Monkey fist in a tree crotch
The fine art of serving faithfully in the little things
I’ve always self-identified as an overachiever, but perhaps a more accurate term is over-dreamer. I don’t always achieve, but I certainly dream about achieving!
From a young age, I had big, big goals. In elementary school, I wanted to grow up to build giant robots, and at least one model would change my parents' diapers because I was convinced that around 50, every adult just couldn’t control their bowel movements anymore. In 5th grade, after writing a terrible five-paragraph essay, I first had the dream of writing a book—ideally, before age 18 to beat that Eragon guy. A few grades later, I founded a nonprofit organization as a teen with the express aim of revolutionizing the world and church as we know it.
Knowing some of these details about me, when I took an Enneagram personality test in a Counseling for Ministers course during my undergrad education, the professor was not surprised that I got a Type 3. This type, the Achiever, is described as “self-assured, attractive, and charming. Ambitious, competent, and energetic, they can also be status-conscious and highly driven for advancement.”
Oh yeah. Sounds like me.
For all this drive, I luckily had mentors who coached me to use that ambition for good. There were many, my parents included, who for some reason thought I hadn’t completely lost it when I wanted to challenge dominant worldviews, found my own Christian college, or bring faith to a profession not known for being Christian-friendly—whatever the idea of the week was.
My first youth minister was one such influence. Older, gray, and crazy in all the right ways, Greg allowed me many opportunities to develop my leadership in the youth group. I’d lead devotionals, help run different activities, manage area-wide youth activities on behalf of the church, and even once write and direct a one-act play parodying Survivor for a large regional youth gathering.
That large regional youth gathering, called FaithQuest, was a big deal in my part of the world in the church circles I ran in. Greg had co-founded it many years ago and his youth group, by tradition, helped organize and run it with the youth groups of the other directors. It would be a ton of work to pull off the Labor Day weekend event, but the spiritual fruits of FaithQuest were undeniably bountiful. It touched many lives directly, and surely, indirectly.
I don’t remember which year it was while we were setting up for FaithQuest before everyone arrived at the camp—probably my senior year—but Greg told me one of the most encouraging phrases I’ve ever heard:
“You need to know how to throw the monkey fist in the tree crotch.”
Classic Greg-ism.
A “monkey fist” is a type of knot used to create a ball-like bulge at the end of a rope. It, roughly I guess, looks like a fist. I don’t know—I don’t name these things. And what Greg referred to as a “tree crotch” really just meant the valley between where a tree trunk and a tree branch diverged.
FaithQuest involved a lot of large tents that would be tied to trees to create shade and weather protection. The “monkey fist” would be used to weigh the rope on one side, sometimes with added items to make it heavier, so it could be flung through a “tree crotch.” On the other side, someone could pull the rope up so the tent material would rest against the tree and the rope could be tied around the lower trunk to secure it.
Throwing a monkey fist in a tree crotch was just a fancy way to put up a large tarp to cover an area.
Greg had me try out this method myself a couple of times—it is harder than you think to aim the rope in the right crotch! I mean, Oregon trees are very tall!
However, the reason this conversation sticks with me some 8 or 9 years later is not just because the phrase he spoke sounded utterly nonsensical and borderline crude, but because of why he wanted me to learn this weird activity.
You see, Greg followed up his weird statement by telling me that one day I would direct FaithQuest. And this was day one of my training.
I needed to know how to throw the monkey fist into the tree crotch.
Now, it would be super cool to continue the story and show how this came to fruition. Sadly, the FaithQuest tradition ended just a few years later. Recently, another retreat called MannaFest filled the void left by this important event. I don’t live in Oregon and I can only cheer from afar. But the point of the story isn’t that Greg predicted my future.
It’s what he taught me about leadership and ambition that I am still learning today.
Because if Greg really wanted me to direct FaithQuest one day, you might expect a different kind of apprenticeship. You might imagine a discussion of logistics or planning. Perhaps tips on what to study in college. Maybe marketing advice. How to come up with a good theme. Get good speakers. What to say in the opening night speech. There are so many important elements to pulling the whole thing off!
Yet, his first lesson didn’t have to do with anything in the big-picture department, nothing to do with elements that directly shaped the more noticeable parts of the event.
What Greg taught me instead was the importance of service in the little things.
Of course, Greg was getting the concept right from Jesus who taught and modeled that same kind of thing. Verses such as Mark 10:45 are quite explicit: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” More than that, we have the example in John 13 of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, literally taking the role of a servant. He didn’t have to, but did.
Jesus also teaches, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much” (Luke 16:10). Coming after the so-called Parable of the Shrewd Manager, it pulls a move similar to last week’s parable in Luke 18 with its qal va-homer, a comparison of small to big. If something is true in a small sense, in this case, the wise use of material wealth, then how much more important is the big sense, when true spiritual riches are at stake?
After finishing A Church Called Tov by
, I became pretty disillusioned with the way we’ve come to do church in America. I mean, putting men on a pedestal and giving them power and authority without accountability but throwing Jesus into the mix somehow is a recipe for toxic culture! Too often Christian leaders use their position for evil—and even one time is too often. It’s a bad look but ultimately the exact kind of thing that would make Jesus come up in here turning some tables over.McKnight offers many helpful ways to counteract toxic cultures and cultivate a culture of good, but I wonder if part of the issue is that church leaders don’t learn to put the monkey fist in the tree crotch, metaphorically speaking. Or they don’t learn to appreciate it. Or they forget. Because for those of us like me who are textbook cases of unbridled ambition, I really really need the reminder to above all be a servant.
Especially for those who serve as leaders, influencers, managers, or anyone with power, we need to actively “be on the ground” serving despite our positions.
The leadership, the achievement, the flashy lights, and the crowd that chants my name—none of that matters if I have failed to establish a character centered on serving. Hoisting a tent up into a tree is thus a kind of reflection on my character! As I’ve explained before on this platform, especially in my 2023 New Year’s post, I think the central moral question is “Who Should I Be?” not “What Should I Do?”
It’s serving faithfully in the little things that show just what kind of person we are and are becoming.
What is perhaps our earliest Christian text, embedded in Philippians chapter 2, reveals Jesus took the form of a servant and was exalted for that posture. Paul says this is the same thing we should be doing! “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2:3-4). While Paul isn’t doing leadership coaching, he’s giving us the foundation for how any Christian—leader or not—must be.
As I have to keep reminding myself, if I’m seeking these achievements for my own trophy rack, we have a problem. But if I approach things through humility, always remembering not to forsake faithfulness in simple tasks, I think God can use me to accomplish some really meaningful work. That’s my prayer. That’s my mission.
Even when my mind drifts to future goals, I’m grounded my the realities of the small acts of service.
Before you can do any of those big things you dream about, you first have to know how to put a monkey fist through a tree crotch.
Question of the Week
Leave your answer in the comment section below or reply to this email.
What does “servant leadership” look like to you?
My “Goings On”
Working on Super Jake book 3!
Trying to finish a short story for a published collection into an actual story
Monkey fists unite,
Jake Doberenz
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