GCLI Correction 2: Servant/Leadership

This is another note to myself about GCLI materials. It is a minor mistake and one that leads me to meditate on servant/leadership. On page 205 of Book II of the GCLI materials, the author claims that the word "Servant" in 1st Corinthians 3:5 is doulos; however, the word is actually diakonos. This is the same word group that we get the English word for deacon. The article does point out correctly that the word for servants in 1st Corinthians 4:1 is huperetes, which is taken from a word meaning "under-rower". However, the author fails to account for how the word had evolved from its original meeting. Here are the passages in question.

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. (1 Corinthians 3:5-9 ESV)

This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.(1 Corinthians 4:1-2 ESV)

In my Vine's An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, under the definitions for the word "Minister", the expository dictionary describes the following schema for the Greek synonyms that mean servant:

• diakonos views a servant in relation to his work;
• doulos in relation to his master;
• huperetes, in relation to his superior; 
• leitourgos, in relation to public service

This leads us back to the passages and how to interpret the two different Greek synonyms that mean "servant: "diakonos" and "huperetes." Fee explains the correct use of the words for "servant" in the 1st Corinthians passages on p. 159 in his commentary:

What is significant for this paragraph is the change of metaphors. In 3:5-9 the word diakoni is used, emphasizing the servant nature of their task under God, with secondary emphasis on the division of labor. Now the metaphor changes to that of a household. The first word, hyperetas("servants [of Christ]"), is a more general term, but often refers to one who has the duties of administering the affairs of another. That this was Paul's intent is verified by the second word, oikonomos, which denotes a "steward" (often a slave) who has been "entrusted with" managing a household. This is a happy change of metaphors for Paul (cf. 9:17); not only is it pregnant with the notion of accountability that is in the forefront of this paragraph, but it inherently conveys the motif of delegated authority as well, the other concern of this chapter. Thus apostles are to be regarded as "servants of Christ," reemphasizing their humble position and their belonging to Christ alone; at the same time they are "stewards of the mysteries of God" (RSV), emphasizing both their truest position and their accountability to God.

There are a couple points I want to make. First, notice in the chapter 3 passage that Apollos and Paul are not the ones causing the growth in the church. They are servants simply performing their Master's will. It is the Holy Spirit who causes the growth in individuals and the Church. I often hear people say or even I speculate that a church would disappear if a teaching pastor would leave the church and go on to greener pastures. When we think that, we demonstrate a misunderstanding of the interplay between the role of the teachers and the role of the Holy Spirit in church growth. A church may or may not disappear if a popular preacher leaves it, but the preacher does not cause the abundance of growth or the lack of growth. The Holy Spirit causes the growth. If a church fails because its popular pastor leaves, we must ask ourselves whether the Holy Spirit is building that church?

The second point is that the leaders of a church may just be servants, but they are also trusted stewards of a very valuable commodity. They are responsible to teach the flock, to equip the body so "we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (Ephesians 4). The elders are some of the instruments the Holy Spirit uses to build us up as a church to help mature us. Therefore, the leaders as a whole deserve are respect and obedience as they carry out this ministry. (Hebrews 13:17).