Will You Let Me Be Your Servant
Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you?
The theological heart of this hymn is the Christian doctrine of mutual, incarnational servanthood rooted in the kenotic self-giving of Christ (Philippians 2:5–11). The text does not merely exhort the congregation to serve others; it models the radical reciprocity of Christian community by asking both to give and to receive service graciously. In a Lutheran framework, this mutual servanthood flows directly from the theology of the cross: Christ's agony and love (named explicitly in stanza 5) are the source and pattern of all Christian service, and the community of believers participates in that dying and rising through the concrete acts of bearing one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2). The imagery of pilgrimage in stanza 2 — "pilgrims on a journey, travelers on the road" — resonates with the Lutheran understanding of the church as a pilgrim community living between baptism and the eschaton, not yet arrived at final glory but sustained by Word and Sacrament on the way. The Christological grounding is explicit and pervasive: the singer offers to be "as Christ" to the neighbor, a phrase that echoes Luther's "The Freedom of a Christian" (1520), where Luther argues that the Christian, made free by faith, voluntarily becomes a servant of all and a "Christ" to the neighbor. This direct theological resonance makes the hymn remarkably Lutheran in its practical ethic despite its charismatic origins. In terms of the Law/Gospel distinction, the hymn holds both dimensions in creative tension. The call to servanthood carries an imperative weight — it is a genuine summons to costly discipleship. Yet the text does not frame this call as a condition of salvation or a means of earning divine favor; rather, it flows from and returns to grace, expressed in the community's shared experience of "Christ's love and agony" (stanza 5) and the eschatological horizon of stanza 5's vision of heavenly harmony. The tone throughout is invitational rather than coercive, evangelical rather than moralistic, making it function primarily as a Gospel text that evokes responsive service.
History & Background
"Will You Let Me Be Your Servant" was written in 1977 by Richard Gillard, a New Zealand singer-songwriter and member of the charismatic renewal movement. The text emerged from Gillard's involvement in grassroots Christian community life in New Zealand, where mutual service and shared pilgrimage were central values. It was first published through Scripture in Song, a New Zealand-based praise and worship publisher, and quickly spread through charismatic and ecumenical renewal circles in the Southern Hemisphere before gaining international traction. The text entered North American and European hymnody primarily through its inclusion in denominational hymnals beginning in the 1980s and 1990s. Its inclusion in the Lutheran Book of Worship supplement, later in With One Voice (1995), and then in the Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006) gave it significant footing in mainline Protestant worship. Meanwhile, GIA Publications included it in the Gather series, introducing it widely to Catholic communities. Its straightforward, conversational language and its focus on mutual, incarnational service resonated strongly in post-Vatican II Catholic and ecumenical renewal settings, making it one of the more successfully cross-traditional contemporary hymn texts of the late twentieth century. The hymn is distinctive in its structural symmetry: the opening and closing stanzas are identical, framing the middle stanzas as a meditation on what mutual servanthood looks like in practice. This literary device reinforces the text's theological point — that the offer and reception of service must be held together. The tune SERVANT SONG, also by Gillard, is a gentle, folk-influenced melody in compound meter that has become inseparable from the text in most hymnals.
Hymnal Appearances
- Evangelical Lutheran Worship — 659
- Gather 3rd Edition — 670
- Gather 4th Edition — 753
- Glory to God — 727
- United Methodist Hymnal — 586
- Voices Together — gem
- Worship IV — 593
- With One Voice — 539
Bulletin Note
Text and tune by Richard Gillard (b. 1953), New Zealand, 1977. © 1977 Scripture In Song (admin. Capitol CMG Publishing). Used by permission.
Preaching Connection
Gillard's hymn gives voice to Luther's insight in "The Freedom of a Christian" that the believer, freed by grace, voluntarily becomes a servant to all — not to earn love, but because love has already been freely given. A sermon on foot-washing (John 13), the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12), or the kenotic hymn of Philippians 2 will find in this text a ready congregational echo.
Catechism & Confessional Connections
- The Definition & Command of Baptism Small Catechism — Holy Baptism
Themes
mutual servanthood incarnational ministry Christian community pilgrimage bearing one another's burdens discipleship cross-bearing eschatological hope vulnerability baptismal vocation