Our individualistic, self-oriented culture is anxiously crying out for leadership.
Everyone wants to do what is right in his own eyes, but our innate insecurity wants the burden of responsibility to be lifted, and doesn't fancy living life totally without guidance and leadership.
Well, there are plenty who want the prestige of being seen as leaders, of course.
But as Douglas Adams' observed, those keenest to be in power are those probably least well-suited to it.
He probably wasn't all that far wrong!
And yet the way to get Christians to a conference is to make it sound as if it's going to be a conference on leadership.
We're missing something here, and it could be serious, so let's pose the question:
How would you prefer to be recognised:
as a leader or as a follower?
For many of us living in the West, the term follower carries associations of weakness of character ... like when a person is lacking in backbone and just 'follows along with the crowd'.
We think of being a follower as lacking creativity and ambition and drive.
But by contrast a leader calls up ideas of an absolute truck load of virtues ... they're efficient, creative, productive, charismatic ... people follow them because they're outstanding people.
Western-style businesses want to sign up leaders, not followers ... and so it seems do churches as they suck up the attitudes and ideals of the world all around them.
But as much as our culture pushes us to aspire to be leaders, the Bible says virtually nothing about being a leader and an awful lot about being a follower.
Being faithful means being a follower of Jesus
Of COURSE we're to be followers of Jesus.
His call throughout His ministry was to follow Him:
"As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen
‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’
At once they left their nets
and followed him.
When he had gone a little farther,
he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat,
preparing their nets.
Without delay he called them,
and they left their father Zebedee
in the boat
with the hired men
and followed him."
Mark 1:17-20
We don't like the cost of that but we can't openly argue with it and maintain any remote appearance of faith, because Jesus said:
" Whoever does not
take up their cross and
follow me
is not worthy of me."
Matthew 10:38
But there's more to this following theme in the Scriptures, because Jesus wasn't just building a fan club.
No.
Jesus was building a team.
Being faithful means being a follower of other believers
Believers are also to be followers of those who follow Jesus faithfully ... check it out in 1 Corinthians 11:1
where Paul writes: " Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ."
These people are what Dr. John Kotter refers to as the 'guiding team' - they are your second tier who lead the outsiders to the Leader, and guide existing believers in the Way.
But that doesn't exhaust the range of faithful following.
Being faithful means following God's un-faithful leaders as well!
Sometimes it can be hard to grasp the teaching of Romans 13 that the powers that be in the land are leaders that have been ordained by God.
But we learn in Romans that it's precisely because of that fact that God wants us to be followers of those whose own station in life demands our obedience ... even when they're not Christians.
And Paul wrote this to Christians living under the Emperor Nero and you can back up Romans 13:1-2 on that with 1 Peter 2 :13.
This is uniformly the teaching of Scripture.
It can of course be ever so hard to do this at times, but it's very PLAINLY what Scripture says!
The Point
The problem that we have and bring with us to church, you see, is that ...
- Leadership is a Western CULTURAL 'virtue', but
- Submission and following God and His 'Guiding Team' are very clear Biblical ones.
The Takeaway
God has got no place for followers who live life 'free-style'.
The manifesto of His Kingdom always starts with 'follow me', and leads on to following those who (by following) we come closer to God.
What lies at the heart of your aspirations?
Do you in your heart of hearts wish to be followed, or to be primarily a follower of the Lord ... and His people?
I've got a feeling we'll say some more about this sometime this week ...
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