Followership

I've discussed the obsession with leadership in other posts, but today I want to delve into another subject: followership. Followership is defined as the state or position of being a follower. To put this into practical understanding, the true measure of a leader is in his/her ability to encourage true followership. This begs the next question: who or what are you following? When it all shakes out, GOD won't judge you on who you know or how well you parroted what they've said, you will be judged on who you are and how well you followed what He says.


Now, because I know where many reader's minds will automatically go, followership is not blind obedience to your leader. In fact, followership—in the context of our discussion—goes right past our human leaders to the Source of all Authority: GOD. Because far too many individuals have only cursory interaction and understanding of the Text it becomes all too easy to simply obey everything their selected leader says without ever filtering the instruction through the Word of GOD. The narcissistic leader then misuses the Text, obedience is better than sacrifice [1 Samuel 15:22], thus creating followers of himself rather than followers of GOD. The only obedience that is better than sacrifice is obedience to GOD and His Word. In the context of 1 Samuel 15, Saul was not being reprimanded for disobeying GOD's prophet, he had disobeyed GOD's commandment concerning pre-war sacrifices. Sure Samuel was the mouthpiece of GOD, but Samuel wasn't flavoring or adding to GOD's words, he was simply repeating what GOD had given him to say. If the leader isn't saying what GOD says obedience is not required.


Do a quick study of the job of the watchman that GOD placed on the wall. You'll find that the watchman was only to say what GOD had specifically told him to say. He was not to add to it nor take away from it, simply repeat it.


I listened to a sermon recently in which the minister made abundantly clear the notion that his words from the pulpit were just as vital, and necessary, and GOD-breathed as those of the Old Testament prophets or the New Testament writers. To paraphrase another point of his sermonizing, if the members of his congregation didn't obey his instructions explicitly, they were disobeying GOD. The major problem with all of this is the fact that almost everything that he was preaching wasn't based in the Text, it was all his opinions (or more accurately, the opinions of the individuals he himself had chosen to follow; and thus the degrees of separation increase exponentially). I know this an extreme example of misusing the pulpit for personal credenda, but this is becoming more the norm than the minority.


How often is the goal of my lesson or sermon to create followers of me rather than followers of GOD?


Be honest, it feels good to challenge people's thinking or to drop that nugget in their lap. It's easy to become addicted to the accolades. But is this truly what GOD called His mouthpieces to be: credit seekers or demagogues? Our purpose as ministers of His Good News is to point the way to Him, not to our opinions about Him. If—as a minister in a pulpit—you've ever saddled the congregation with your personal convictions or opinions about the Text you're guilty of trying to replace GOD in the hearer's lives. If we were honest, we've all done this in some way or another, but now that we see the error of our ways, we must avoid it at all costs.


Someone said recently of a local congregation that is experiencing attrition, "For months they [the ministry] encouraged the congregation to read and study the Bible every day. Then, when the congregation had dropped by more than a third, they never said that again." Is there a connection to this congregation's attrition and their studying the Text? Why would studying the Text encourage attrition? What did those who relocated to another congregation see in the Text that was contrary to what was being taught and/or preached? When Peter gave the instruction that ministers should feed the flock [1 Peter 5:1-3], he wasn't empowering us to choose the feed; we have to feed the congregation what has been left by the Good Shepherd. It's interesting to note that in verse three of this Text, Peter instructs that this shepherding (or feeding) is not be administered through domineering over those in your charge but by example.


To foster true followership of GOD we have to stop trying to dominate the congregation and begin leading by example. Paul told the Community at Corinth that they should imitate him in the same manner in which he imitated Christ, or simply because he imitated Christ [1 Corinthians 11:1]. Something to point out here is the fact that when a New Testament writer referred to Jesus as Christ, they were emphasizing His Messiahship. Messiah can be interpreted as the Salvation of YHWH. Another way of looking at Paul's instruction is like this: imitate me as you see me imitating Salvation; when I stop imitating Salvation, stop imitating me. But, for this admonition to become something more than just skilled rhetoric, there is a major responsibility placed on the shoulders of the congregation. All of us have a responsibility to not only read the Bible, but to also study the Text, to become intimate with GOD's thoughts and Character. If we don't, we'll never know when we're being led astray.


