The Heart of a
Servant Leader:
Letters from
Jack Miller
ed. Barbara Miller Juliani
Review by Marcus Honeysett for Themelios October 2010
The Heart of a Servant Leader is
a book that should be on the
shelf of every single pastor,
mission worker and theological
educator. It superbly combines
heartfelt and heart-warming
pastoral theology with a deep
passion for leadership, mentoring
and church planting.
The book is a collection of
posthumous pastoral letters from
Miller to pastors, mission workers
and others who approached him
for advice and counsel in his
various roles (founding pastor of
New Life Presbyterian Church
Philadelphia, lecturer in practical
theology at Westminster
Theological Seminary, Director of
World Harvest Mission).
The letters are organised around
4 themes: the motivation for
serving being the glory of God;
the basics of servant leadership
being faith, humility and prayer;
persevering in suffering; and
encouragement. Each is written
to a real person struggling with
real discipleship and ministry
issues. There is nothing
theoretical or abstract here. As
with all of Miller’s writing and
teaching, each one is shot
through with the glory of God,
wise teaching about grace,
conviction of sin, repentance,
forgiveness and faith. He is
honest about his own struggles
and never writes from a position
of superiority. The whole book
comes across as an appeal for
spiritual leaders to be servants.
This is one of the few
contemporary books that to
which I regularly return to have
my heart pierced with the love of
God in Christ. It is excellent for
helping Christian leaders face
our own sin patterns with sorrow
leading to repentance. Miller
contends that knowing God,
being savvy about the enemy we
face and knowing ourselves with
honesty is the heart of a healthy
spiritual walk:
My own heart likes this order
better: 1. Know your friend [the
grace of God in Christ and the
Holy Spirit]; 2. Know your enemy
[sin, the flesh and the devil; 3.
Know your personal limitations
[your own particular fleshly
characteristics and habits]. And I
would keep the controlling theme
of point 1 even when talking
about points 2 and 3.
At the same time I do not think
that an emphasis on grace leads
to a soft ministry on sin and the
severe demands of the Law.
Actually it seems to me that such
grace teaching makes it possible
for sinners like us to hear the
hardest things said about our sin
patterns, and that can lead into a
healthy sorrow which then leads
back to sanity, i.e. repentance
Anyone familiar with Miller’s
other work, such as the Sonship
Course, will find the same strong,
refreshing, emphasis on grace
teaching us to say no to
ungodliness.
Being a collection of letters, each
section is short, eminently
readable and highly personal.
Pastors will find here a model of
how to write pastoral letters that
are direct, kind and full of
practically worked-out truth.
In summary this is a book that
will help you lean on God and
teach you to help others do the
same. It is one of few easy-
reading modern books that will
warm your heart and inform your
pastoral practice equally whether
you have been in ministry for one
year or for twenty. Highly
recommended.