I have high respect for the men and women who serve in the U.S. military.  Many serve our country sacrificially.  The protection and assistance they provide in the U.S. and around the world is truly amazing.  They form a well-oiled machine. 

Their unity and coordination don’t just happen.  They spend countless hours training, much of it specifically focused on teaching them to work together as a cohesive whole.  Their leaders invest significantly in making sure they know what it means to be a community and can rely on each other in life and death situations.  The church could learn a lot from them.  We, too, should be a well-oiled machine; a community that can rely on each other in life and death situations. 

Retired Col. William David West, Ph.D. writes about a facet of the military training that builds this unified community atmosphere.  He addresses it a discussion on courage.

Courage also means serving others rather than self.  Courage is considering the needs of others and how we can meet those needs.  Each soldier became familiar with the values of the army.  These values included: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage.  The acronym the army used for soldiers to remember these values was LDRSHIP, short for leadership.  Every soldier understood that selfless service was an essential aspect of being courageous in battle and in life.  No soldier was to consider what was best for him, but what was best for the unit, the army, and the United States.

Sounds like they lifted those qualities right off the pages of Scripture, doesn’t it?  Isn’t this exactly what the Bible says we should be like within the Body of Christ? 

I say this frequently, but it is worth repeating – often.  Biblical leadership is not about being in control so that you get your own way.  That is a description of self-centeredness, not leadership.  Biblical leadership looks a lot like the LDRSHIP described above.  Jesus said that selfless service must be the foundation of any Biblical leadership.  It shouldn’t be surprising that it should also be the foundation of secular leadership.  Those who are in leadership primarily to get their way, usually crash and burn somewhere along the way.  They also destroy organizations.

A godly community should exhibit the same character qualities as those described in the LDRSHIP acronym above.  Christian community should be made up of individuals who hold to the values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage.  So, how are your LDRSHIP values?