The Dorcas Principle: A Lesson in Spiritual Leadership

Preached at First Baptist Churchy, Cornelia

On September 1, 2013

Scripture:  Acts 9:36-43

³⁶ In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. ³⁷ About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. ³⁸ Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

³⁹ Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

⁴⁰ Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. ⁴¹ He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. ⁴² This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. ⁴³ Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

Introduction:  (Original Article Here)

Four summers ago, on her first day as an administrator at Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon, Charlene Williams heard that the Christians were coming. Some members of an evangelical church were supposed to be painting hallways, repairing bleachers, and other projects.  The prospect of such help, in the fervently liberal and secular microclimate of Portland, did not exactly fill her with joy.

 “I was perplexed,” Ms. Williams told the New York Times earlier this month.  “What was their agenda? Were they trying to proselytize? Were they some kind of far-out group that takes advantage of people? Were they hard-core people trying to show the love of Jesus and nothing else?”

On a Saturday morning last month, when the latest wave of Christian volunteers descended upon Roosevelt, a public school serving a mostly low-income, nonwhite student body, Ms. Williams, now the principal, greeted many with hugs. They had come by the hundreds for an annual Day of Service from SouthLake Church located in a prosperous suburb.  Around the school volunteers were weeding, planting, varnishing, washing, even nailing together picnic tables.

This day of service has grown into a year round partnership.  Throughout the school year, members of SouthLake Church serve as tutors at Roosevelt. A former N.F.L. quarterback in the congregation, Neil Lomax, helps coach the football team. SouthLake pays for another member, Heather Huggitt, 26, to work full time at Roosevelt helping to meet the material needs of students who often lack sufficient food, clothing and school supplies.

            The church has demonstrated the purest sense of charity – love.  It has not proletyzed or proclaimed Jesus verbally.  It fact, it has gone out of the way not too.  After church volunteers wrote personal welcome notes to every incoming ninth grader, SouthLake’s pastor, the Rev. Kip Jacob, read through them all, making sure nobody had signed off with “Praise the Lord” or “God bless.”  In all the years the program has operated, Ms. Williams says, she has not heard a single complaint that the evangelicals were evangelizing.

            Yet, the love and grace of the Gospel have been proclaimed very loudly, hasn’t it?  You can hear it in the Time’s last quote from Mrs. Williams, “There’s no way a school can provide everything a child needs,” Ms. Williams said. “So, to know you have a partner, and to have the kids know. ... " Her voice then simply trails off.

Movement 1

God changes the world through individuals who serve him faithfully in their community.  Luke introduces us to a woman in the seaside village of Joppa in the last past of chapter 9 with the Hebrew name of Tabitha.  In Greek her name is Dorcas – meaning Gazelle.  Dorcas loved Jesus and loved people.  V. 36 says, “She was always doing good and helping the poor.”  Everyone in the village knows her because of her service to others.  Her charity impacts everyone.  When Dorcas dies suddenly her small church summons Peter, the Apostle, from the nearby town of Lydda.  When Peter arrives, he finds the house full of people who have been touched by Dorcas.  Luke says, “All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.”  Dorcas served the least in her community and they mirrored her love back to her. 

I don’t ever remember meeting Mrs. Elmira Black.  She is one of those ubiquitous people in my life.  In the years before my memory she raised her family in Swainsboro, Georgia.  Our families connected when my dad served as the Associate pastor of her church, First Baptist.  My first memories of her life where the stories my parents shared of the impact she made on them and her community.  The progressive stands she took in a small Southern town on race relations.  The way she hosted a social dinner and made sure guests were seated in just the right seat to create just the right amount of amount of dialogue.  The ways she loved and cared for the least in her community.  I finally remember meeting her when I was a senior in high school.  She invited me to drive up from Savannah to Swainsboro to speak at her church about a recent summer spent in ministry.  She served, loved and made space in her life to accept me.

Last January I saw Ms. Elmira again in the assisted living home in which she now lives in Gainesville.  Billy, her pharmacist husband, has past.  Her mind and her memory are gone.  Yet, when my mom I visited her she welcomed us with the broadest of smiles – full of loved.  Her faith and her capacity to serve and love others stand as strong as ever. 

            God changes the world a little at a time through the servant lives of women like Dorcas and Elmira. 

Movement 2

God can use us to change the world by applying the Dorcas Principle to our lives.  When God raises Dorcas from the dead, her impact on the community grows exponentially.  Luke writes, “This [resurrection experience] became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.”  Dorcas faithful service led her whole community to refuse to release her.  They believed God had more for her to do.  From that day on – her entire life becomes a testimony of what faithful service to God through others can do.  Her life also stands as a model for leaders today. 

We can condense this lesson down to one statement:  The Dorcas principle.  The Dorcas principle of leadership states:  Spiritual leaders make the greatest impact when they serve others.  Leaders in our families, communities and churches will have the greatest impact on lives, business, government, systems, and churches when we choose to serve other people. 

