A Recovering Leader

The pressures of the pastorate and the internal and external demands to grow a church became my own personal pressure cooker. My thoughts changed from questioning whether or not the information I was reading was biblical to whether or not the information would be the magic pill that would solve the current struggle or at least transform me so that I could lead the ministry correctly.

When I finally began to read more critically, question the assumptions made by much of the leadership literature, and then compare these assumptions with the direct teachings of the Bible, I discovered a life-changing truth: The Bible is a book written by followers, about followers, for followers. The thrust of the Bible is not about leading or even teaching people how to become leaders. The Bible is about following and becoming the very best follower of Christ a Christian can be. The implication is simple, wherever the Lord may place me within an organization or within a community of people I am always a follower first. This single truth has precipitated the development of a new construct within the leader/follower literature, “followerfirst,” and changed my entire perspective with regard to who leaders and followers actually are and how they should respond to one another.

What is a Followerfirst Philosophy?

The followerfirst philosophy is predicated upon the idea that the Bible is a book written by followers, about followers, for followers with the purpose of informing these followers of the one true God (Deut. 6:4), and how through teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16-17) they might follow the will of God. This assumption provides a biblical foundation upon which a follower-focused rather than leader-centered organizational structure may be built. In addition, the followerfirst philosophy provides a framework from which the Scriptures may be read with the desire of discovering specific follower instructions and insights rather than seeking to find leadership principles through historical narrative.

Understanding the following characteristics will give greater clarity to the followerfirst philosophy and its subsequent explanations and applications within the church context:

Followerfirst is a Philosophy

The followerfirst construct is a philosophy not a program. After teaching the basics of the followerfirst philosophy, students always ask the same questions, “How do you do it?” My response is, “You don’t do followerfirst. You think followerfirst, and if you think followerfirst, the doing takes care of itself.” Our churches are so used to ‘plug and play’ programs where we hear a good idea in one church and simply try to ‘plug’ it into our church that it may be difficult to initially accept a followerfirst construct. This is due to the fact that in order to gain the desired follower-centered organization, one has to change the thinking of those involved. In a world where being the leader has been the primary thought process for so long, changing these ingrained ideas takes time and perseverance.

Followerfirst provides a way for people to think about the biblical organizing and functioning of the church. Changing people’s thinking from leader-centered ideas to follower-centered ideas ultimately impacts how people view their role in the church, their worth to the church, and how they behave within the church organization. Leading and following are understood as roles in which people choose to participate. The role of leader is respected as necessary within an organizational structure, and due respect is given to those who hold particular office within the church (1 Thess. 5:12-13; 1 Tim. 5:17; Heb. 13:7, 17; 1 Peter 5:1-5). But leaders and the role of leader are not idolized by those in the church. Additionally, the role of follower is respected and understood as a necessary activity within the organized church. Following becomes recognized as the primary unifying factor within the organized church as believers who hold leader positions, and those who do not, humble themselves and follow the commands of Christ and the teaching of the Word of God. For the church to fulfill her purpose the followerfirst philosophy needs to permeate every function, program, and activity of the church and be embedded within the organizational culture.

Followerfirst is a Functional Understanding

The followerfirst philosophy understands the term ‘follower’ as the primary functional purpose and responsibility of every Christian. Every person is primarily a follower of some person, goal, or ideal. The term ‘follower’ is used as opposed to the term ‘disciple’ because according to the biblical record, a person is first willing to follow before he or she becomes a disciple. This progression is explained in detail later. Also, the term ‘follower’ is used as a functional rather than a devotional construct. In a leader obsessed society it is too easy to dismiss following as some emotional, obvious response to the love of the Savior rather than understanding following as a crucial function within the church. By accepting the followerfirst philosophy, every believer in Christ within the organized church embraces being a follower and has a biblical function and responsibility depending on the role that he or she desires and is willing to assume (see 1 Tim. 3:1) under the leadership of the Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:22; 4:15; Col. 1:18; 2:10; 2:19) and the empowering of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8).

