Qualified to Comfort
If you were asked, ‘What kind of leadership do we need in the 21st century?’ I wonder what your answer would be. More specifically, how can we, as Christ-centered servant leaders, have the greatest missional impact in this historical moment of uncertainty, strife, and anxiety?
This verse has been at the forefront of my mind over the past few months:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
It strikes me that this verse helps define servant leadership.
Christ-like servant leaders are equipped to comfort others because they have received the comfort of a loving heavenly Father. However, providing comfort doesn’t sound like the kind of gung-ho leadership that’s so highly valued in the 21st century. It wouldn’t make the front cover of the leadership guru books we find in mainstream bookstores, which often seem to need an expletive to become a best-seller.
And yet, in a world full of pain, we serve people best by comforting them in their trouble with the comfort that we have received from God.
Paul isn’t talking about mere sympathy—a pat on the back and telling people to hang in there because it will be alright in the end. We are not to deal in platitudes or greeting card slogans. Rather, this kind of comfort is an inner strengthening through wise counsel and deep encouragement. It is faith-fueled and hope-filled, coming from a place of deep empathy. It is committed to walking alongside someone as they navigate their painful experiences.
When we provide this kind of comfort, we are engaging in Trinitarian ministry. The word Paul repeatedly uses in this passage is paraklesis. Translated here as comfort, it is the same word used to describe the Holy Spirit as our Helper in John 14:16 and of Jesus as our Advocate in 1 John 2:1. The Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son are our comfort, help, and advocate. As servant leaders, we extend this ministry to others. We are comforters, helpers and advocates to those going through difficulties.
Our qualification for this ministry is not based on our title or academic credentials. We are equipped for this ministry through our experience. Everyone who has received the comfort of the loving and compassionate Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is equipped to extend that comfort to others.
This is the counter-cultural nature of biblical leadership. It is the original pay-it-forward model of leadership. We pass on to others what we have received, igniting a movement of compassionate support that equips people to flourish in faith and life. This is how the mission of God will expand in the world: through this kind of servant leadership in action.
