadership is anything but a quick fix. It requires a long-term, transformational approach to life and work (Finley 2012, 143). Pastors can learn how to be servant leaders by serving with purpose, serving with a relationship with God, serving with a personal transformation, serving with love, serving with vision, serving with a plan, serving with inclusivity, serving with listening, serving with trust, and serving with heart, head, hands, and habits. Black Church pastors must have the same resolve as Harriet Tubman when she said, “We’re rooted here, and they can’t pull us up” (Graham 2022). This resolve will position contemporary Black Church pastors to continue the legacy of the Black Church of the past that brought “hope for the hopeless, faith for the faithless, joy and celebration amid much pain and degradation” (Walker 1997, 52) by serving as Jesus served. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5–8 ESV)
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About the Book
This book provides an overview of the history of the Black Church beginning with the church’s origination during the slavery era. It demonstrates how the appropriate leadership approach is crucial in meeting the distinctive needs of the Black Church. After examining the various leadership approaches, it is recommended that servant leaders embody the appropriate leadership characteristics to assure the future of the Black Church because it is the leadership approach by which Jesus served. Ten recommendations are provided for leaders who wish to improve their servant leadership approach or learn how to become a servant leader.
About the Author
Dr. Pearlie Johnson-Freeman is a compassionate, empathic leader with a desire to serve and uplift others. She worked as a director for a nonprofit association for over forty-one years before leaving to pursue a doctorate in strategic leadership at Regent University. Dr. Freeman founded the Rock of Salvation Church in 2000 and is known as a servant leader where she serves those in her congregation and in her community through various outreach efforts and after-school programs. She ministers weekly in a nursing home. She fulfills the mission of the Rock of Salvation Church, which is to “bring hope to the hopeless through the power of the Word and acts of service.” Dr. Freeman completed her doctorate in 2024 and is looking forward to her first adjunct faculty member position in August 2025 at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. Dr. Freeman is excited to be teaching career development courses to put students on a path toward their dream careers. She is a native of Itta Bena, Mississippi, and has lived in Chicago for over fifty years. She is a wife, mother, and grandmother. She enjoys spending time with her family and RVing across the country with her husband.