Servant for All
Rethinking Vestry Leadership in the Way of Jesus
There’s a quiet gravity that comes with vestry service. It’s not always obvious at first. On paper, it can look like governance, decision-making, fiduciary responsibility—important, yes, but ultimately procedural. But over time, something deeper reveals itself. Vestry is not just about guiding a parish. It’s about being formed as leaders in the way of Jesus.
Reading “Servant for All: Status, Ambition, and the Way of Jesus” pressed into that reality for me in a different way. Craig Hill’s central idea is both simple and unsettling: much of what we assume about leadership—status, recognition, upward movement—sits uneasily alongside the way of Jesus. The disciples themselves wrestled with this tension. Again and again, they reached for significance as the world defines it, and again and again, Jesus redirected them toward something altogether different.
“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”
We’ve heard that before. But vestry life gives us a very real context in which that teaching either becomes embodied… or quietly ignored.
The Subtle Pull of Status
Vestries, like any leadership body, are not immune to the gravitational pull of status and influence. It can show up in small ways:
Whose voice carries the most weight in the room
How decisions are shaped before they’re formally discussed
The unspoken hierarchy between clergy and lay leaders
The quiet desire to be seen as effective, insightful, or “right”
None of this is usually malicious. In fact, it often comes from a sincere desire to serve well. But Hill’s work surfaces an uncomfortable truth: ambition has a way of disguising itself as faithfulness. And that’s where the invitation of Jesus becomes particularly challenging.
Leadership as Self-Emptying
What if vestry leadership is less about asserting influence and more about relinquishing it? Not in the sense of passivity or disengagement—but in the deeper sense of kenosis, self-emptying. The kind of leadership that is willing to:
Listen before speaking
Defer rather than dominate
Create space rather than fill it
Seek the good of the whole over personal preference
This doesn’t make decision-making easier. If anything, it makes it more demanding. Because it requires a different kind of attentiveness—not just to outcomes, but to posture. Hill’s framing suggests that the question is not simply, *“What decision should we make?”* but also, *“Who are we becoming as we make it?”*
The Formation Happening in the Room
One of the most overlooked aspects of vestry work is that formation is always happening. Every agenda, every discussion, every moment of tension is shaping something:
How we understand authority
How we relate to one another
What we believe about power and responsibility
In that sense, vestry is not just a governing body—it’s a formative community. And that raises the stakes. Because if we’re not intentional, we will default to the patterns we’ve inherited from the surrounding culture. Efficiency over discernment. Persuasion over listening. Control over trust. But if Hill is right, the way of Jesus invites something else entirely—a reordering of leadership around service, humility, and a willingness to move “downward” rather than upward.
A Different Measure of Faithfulness
So what does faithfulness look like for a vestry? It may not always look like clear wins or unanimous decisions. It may not feel particularly efficient. It may even feel, at times, like we’re moving slower than we’d like. But perhaps faithfulness looks more like:
A room where every voice is genuinely heard
A willingness to sit with complexity rather than rush resolution
Decisions that emerge from prayerful discernment rather than quiet power dynamics
Leaders who are less concerned with being right and more concerned with being formed
In other words, a community that is learning—imperfectly, but intentionally—to become “servant for all.”
The Ongoing Work
If I’m honest, this is not a comfortable shift. There’s something in me that still wants clarity, efficiency, and a sense of control. There’s a part of me that would prefer leadership to feel more straightforward, more measurable. But the way of Jesus rarely conforms to those expectations. And perhaps that’s the point.
Vestry service, at its best, is not just about leading a parish well. It’s about being drawn, together, into a different kind of life—a life where status is relativized, ambition is reoriented, and service becomes the defining mark of leadership. Not perfectly. Not all at once. But steadily, over time. And maybe that’s where the real work begins.