I'M FOLLOWING JESUS!

What were the first words that Peter heard from Jesus?

            “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:19)

What were the last words that Peter heard from Jesus before He ascended to heaven?

            “Follow Me!” (John 21:22)

What were the first words that the other disciples heard from Jesus?

            Matthew 9:9; Mark 2:14; John 1:43 are good examples. All of them were variations of “Follow Me.”

Why are these words important to us? 

Over the last 25-30 years the Western church has shifted away from teaching people to be “followers” of Christ to placing an emphasis on being “leaders” for Christ. I have to confess that I have done my share of leadership teaching in conferences, churches and in consulting roles — and I still do. In this same time period, a whole new industry has appeared in Christianity revolving around those who write best-selling books and conduct big conferences about leadership. There are now thousands of books about how to be a better leader for Christ. Some of the biggest conferences in the church world are about how to be an outstanding leader and are usually hosted by someone whose church has zoomed from nothing to thousands in the blink of an eye.

Is teaching about leadership wrong? No, of course not! Not as long as it is kept in proper perspective. Our priority must always be to teach people, first, to be followers of Jesus. Everyone is called to be a follower — everyone! But very few are actually called by Him to be leaders.

So how did we get to this place where leadership is being pushed as being more important than followership? 

Prior to the mid-’80s, leadership/management in the church was looked upon as valuable but secondary to being a strong and stable follower of Jesus. Pastors and leaders of Christian ministries were largely selected on the basis of their walk with Christ. This thinking began to change when the very popular and sometimes controversial founder of the seeker-sensitive movement began to encourage pastors to study their Bibles, books on theology, and books on secular management with equal intensity. Some of this pastor’s leadership conferences were shocking to the church world because he featured key speakers from the world of secular management and asked them to speak on secular management techniques for the church to use.

I believe this emphasis might have been fine for mature men of God but the emphasis got into the wrong hands. It found its resting place in the hearts and minds of young pastors just beginning their public ministry and most of them had very little experience and were hungry, even desperate, for success. These young leaders did not keep things in perspective. Their immaturity and underdeveloped character pushed through and they adopted, as gospel, the idea that secular techniques were key for the church. And suddenly the contemporary church movement was based more on secular leadership and management than I think Bill Hybels ever dreamed of. Very quickly the emphasis became “how to be the biggest and the most successful.” Lost along the way was the priority and meaning of what it meant to be a follower of Jesus, and God’s purpose for the church became murky, as did the importance of prayer and the purpose of obedience to the Word. As for holiness, well, that word just flat out disappeared from the church vocabulary.

What does it mean to be a follower?

• It means that someone else is leading and I’m following.
• It means He knows the path He wants to take and the follower is not worried because He knows where He is going.
• It means that humility has been embraced. Pride does not like being a follower.
• Followers find that great meaning comes from the Word and great strength from prayer.
• Followers are learners! Jesus said, “[Follow Me], and I will make you to become fishers of men” (Mark 1:17).
• Followers both follow and are easily followed, and they do their best to make the path plain to others.
• Followers have no desire to buy too many horses from Egypt (see Isaiah 31:1-3).
• Followers live holy lives because they know that is what pleases Him.
• Followers hand the baton of their life to the One who is the composer and conductor of the symphony of life itself.
• Followers have heard the whisper of God saying, “This is the way, walk in it.”
• “To follow means to follow, not to lead. To point not to our superior moral character but to the dimly seen figure out there that we are stumbling after.” (Fredrick  Buechner)

(Several months ago in a used book store I stumbled across a book by one of my favorite authors, Leonard Sweet. It was an encounter arranged by the Holy Spirit. Dr. Sweet’s book, “I Am a Follower,” is one of the few books I’ve read recently that really challenged my thinking and largely was the inspiration for this brief article. Thank you, Dr. Sweet.)