Followerfirst is the Primary Emphasis

Combining ‘follower’ with ‘first’ points to the essence of who we are as created beings. In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve providing them intimacy with Himself and giving them caretaker status over all creation (Genesis chapters 1 and 2). Human beings were created to have relationship with the Creator and to follow His directives. We are in essence followers by creation.

The qualifier ‘first’ is added to the term follower to form a new construct: followerfirst. By creating a new construct, the idea of following is given primary status regarding: (1) the follower’s (believer’s) relationship to God as a follower of Christ and (2) the follower’s (believer’s) functional responsibilities as a part of the church.

The primary status of following can also be understood in that, contrary to the idea that good leaders must first be good followers; the followerfirst philosophy posits that good leaders ARE good followers. There is never a time when leaders in the church should not perceive themselves as followers. In the same way, there is never a time when a follower ‘graduates’ from being a follower to being a leader. Regardless of what role a person has, whether leader or follower, being a follower and understanding oneself as a follower is always the primary thought.

In the church context, followers are only required to follow their leaders when the leaders are following the will of God as revealed in the Word of God. As John Stowell asserted in his book, Following Christ: Experiencing life the way it was meant to be, “Leading is a temporary assignment; following is a lifelong calling.” (p. 40).

Followerfirst Gives Greater Scriptural Clarity

Reading the Bible with a followerfirst perspective provides clearer insight into the original meaning of the biblical text and an unambiguous understanding of how the text may be applied to one’s life. In Chapter One we will see how the Scriptures relative to the purpose of Jesus’ coming to earth, as well as Jesus’ commands and teachings and those of other biblical writers add support to the adoption of a followerfirst philosophy as the functional organizational philosophy of the church.

Followerfirst Defined: The followerfirst philosophy may be defined as a system of thought where one willingly follows the Lord Jesus Christ with all one’s heart, mind, soul, and strength in every circumstance regardless of organizational position while submitting to fellow followers so that all might fulfill their God given responsibility.

It is no coincidence that this definition mirrors what Jesus declares as the first and second greatest commandments (Mark 12:30). Love is replaced with the word ‘following’ because following the will of the Lord is how Jesus defines loving God: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me” (John 14:21). Submitting to fellow believers is seen as the manifestation of loving one’s neighbor. This combination of a love for Christ evidenced through obedience and a love for one’s neighbor evidenced through humbly submitting to one another provides a unity within the Body of Christ. The Apostle Paul describes this unity in Philippians 2:1-7.

By embracing a followerfirst philosophy, every believer in the church becomes responsible to use his or her gifts, talents, and abilities in the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill the commands of Christ and the teachings of the New Testament in willing submission and cooperation with fellow followers to the glory of God.

No ‘Ships’ No ‘Isms’

As you read you will notice that except for explanation purposes I write more about leading and following than leadership or followership. This is due to my bias against ships and isms that we often create to try and make sense of various concepts. We talk of leadership, and followership, and discipleship, and evangelism, but these are terms we create to help codify certain teachings into nice manageable constructs. The Bible, however, does not speak in terms of ships and isms.

The Bible speaks of leaders and leading but not leadership. The Bible speaks of disciples and making disciples but not discipleship. For instance, we take the action verb lead with all its life and power and develop the verb into a noun making it a static construct made up of do’s and don’ts. I believe the Lord intentionally wrote “make disciples,” “do the work of an evangelist,” and “follow Me,” so that we would avoid codified ships and isms that have a tendency to produce organizational inertia by classifying normal Christian activity into specialized spiritual categories. Instead, our energies and organizations are side-tracked by recruiting church members to get involved in evangelism, discipleship, or leadership as we have defined these terms and neatly packaged them in 12 week courses for people to complete but not necessarily apply as a lifestyle. As a result, churches are filled with people who have completed a course of study but see no connection of this teaching to daily life. We educate people enough to make them feel guilty for not doing what they have been taught to do rather than teaching them to be who God has created them to be. This disconnect continues to create inertia in the church and is a major cause of her ineffectiveness.

