The first words Jesus’ disciples heard?
“Follow me.” (Mt 9:9)
The first words Jesus spoke to Peter?
“Follow me.” (Mt 4:19)
The last words Jesus spoke to Peter?
“Follow me.” (Jn 21:22)[i]
Leonard Sweet’s new book, I am a Follower, is a provocative and challenging expose of the leadership culture that has changed the heading of the church in the later part of the 20th century and now in the 21st century. Sweet calls this:
“…the great tragedy of the church in the last fifty years: We have changed Paul’s words, “Follow me as I follow Christ,” to “Follow me as I lead for Christ.” Over and over we hear, “What the church needs is more and better leaders,” or “Training leaders is job one.”
Really?
Jesus said, “Go and make disciples.” We stopped and built worship warehouses.
Jesus said, “Follow me.” We heard, “Be a leader.”
Paul said, “Do the work of an evangelist.” We’ve done the work of a marketer (pp. 20-21).
I wish I could be a fly on the wall of your mind right now! I wish I could get a glimpse of what you are thinking. Perhaps you are like me and thinking to yourself, “Duh! We know this.” Indeed we know this but there is a huge chasm that separates knowing from believing and believing from doing. Christian leaders have grown up hearing the message that Christian leadership is different from worldly leadership. We know that we must be willing to be last in order to be first and that we serve in order to lead. But do we believe it? Sweet would argue that our behavior belies our beliefs. We may say yes we believe that we must be last and that we must serve but when push comes to shove what do we read or where do we turn in order to improve our churches? Can we be honest enough to admit that the first place we turn is to books on leadership? Sweet says, “Somewhere back in the past half century, we diagnosed the church’s problem as a crisis in leading, not a crisis of following. It’s as if we read Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship and decided we’d rather talk about something else entirely” (p. 21).
I urge you to consider how the big the chasm is between what you know and what you believe about leadership and followership. I was sitting in a class a few weeks ago and we were exploring websites of various churches. I was surfing the website of a large Kentucky church (no, not Southeast Christian) and was taken aback by the title of the guy who does the preaching. His title on the staff webpage was “lead follower.” Why? Initially I thought how cool. Here is a guy that gets it. He understands that his role is follower. Before reading Sweet’s book I had started thinking about leadership and followership. I was encouraged. But that was before I was challenged by Sweet’s analysis of the crisis facing the church. I am thinking (but can’t be sure) that Sweet would see a disconnection in the title Lead Follower. I think that he would prefer the term he uses in the book, first follower.
I want to encourage you to read this book. I have to admit that I have only completed the first 57 pages. I was not very far into the book before I saw the chasm between what I know and what I believe and what I do. I am a student of leadership, I am trying to build a leadership institute to help others explore how to be better leaders, I will shortly complete by Doctor of Ministry Degree in Leadership and I am doing all this while knowing that Christians are supposed to be Christ followers. When I have finished the book I will share if I am able to span the chasm that Sweet has exposed in me. But, I need to be honest; I don’t want to do this alone. I want you to explore what you know, what you believe, and what you do in regard to leadership and followership. How?
· Start by exploring which seems most important to you, being known as a follower or as a leader?
o Ask yourself why one seems more important?
o Do your reasons sound authentic to you?
o What does the evidence of your life show? When you scan the books on your shelf, your Kindle, or iPad which topic is better represented; leadership or discipleship?
· Next, wrestle with this from page 14 of Sweet’s book: why must we insist it be called leadership anyway? Can we not be satisfied with the portion the Lord gives us? Is it not enough to be followers of Christ?
· Finally, dialogue with me. Please share your thoughts and reactions to the book. When we have to wrestle with new paradigms it is easier when people do it together. Come dance with me (if you want an insight into what I mean that follow this link and then come and dance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ).
