Leadership is Followership

I attended a “leadership seminar” recently where I heard one of the presenters state, “followership is an important ingredient in leadership.”  I guess I knew that because I always felt that to be a good leader you also needed to be a good follower. 

Leonard Sweet’s book I AM A FOLLOWER challenges some of the common views on discipleship. He points to our love affair with “leadership” as opposed to the biblical focus on “followership.”  Sweet writes, “The cry for leadership is deafening amid our social disintegration, our moral disorientation. We have come to believe that we have a leadership crisis while all along we have been in a drought of discipleship. The Jesus paradox is that only Christians lead by following. (Page 21)”

Remembering the words of Jesus in Matthew 28, “…Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,” suggests that to make disciples we must first be disciples (or followers).  Jesus earlier stated in Matthew’s Gospel, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

According to dictionary.com, followership is defined as “the act or instance of accepting the guidance and command of someone who leads or guides.”  For our consideration here, our followership is definitely accepting the guidance and commands of Christ.  Of course, we also know that there is a biblical precedent for following with a person who follows Christ.  The Apostle Paul states in I Corinthians 11 “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”

This is where I hear the voice of Dr. Jerry Porter playing in my head, “Who is discipling you? And who are you discipling?”  This same mantra is basically echoed by Leonard Sweet in his book when he writes, “I wonder how many Christians can name others who have personally mentored them in their Christian life? Discipled them? Shared their witness and story with them? Fostered a relationship with them in the name and nature of Christ? We adamantly claim we are disciples. But the ‘follow Jesus with me’ invitation, as well as the investment that such an invitation entails, has almost wholly been jettisoned for the ‘hear me preach’ or ‘help me lead’ or ‘help me run my ministry’ invitation. (Page 196)”

The bottom line for me is simply, “Being a disciple is learning to be a good follower.”  The concept of followership has a very important part to play in the kingdom of God, based on Christ’s insistent call to “follow me.” However, this is often forgotten in our modern culture’s emphasis on leadership.  If I could use Leonard Sweet’s comments again, “To emphasize followership is not to eliminate the notion that we need leaders…Leadership within a followership culture is a totally different animal than leadership within a leadership culture. It comes from the kingdom of God, with one and only one Lord. (Page 39)”

What I really need to work on in my life is how to be a great follower, to learn what it means to become a servant in spirit and in deed: to serve the unjust as well as the marginalized; to work diligently no matter how insignificant the task; to refuse to speak ill of others; to be Christ to those around me.

So the question stuck in my head is, “What does it mean to be a great follower?”

Just musing…

A Series of Surrenders

 

Earl and Hazel Lee wrote in their book Committed to Grace, regarding the experience of meeting and sharing in the spiritual journey of the now Rev. Janine Tartaglia-Metcalf (Janine was formerly a news correspondent with NBC).  “Janine faced some mountain-sized decisions,” they wrote.  “It was a series of surrenders.”  Then they quoted these words from William James.  “The whole development of Christianity or its inwardness consists in little more than greater and greater emphasis on the crisis of surrender.”

I highlighted these words in my copy of their book, because I was teaching a course on the Doctrine of Holiness and it fit some of the material I wanted to cover.  But, I also highlighted these words, because I think they are true!  The continuing work of Jesus Christ in our lives is “a series of surrenders.”  Call this work of Christ any name you want, but the bottom line for growth in Him is surrender and submission.  These are not popular words for us today, but they are relevant.

It seems to me that the special time of remembrance, which we call “Thanksgiving” in the United States, includes and highlights this attitude of surrender.  Would it be appropriate to suggest that for us to properly give thanks to God requires an aspect of self-surrender?  To give thanks humbly, we surrender our desire to be self-sufficient. To give thanks honorably we surrender pride in order to recognize the Giver of all good and perfect gifts.  To give thanks honestly we yield the right of way to the One who deserves all praise.

In a Thanksgiving sermon, Pastor Joel Gregory told about the Masai tribe in West Africa, which has an unusual way of saying, “I thank you.”  They say literally, “My head is in the dirt.”  When the Masai express thanks, they literally put their forehead on the ground.  They want to acknowledge gratitude with humility.  It is interesting that another tribe in Africa expresses gratitude by saying, “I sit on the ground before you.”  When one of them wants to express gratitude to another, they sit in front of the hut of the person to whom they wish to express gratitude and just sit there in humility for an extended length of time.