What Followerfirst is Not

The most common misunderstandings I’ve received from the first edition of Followerfirst has been that it is just repackaged ‘consensus leadership’ or ‘principled leadership’ or ‘team leadership.’ These comments evidence a key misunderstanding of what the followerfirst philosophy is all about.

The application of followerfirst is most definitely not consensus leadership. Followerfirst gives tremendous respect to leaders and seeks to develop leaders within the Body of Christ. There are leaders, there must be leaders and one of the fundamental roles of leaders is the responsibility to make a decision. The followerfirst philosophy does not discount any of those responsibilities. Instead, followerfirst embraces and challenges the followers within the organization to rally to the leaders, assume responsibility, and seek to make these leaders successful in their decision making.

Followerfirst is certainly based upon core values and principles within the individual person and, as such, can be seen as a companion to the concepts of principled leadership. What differentiates followerfirst from principled leadership is that principled leadership begins with people acting on principle by thinking of themselves as leaders. Followerfirst begins with people thinking of themselves as followers and acting on principle (core values) from this beginning point. Changing how people think of themselves from leaders to followers within an organizational context has significant ramifications on how people function within organizations.

The similarity to team leadership stems from the interactions that take place within the dynamics of team development. However, as in the previous misunderstandings, the basic difference between team leadership and a followerfirst philosophy is the beginning point of whether a person enters into a team with the desire to be a leader or whether they understand their primary purpose is to follow regardless of any leader designation they may have within the team structure. The followerfirst philosophy actually has the potential of allowing for less “storming” in the team development process. As a result, the team may be able to build stronger relationships sooner and become a more effective unit.

It’s Time to Rethink Leading

in the Church

I realize my thoughts may appear quixotic, idealistic, unrealistic, and impracticable to some. Being a follower, after all, is not a position to which anyone is taught to aspire, especially in American culture. No parent is standing on the sidelines encouraging their child with the words, “Now get in there and be a real follower!”

I was told I needed to become a leader because, in the estimation of others, I had leader qualities. Society, authors, academia, and my own intuition agreed that being a leader was better than being a follower. All the books and leadership teachers stated with confidence that “everything rises or falls on leadership.” The implied meaning being, if you want to really do something with your life you need to become a leader. Followers don’t accomplish anything. Followers don’t change the world. Followers don’t influence anyone. Followers are necessary because without them we would have no leaders. The oft quoted Chinese proverb, “If you think you are leading and turning around find no one following, you are only taking a walk” is true… isn’t it, or is it? I don’t think so.

We have all heard it time and again; being the leader is where the power and the influence are. In much of the leadership literature the prevailing thought regarding followers is: Try to avoid being a follower at all cost. I challenge you to rethink what being a biblical leader entails. Are these axioms in the leadership literature actually true? Or have they simply been repeated so many times for so many years that we have assigned to them truth status without thoroughly examining their truth claims. As one of my teachers once shared with me, “We might have to unlearn some things before we can actually learn the truth.”

I submit to you that the truth lies in being a follower. The beginning point for any Christian leader in any organization, and especially the church, is to understand that because we are followers of Jesus Christ, within our organizations we are always to perceive ourselves as followers first.

God’s Unique Church

The church is the most unique organization on earth. It was called into being by God for the purpose of making disciples (Matt. 28:19) who would follow His commands, glorify Him in the process, and enjoy Him forever. To borrow an analogy from the computer world, God created the church with an entirely different organizational operating system. Instead of being based upon systems of power and control, as is the case in most organizations, the church operates with systems of submission and responsibility empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Such an understanding of the organizational nature of the church only serves to reveal the destruction and confusion that occurs within churches if leader-centered, power and control philosophies are taught and utilized. Like oil added to water, the two never mix unless the container is shaken. Even then, if left alone, the two products eventually separate themselves from one another. Could such an admixture of leader versus follower be a cause for the growing number of churches in conflict today? Have we become so leader-focused that we have actually failed to recognize that the church operates with a followerfirst philosophy? We will have more to say about this later.

