From Servants to Co-Creators: Leading as Partners with God

A while back I experienced some frustration with a co-worker. We had a problem that needed to be addressed. She brought to me some thoughts on how to fix the problem and then said, “Is that what you want?”

I felt frustrated and annoyed because I didn’t just want the problem addressed, I wanted my co-worker to co-labor with me in solving the problem. I wanted to know they knew the situation could be better and that their heart and mind were focused on finding a solution. Her goal in the conversation seemed less about solving the problem and finding a way forward - and more like placating me. No mature person really wants to be placated.

In reflecting upon my experience, I concluded that God sometimes feels the same about us. He wants our heart and minds into working on the problems in the world and coming up with creative solutions. Rather than just telling us what to do, he wants us to be involved in the process. 

God wants us to dream dreams for the future. At Pentecost, Peter quoted the prophet Joel who said your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams.

Too often we settle into a mindset with God that says, “Just tell me what to do, God, and I’ll do it.” If we limit ourselves to that kind of relationship with God, he will still love and take us, but it’s not the type of relationship God wants with us. The “just tell me what to do and I’ll do it” mentality reflects more the mind and heart of someone who only sees himself or herself as a servant.

We do start out simply as servants, but God wants to raise us to the level of friends and partners in building his kingdom. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God describes his desire for a new covenant with his people. He says, “Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, and I showed myself their Master, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 31:32)

God had to show himself their Master but that’s not what he wanted. In the new covenant with Jesus, we see the desire of God’s heart. Jesus tells the apostles at the Last Supper, “I no longer call you servants for a servant does not know what his master is doing. I now call you friends.” (John 15:15) God longs to call you a friend who partners with him and dreams with him.

Now let’s admit, some other realities about our relationship with God can get in the way of a partner mindset with God. For example, at times I think that being the beloved son of God gets in my way of partnering with God. As a son, I think God will just provide all the answers or resources I need. God is a provider, but to wait for resources to open up is thinking like a little child. God wants me to be a grown-up son.

As a father, I am happy to provide for my older kids and bless them with gifts, but I want them to have a job and make their own money. I want them to have their own dreams for the future and not depend on my will alone. I’m happy to help direct them but they have to own their future. The same holds true for our relationship with God.

Another aspect of the relationship with God is that he is our Savior. The older I get the more I realize that never goes away. Sin and character flaws are so deeply rooted in me that without Christ I am lost. But just because I continually need God to save me from my sin and fallen nature, that doesn’t mean I can’t also partner with God to dream dreams with me. While God will always be my Savior, he calls me to co-labor with him. God is big enough both to be my Savior and Partner building his kingdom.

In Psalm 21, David says, “Lord, the king finds joy in your power; in your victory how greatly he rejoices! You have granted him his heart’s desire; you did not refuse the request of his lips.” (verses 2 and 3). Praying over that psalm one day, I stopped and thanked God for the building of our new church. It had been a desire of mine for a long, long time. God granted me the desire of my heart and the many requests I had made. In further reflection, without that desire I don’t think the church would have been built. I say it with humility. In fact, it is incredibly humbling to know that the almighty Maker of heaven and earth often waits on us and co-creates with us to bring his grace into the world.

Bill Johnson in his book The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind quotes 1 Kings 8:17 which says, “Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel.” He then adds, “God said, ‘I didn’t choose a city, I chose a man, and the temple was in the heart of the man.’ It’s like He was saying, ‘The Temple wasn’t my idea. David was my idea.’ Incredible! David’s creativity and desires wrote history because God embraced them.”

In the same book he writes, “We are co-laborers, meaning that apart from Christ our work is not complete, and at the same time, amazingly, His work on earth is not complete without us. God looks to you and me as contributors to what He is doing, not just robots carrying out His ideas. He actually is interested in your desires and dreams and has opened up His plan on this planet to your influence.”

One of the hard lessons of growing into adulthood is learning that our words and actions matter. The more we grow into Christian maturity, the more we see that our words, our actions, our prayers and the dreams and desires of our heart matter. God takes them seriously. We are invited into endless possibilities as we get to co-create the future with the same God who spoke the universe into existence. It is a weight of glory that is both heavy to bear and also incredibly exhilarating and freeing.

God calls us to partnership and friendship with him. Let’s press on into that friendship and partnership and encourage the people we lead to do the same.

Heavenly Father,

Thank you that you invite us not just to be your servants, but into partnership with you. Give us the wisdom and desire to press into this deeper relationship with you. And may our leadership lead people not just to be servants, but partners with you.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Rooting for you,
Tom