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Like so many other people in our town, whenever I met someone who had a good idea for a business -- profit or non-profit --
or for some new way of solving a problem in our community, my first suggestion was, "Talk to John Lewis."
When Kimberly Gross conceived an idea for a day center that could serve as a resource for homeless neighbors, helping
them climb the seven hills toward self-sufficiency, she took her vision to John. He advised her how to turn her vision into
a business plan and gave her encouragement to move forward. She founded the Seven Hills Homeless Center which has helped
thousands of our most vulnerable neighbors and will soon open our area's first facility dedicated to supportive transitional
housing for homeless families, individuals and disabled homeless persons. I'm serving as the current President of that Board,
and I know how John's wise guidance helped launch that good work.
When a team of our parishioners returned from a seminar excited about creating a school for training servant leaders,
the first person they approached about it was John Lewis. He listened to the principles of the program and read the material.
When I saw him next, he began to chuckle, his eyes dancing delightfully as he said in his singular gravelly voice, "You
know, I've been doing this servant leadership thing for years; I just didn't know it had a theology behind it." John
joined the core team to plan the curriculum and served on the faculty for both of the 10-session classes that launched the
Northwest Arkansas Servant Leadership School.
At the end of the series, John shared some of his story about how he has put servant leadership principles into practice
in the real world of banking and business. He put flesh-and-blood onto ideals and theories. In religion, we call that sacramental.
A sacrament is an outward and visible manifestation of an inward and spiritual grace. John was the sacrament of a servant-leader.
The servant leadership movement in the secular business community comes out of the work of late Robert K. Greenleaf and
his now classic book The Servant as Leader, published in 1970. According to Greenleaf, "The servant leader is servant
first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.
The best test is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more likely
themselves to become servants?"
Servant Leadership is leadership based on teamwork and community rather than autocratic and hierarchical power. It is
grounded in ethical and caring behavior. I can hear John's voice saying, "Just do the right thing. Everything will
work out."
When John helped start the Bank of Fayetteville, he was seeking to create a financial institution that would serve people
and the community first. It wasn't just about money. I've spoken to so many people who said John Lewis loaned them money
when no one else would. He did that based on relationships and trust, not just actuarial risk tables.
One of the leaders in the Servant Leadership movement, Margaret J. Wheatley offers this. "What gives power its charge,
positive or negative, is the quality of relationships. Those who relate through coercion, or from disregard for the other
person, create negative energy. Those who are open to others and who see others in their fullness create positive energy.
Love in organizations, then, is the most potent source of power we have available." John Lewis wanted a bank where employees
loved to come to work. I think he helped make that happen.
For many of us Jesus Christ is the enduring model of the leader as servant. He told his followers, "Whoever would
be great among you must be your servant..., and the leader like one who serves. ...I am among you as one who serves."
At his last meal with his friends, he offered them a example. He took the role of a slave and washed his disciples' feet.
Business leaders like Greenleaf, Wheatley, Stephen Covey, Peter Senge, Danah Zohar, Max DePree and many others are helping
to humanize and improve our approaches to leadership and management. More and more organizations are discovering that virtue
is profitable.
John Lewis was a shining example in our community. He showed us how the primary purpose of a business can be to create
a positive impact on its employees and community, and that a business run on those principles can be profitable and successful.
He connected countless people together to work on projects and dreams and visions that have made a positive impact on this
community.
Some called him "Mr. Fayetteville." I think that's a complement both to John and to this town. We can continue
to live as a community that has as its primary purpose to create positive impact on our citizens and workers. All we need
to do is to ask what we can do to help our neighbors become healthier, wiser, freer, and more likely themselves to become
servants. "Just do the right thing. Everything will work out."
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