Servant leadership in Mark 10:35 - 45 applied to African Pentecostal Christianity

Abstract

Leadership in Mark has been explored extensively by many biblical scholars worldwide. In the same length servant leadership in Mark has been studied by scholars like Robert Greanleaf, Gene Wilkes and others. It must be noted though that most of these studies on leadership emanated from a western scholarship and therefore applied to a Western context. Therefore there is a need for leadership in Mark to be applied to an African context.

To address this research gap this study applies servant leadership in Mark 10:35-45 to African Pentecostal Christianity in general and Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa in particular by using a reader-response criticism. The study also used Diachronic approach to investigate the historical background of Mark and found that Mark 10:35-45 is about leadership misconceptions and servant leadership principles. The same approach was used to investigate the historical background of Apostolic Faith Mission and found that there were leadership misconceptions that divided the church in its early years and servant leadership principles that united the church in recent years.

Furthermore the study used a synchronic approach to interpret the meaning of Mark 10:35-45 and found that the leadership misconceptions in Mark are kinship, self-interest, position, competition, and lordship. The study also found that servant leadership principles in mark are suffering and service. Similarly, the study found that leadership misconceptions in the Apostolic Faith Mission were racial segregation and white supremacy and the Servant leadership principles are unity and reconciliation.

When leadership misconceptions and servant leadership principles in Mark 10:35-45 are compared to African Pentecostal Christianity it is found firstly that the leadership misconceptions in Mark 10:35-45 like kinship and lordship are similar to the leadership misconceptions in African Pentecostal Christianity like racial segregation and white supremacy respectively. Secondly, it is found that servant leadership principles in Mark 10:35-45 like service and suffering are the same as unity and reconciliation in African Pentecostal Christianity respectively. It is therefore concluded that servant leadership in Mark 10:35-45 is applicable to African Pentecostal Christianity.