Mark Batterson made this statement: my job as a preacher is not to interpret the Text for you, my job is to teach you to properly interpret the Text yourself. What a declaration! This is a minister who has discovered his responsibility as GOD's mouthpiece.


How often is my life as a minister not imitating Salvation?


How often are my words not Salvation's words?


How often do I keep the responsibility and joy of understanding the Text from the people I'm serving?


Perhaps we should adopt this credo:

• As a minister of GOD's Good News, I commit to only shepherding His people with His Words.
• As a minister of GOD's Good News, I commit to never saddling GOD's people with my personal preferences.
• As a minster of GOD's Good News, I commit to strive for godly followership rather than narcissistic leadership.

I would be willing to wager that very quickly the attrition would stem.

Why Discipleship? Why Now?

Those of you who know me or have spent time with me over the past seven years or so know that I have a passion for studying the Text and applying it to my own life as best I can. One of my favorite passages in the Text is Matthew 28:16-20 where Jesus gave His rabbinic yoke (His doctrine) to His disciples. When we understand just how important Jesus’ words on the mountain were to the eleven remaining disciples, we can begin to understand how this Commission applies in our own lives.

Throughout the three-and-a-half years of His earthly ministry, Jesus continually reiterated—whether by word or by action—that He had no intention of establishing an earthly kingdom. This somewhat flew in the face of the zealot-leaning twelve that He had chosen to be His talmidim (Hebrew idiom referring to a group of rabbinic students), as they believed—as did many of the common Jews—that the Messianic Reign would be earthly in nature, banishing to nothingness all dictatorial rule over the Chosen Nation. It wasn’t until the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry that they began to comprehend that His Plan and Purpose was to establish a Spiritual Kingdom within the hearts and lives of people.

Let’s fast-forward a couple thousand years or so to our time. Are our out-reach methods fulfilling the Commission, or are they building our churches? Are we making converts to our brand of religious, denominational Christianity, or are we making disciples, one individual at a time?

Jesus commissioned His disciples to individually and collectively go and make disciples themselves; teaching the new believers everything that Jesus had taught them. He never commissioned them to go build denominal religious organizations or mini-franchises of the same. He never commissioned them to go make converts; individuals who have been swayed by the veracity of our argument rather than by personal intimacy with God. Are we—when we examine our collective efforts today—willing to admit that we have somewhat drifted from the original Commission?

Do we invite people to church or do we take Jesus to them? Let’s be honest, would we spend as much time in an out-reach effort if we knew that the people we reach would never become members of our local congregation? How much funding would we apply to efforts that didn’t butts on the chairs or pews that we purchased?

A disciple-maker doesn’t have the agenda of adding numbers to a roster. A disciple-maker is only concerned about one thing: taking Jesus to individuals, then teaching those individuals about His love. Getting those individuals to become a part of our local congregation should be at least secondary, if not even further down the priority list.

Somewhere along with way we lost sight of the fact that our responsibility is to plant the seed, care for the seed and to bring the plant to fruition. God has reserved the right of harvest for Himself. If we do our part, God will do His. If we begin to put His missional Purpose (the Missio Dei) first, then He will fill our congregations with individuals who are not only hungry for more Truth, but who are believers rather than converts to pentecostalism.

Why now? The answer is simple: we’re running out of time. Jesus said that if we aren’t gathering for Him, we’re scattering against Him. The time for gathering disciples for Him is now. We don’t have the luxury of passing this responsibility down to future generations. This task is ours; we have to assume full responsibility and begin to fulfill the Commission to go everywhere and make disciples for Jesus Christ.

If the congregation you’re a part of doesn’t have a discipleship effort, start one. If it does, become a part of it. Get involved in the Kingdom. Grow His Kingdom. You’ll never experience true spiritual fulfillment until you bear fruit. Let Hanna’s passion become your own: give me children or I’ll die!