Community is an organic gathering of people who live out some sense of their identity. That has always been the definition of community I have carried with me. The key element in how deeply one enters into that community is the extent that the community speaks to their sense of identity. You can have, and often do have, people with differing opinions and visions within a community but there is a common identity. Families, communities, service clubs, religious denominations, even nations, share this sense of common identity.
Those who offer servant leadership in these communities have a responsibility to harness this sense of identity for the greater good of humanity. For people of faith like me this greater good can be summed up in the great commandments, “Love God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbour as you love yourself.” Those two great commandments, the greatest according to Jesus, are the lens through which I see “the greater good of humanity” lived out. So that is my servant-leader philosophy, to take the existing identity and articulate it, plan activities around it, and celebrate it, in community.
A servant-leader cannot, should not, create this identity. Whenever I have seen this happen it has led to a deep division within the community. In this context the community knows deep down they are being hijacked and resent it. The result is a rupture of what was and what is being imposed. Communities do evolve, but the identity retains some element of its original self. Canada has become this inclusive, diverse collection of peoples. But at our core there was this union of Aboriginal-French-British peoples. The way Canada came to be was expressed to a large extent through the lens of shared values and respecting difference. The evolution of Canada has been to accept, welcome and integrate many more cultural communities.
The servant-leader has a role to play in the community and s/he must participate in said community to understand it and promote it. Servant-leaders who sit in their office and never stand with the community as a lived expressed are technocrats a best, pretenders at worst. Communities will not be inspired by servant-leaders who are absent from the community life. And these servant-leaders will not be listened to by those who feel they are only a source of income.
But whether servant-leaders stick around and remain deeply connected to the communities they serve also feel listened to, able to express themselves as themselves and not forced to conform constantly to what the community demands. If a servant-leader pours her/himself into their work and yet is conform at every turn then s/he will begin to feel like a technocrat themselves. The loyalty and hard work of these servant-leaders is never in doubt but their joy in their work and long-term presence becomes an open question.
There is give and take in community. Servant-leaders can take advantage of the community by opting out of community life while at the same time reaping the benefits. But communities can also take servant-leaders for granted and assume they can get all the things they like from her/him and continually demand s/he give more, particularly more of the way they like things done. Community and the relationships it embodies is a dance and all of the partners need to feel connected to one another and able to express themselves in their own way.