When I think of the Dorcas principle, several people come to my mind.  I remember Mrs. Sellers at my home church in Port Wentworth, Georgia.  Mrs. Sellers taught first grade Sunday School for decades investing her life into boys and girls just like me.  Here’s what I remember most about her service to us.  Every Saturday night Mrs. Sellers called me, the Preacher’s Kid, at my home to remind me to come to church.  She knew I didn’t have a choice – and she treated like every other child. 

I also remember my friend Kenneth at my first church, the Dollywood Chapel.  Kenneth was an old bachelor who never ventured far outside his home by the creek in Jones Cove, TN.  After he caring for his mother and father til they died, he went to work at Dollywood as a Greeter outside Aunt  Grannies all you can eat Buffet.  Every Sunday he served as the greeter and usher outside the Robert F. Thomas chapel.  Every week Kenneth showed up faithfully caring for the guests and hosts who came to worship.  He served everyone he met.

The world is a different place because disciples of Jesus like Mrs. Sellers and Kenneth lived to serve others.  Our worlds can be different if we choose to lead by the Dorcas Principle too. 

Movement 3

The business world applies the Dorcas Principle and calls it Servant Leadership.  Coined in 1970 by Robert Greenleaf in his book, The Servant as Leader, servant leadership can be defined as, “a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world.”  Greenleaf says this about this kind of leadership:  “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions.” 

“The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?“ 

Harry Truman exhibited the Dorcas Principle as one of the most unpretentious presidents in US history. Presidents before Truman used a buzzer in the Oval office to summon their staff.  Truman refused.  He insisted on going to the door to ask for them politely in person.  During a special state dinner with Winston Churchhill and Joseph Stalin, Sargent Eugene List, an American soldier was set to play for the dinner on the Grand Piano.  He asked for someone to come turn the pages of music.  Truman volunteered, standing by his side and turning the pages for him.  Recalling his leadership style Truman said, “I tried never to forget who I was and where I’d come from asn where I would go back to.”  The results were obvious.  One biographer said, “The loyalty of those around Truman was total and would never falter.” 

The Dorcas Principle changes the culture and environment of a business when leaders choose to serve others first. 

Movement 4

Christ-like servant leaders serve God by serving others.  The Dorcas principle finds it true center when we realize that serving others is actually serving God.  In ancient Joppa, Dorcas cared for the least of those in her community – the widows.  She served more than these widows, though, didn’t she?  She said in Matthew 25:  “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’  “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.  Leading through Service to others is actually serving God, our King.

Jesus demonstrated this leadership principle on the night before he died.  He has the disciple’s attention as they share the Passover together.  When the meal is over, Jesus takes pulls off his outer garment, ties a towel around his waist, fills a wash bowl and proceeds to wash his disciples feet.  Jesus didn’t wash his disciples feet every night – he was not their servant, he was their Lord.  By washing his feet on this night, he was teaching them a lesson about the Kingdom of God.  He says to his disciples, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” 

Jesus invites us serve God with Dorcas Principle in our lives and spheres of influence:  Spiritual leaders make the greatest impact when they serve others

Movement 5

When we lead with the Dorcas Principle at First Baptist Cornelia our families, our businesses, our church, our community and our world will be transformed forever. 

At several points through our journey together, I have challenged our church to imagine what would happen if our church no longer existed.  Would the community notice our absence?  When we choose to lead with the Dorcas principle as a church and as individuals in the community, the world will notice.  Like Dorcas, our absence would create a vast vacuum.  When Dorcas died the widows she served so faithfully with acts of love and generosity grieved her lost.  When lived by our vision to love the world as God has loved us – the world will be experience the same love as these widows.  Our service of love, care, compassion put into action will be a testimony to the Jesus whom we ultimately serve. 

I think back on the many children our church served faithfully this summer.  The little boy from Banks County who loved our MEGA sports camp this summer.  After I presented the Gospel on Wednesday through a baseball diamond, he went home and wrote he step of becoming a Christian on his VBS shirt.  He loved MEGA our mascot and felt the love of God through the many different hands who served during VBS.

I think about the girl I saw at Funfest last week with her quilted purse she made at MOSAIC.  Her parents told me how much it meant to them to have one of our Faith
Quilters to invest one on one with their daughter to teach her to sew with the sewing machine. 

By leading with the Dorcas Principle we live out our vision as a church and invest our lives in God’s Kingdom. 

Closing

            The Dorcas Principle states simply:  Spiritual leaders make the greatest impact when they serve others.  In many ways we can already see this principle lived out in our congregation.  Yet, we have farther to go.  Being a servant leader does not come naturally to us.  For some of us – we have a hard time with service part.  Getting to the bottom line comes quicker and we forget the people involved.  For others of us, though, we have service down, but we miss the leadership.  We need both from all of us – especially our called out leaders.

            Where and how can you apply the Dorcas Principle in your life, school, business, and world this week?  What is one way you could take off your cloak, tie a towel around your waste, and serve those around you?  Try it and see how God uses you for the kingdom. 

            The life of Dorcas tells us our worlds will expand when we do.  Amen.