When I here the word “model” I often go to images of overly thin young girls walking down a runway wearing clothes that no one I know will ever wear. In fact, I don’t ever recall seeing anything from a Milan or New York “Fashion Week” being worn by the general public.

My mind also thinks about the model planes and cars I would try and put together as a little boy. I never quite finished those models as a child, I would become too impatient and give up. On the few times I did complete one of those little “gems” I would look around to see too many “extra” pieces laying in the box. I still struggle with this today when putting things together for my family.

I forget that I model attitudes and behaviors each day to my family, friends, the staff I serve and the church members I lead. Modeling is always happening. People are always watching what we do, they may not be examining our lives and actions intentionally but they are watching. How we live as husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, parents and friends makes a huge impact on those we are in  contact with each day.

Let me illustrate this for you. Tim, the Dir. of Global Initiatives for our church, just returned from South Asia. He had lead a training trip to visit some of the partners we have in that area of the world. During one of the visits to a local house church the group was welcomed and invited to sit and talk. As they were sitting the host asked the group to remove their shoes while in the local house, this is a common practice in the eastern world because of sanitation. The local host also asked the group to remove their socks, now this is not a custom of the people. Feet are dirty and a very private part of the body in this culture and the group began to wonder why they were asked to remove their socks.

In a few moments a group of men returned with basins of water and began to wash the feet of the guest. This stunned Tim and the local partner, this is a very unusual act for the locals. Where had they seen this or learned of this practice? Washing someone else’s feet is unheard of in this culture.

A few months prior to Tim’s visit, another team from our church had been with this same local mission partner for a training event with 25-30 church planters. We were teaching leadership principles and stories from the Bible and one of the stories we taught about was Jesus’ last night with Hs disciples when He washed thier feet and modeled servant-hood to them. Afterwards He commanded them to serve one another as He had served them. Our team taught the lesson about servant-hood and then modeled this story and the practice to the group of pastors, it  was a very emotional illustration of scripture. The time together was also a great worship opportunity and also a time of bonding between cultures. To our knowledge and that of the local partner, this was the first time this group of pastors had been taught this particular Bible passage and had experienced a picture of servant-hood.

After the expereince that Tim and the local church planter had on this trip they began to ask about why they had washed the feet of this visiting team? The local house church leaders told of learning this from the training that was modeled for them a few months earlier and they began to use it as a way of demonstrating worship and servanthood to their local congregation. WOW!

Talk about the power of modeling. The training team never expected that little lesson to be anything other than a training on servant-hood, and now it was being utilized as a way to worship and train others in servant-hood. The power of modeling is strong. Remember that you are modeling behaviors and actions that will influence others and could be possibly be traced back to you.