I hope within the pages of this book you find an argument that will cause you to reconsider how leadership material is taught and implemented within your church. I also hope you will gain a new appreciation and respect for what it means to be a follower. Far from being people who have no incentive, do not think for themselves, and only follow the crowd, believers with a followerfirst philosophy think and act as competent individuals while submitting to the leading of Jesus Christ.

I am indebted to the numerous students, colleagues and friends who read the first edition of this book and have given their insights, clarifications, and ideas to this second edition. The followerfirst philosophy has been ‘road tested’ by scholars, pastors, and ministers in many different contexts and their discoveries provide even stronger validation that the church needs to rethink the process of leading and following.

Join the Conversation

I understand the scope of such an undertaking is massive and there is no possible way I can address all the various aspects of following and leading within this volume. This book continues to be a work in progress. However, perhaps this work can serve as a catalyst to promote a conversation that needs to be had among those who write and practice leading and following within the church and organizations that have a Christian basis.

I realize my academic friends will be dissatisfied with some of my limited academic investigations. I also realize that my theological friends will question some of my assertions even though I believe I have stayed true to the text and context of Scripture. To all of you, I apologize in advance and only ask that you join the conversation so that we all might discover the truth.

You will notice I refer to the church as an organization rather than an organism, a term some Christians use to describe the nature of the church. I do not disagree with the idea of the church being understood as a living entity because of the life of Christ within the individual members who make up the church. However, I refer to her as an organization because, from an organizational perspective, that is what the church is.

From my perspective, before the current concentration on leaders and leadership teaching, what the church thought was a crisis of leadership was actually a crisis of following. Now, however, after decades of teaching pastors how to be leaders we have compounded the problem. We still have not taught the followers of Christ how to follow within a church organization, and we now have a generation of leaders who think and act with little to no regard for being followers first. If the church is to make a change, it must begin with a biblical organizational understanding of following.

Now that you know my heart, I invite you to a new journey, a new way of thinking. I invite you to a new freedom, the freedom that comes from being followerfirst. I invite you to explore the possibility of building a bridge between laity and clergy and instigating greater church participation by teaching others that, even though we may have specific God-given roles within the church, we are all followers first. I urge you to consider the influence that can be had when God’s people understand they don’t have to be a leader or recognized as a leader to make a difference. As followers of Christ we can influence others while in the positions God gives whether those positions are perceived by society as being leadership positions or not, whether they have titles or not, whether they are paid positions or not. I invite you to see that throughout the Bible, God calls His people to follow. It is through following the commands of God that the people of God show their love for God and grow in their relationship with God (John 14:21). It is through following Christ we become “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). It is through following Christ we learn to “deny self, take up [our] cross daily, and follow [Him]” (Luke 9:23).

Does this followerfirst way of thinking resonate within you? Does concentrating on being a follower sound like something so radically counterintuitive to our current organizational way of thinking that it just might be God’s plan to change the world? Could it be that this followerfirst philosophy is what the church needs to make a greater impact on the culture? From what I have studied in the Bible, I am thoroughly convinced that this impact will not come through robust, charismatic, larger-than-life leaders, but through faithful followers who, through the “foolishness” of following, influence others. Still, the goal of followers is not to become leaders. The goal of followers is to be the very best followers they can be to the glory of God. And if these followers are placed in positions within companies, churches, or ministries in which they are responsible for others, their individual, primary understanding of their position will not be, “I am the leader.” Their understanding will be:

• I am a follower of Christ FIRST.

• Others may call me a leader, but my primary understanding of my place on the planet is to be a follower of Christ, wherever He may lead.

• The fulfillment of my life will not come from the praise of those whom I might lead in this lifetime.

• My goal and fulfillment in life will come when I hear, “Well done,” from the lips of Him whom I have followed.