Would you call that an act of surrender?  It certainly takes time and humility of spirit to say thanks in those African traditions.  Maybe the writer had this in mind in 2 Kings 17:36, when he wrote, “But the LORD, who brought you up out of Egypt with mighty power and outstretched arm, is the one you must worship. To him you shall bow down and to him offer sacrifices.”  Or perhaps the attitude of the Psalmist fits this spirit of surrender when he suggested in Psalm 138:2, “I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.”

Thanksgiving then, is not simply a “nice” meal of God-given bounty, but a humbling recognition of and surrender to God’s grace and Sovereignty.  But, that is what our relationship to God is all about isn’t it?  It is “a series of surrenders.”

Leadership Questions

Richard L. Hamm suggests in his book, Recreating the Church: Leadership for the Postmodern Age, that church organizations in general "tend to serve the needs of the previous cultural context."

I find this thought by Hamm to be convicting.  Instead of the church leading the mission of Christ in a changing and challenging culture, we find ourselves focused on the past, or "what was."  It feels like today's church is working hard getting people to "like" or to be "conformed" to the way it used to be instead of discovering new expressions of Christ's body (which is the church), and relevant avenues of worship and ministry.  Don't get me wrong, I liked the way church "used to be."  But I am finding many who are looking for church to be different for them than the experiences and forms to which I personally grew accustomed.

Is it possible that God has commissioned us to discover new ways to connect worship, ministry, and service to a cultural context that has changed, to a people who think differently or value experiences differently?  This does not mean minimizing worship and service, and certainly not commitment, but it may mean that church may have to change forms or practices.  It does not mean that we adjust the gospel to accommodate culture, but it may mean we adjust methods in order to accommodate cultural shifts in regard to time, schedules, and yes, even certain values.

The Dutch Theologian, Gerben Heitink writes in his book (Practical Theology: History, Theory, Action Domains), "The church...has the responsibility to search for a credible way of 'being church,' for new forms of Christian community, that calls for a counterculture against an extreme individualism and an anonymous bureaucratic collectivity."  One of the challenges of Heitink's comment is "will the church or the leadership of the church take this responsibility seriously?"  Or, will we (the leadership of the church) continue to pretend that we need not spend our time, energy, or resources on paradigm shifts that continue to challenge our comfort levels?  Maybe the real question is "will we lead or not?"

Leadership Cohort Case Study

For several months, the council of First Church had been discussing how it might make the morning worship service more friendly and hospitable to visitors. After lengthy discussion, they finally voted to introduce an informal time of greeting prior to the official beginning of worship. This was announced the next Sunday and began the following week. People were asked to take opportunity to greet someone they didn't know or hadn't seen in some time and to have a few moments of conversation.

Two weeks into this new approach, the folks who came early and who normally sat in the back of the auditorium began to circulate a petition seeking to end this "disruption of the service," as they saw it. By the third week, representatives of this group visited the pastor at his home, presented the petition, and insisted that the council change the decision that had been made. Interestingly, this group had even gotten a visitor to sign their petition.

The council met in an emergency session later that week and decided to withdraw the decision they had made five weeks earlier. At their next monthly meeting, council members engaged in some reflection on this experience. Two insights emerged. First, someone noted that they appeared to have given away their power as a council in capitulating to a vocal minority in the congregation. Second, another person observed that they had likely also given away the issue of introducing any further changes in worship, and that it would be a long time before they would have the freedom to try to introduce any other innovations.

(This Case Study comes from Chapter 7 (Spirit-Led Growth and Development) in Craig Van Gelder's book, The Ministry of the Missional Church)

Questions for reflection:

1. If you were the pastor, how would you have handled this situation differently? Or would you?

2. If you were one of the council members, how would you have handled this situation differently? Or would you?

3. What does this case study say to you about addressing change in the church?

4. As a leader, what do we learn about your role in addressing change in the church?

Ken M