What To Do With Power?

This post is taken from the catalyst conference blog. Click here to visit their blog.

Andy Stanley just finished the first session at Catalyst on the topic of power. I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone teach from Scripture with more insight and clarity than Andy does. Notes from his presentation are below:

What do you do, when it dawns on you that you’re the most powerful person in the room?

Your answer to that question will determine the character and the legacy of your leadership.

If you want to know what to do when it dawns on you that you’re the most important person in the room, look to the example of Jesus.

John 13
“It was just before the Passover feast, and Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father… Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God so he got up from his meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he was wearing around him.”

Jesus, in the moment of the greatest recognition of his power, leverages it for the good of the people in the room. At the pinnacle of his power, he sheds his robe, the symbol of his authority as a rabbi, and humbles himself.

The disciples are stunned by his humility. They want to put him back on the pedestal. To them, he has no business shedding his authority. But Jesus has a message for them, “You will preach the Gospel and heal diseases, everyone will want to be close to you, because and you were the ones closest to Me. You are going to be extraordinarily influential, but don’t forget this night.”

The disciples understood. That’s why we admire them today. That’s why their words reverberate through history. They refused to leverage power for their own sake, but they leveraged it for the other people in the room.

How can I leverage my power for the sake and benefit of the other people in the room?
I’m not greater than my Master, and I’m not greater than my Savior. If His response was to lay it aside to benefit others, then that’s what I’ll do with my leadership.