Service and Hospitality: Gregory the Great on the Servant-Leader

Gregory the Great (d. 604) titled himself "Servant of the Servants of God" -- a title still used by popes today. In his "Pastoral Rule," he wrote: "The ruler should be the neighbor of everyone in compassion, and exalted above all in contemplation, so that through the bowels of loving-kindness he may transfer the infirmities of others to himself." Leadership and service, Gregory taught, are inseparable.

Gregory practiced what he taught, personally overseeing the distribution of grain to the poor of Rome, managing papal estates to fund charitable work, and responding personally to individual petitions. He saw administration not as a distraction from spiritual life but as its highest expression.

Practical application: If you hold any position of leadership -- at work, in church, in your family -- identify one way to serve those you lead this week. Not directing or managing, but actually serving: doing a task that is "beneath" your position, listening to a concern without trying to fix it, or championing someone else's idea. Gregory teaches that authority exercised without service is tyranny.