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I was really excited to read I Am a Follower, but a week or so later I was even more excited to have done with it.
It’s description reads, in part,
“’Leadership’ has become a runaway obsession for those who are called to equip the body of Christ for service in the Kingdom of God. The concept of ‘followership’ is all but lost in the wake of this leadership fetish …”
I Am a Follower promised to help me rethink “leadership,” by admitting that the role of a “leader” in the body of Christ is more about following. I had a similar idea recently, and was excited to read what someone else had to say about it.
The Prologue and Introduction are inspiring. Sweet introduces the idea of being a “first follower.” He reminds church leaders that we are all followers, encourages the readers who don’t feel like leaders that we can all follow, and challenges us all to critically think about the leadership structure in our local churches.
“… the truth is that the greatest way to create a movement is to be a follower and to show others how to follow. Following is the most underrated form of leadership in existence” (Loc 471).
“The Jesus paradox is that only Christians lead by following” (Loc 545).
Sweet launches into the main of the book, at about the time he could have ended it,
by suggesting a new “template” for believers: the way, which he identifies as “missional living;” the truth, which he identifies as “relational living;” and the life, which he calls “incarnational living” (Loc 1013).
It is at this point, that the topic starts to become unclear – were we rethinking leadership, or discipleship and faith entirely? Very little of the section on “The Way” has anything to do with leadership at all, or “first followership.”
It is also at this point that I started wondering if maybe Mr. Sweet has been hurt by church leadership in the past. The longer I read, the more the author seemed to distrust or disapprove of church leadership in general, and I’m not sure if much of his philosophy in the topic is entirely biblical. Much of the discussion seems to ignore or gloss over examples of Church leadership in Acts, or descriptions of leaders in New Testament epistles.
We’ll talk about some of those things, specifically, tomorrow, because I’m really interested in what you guys think about it. I definitely have a particular point of view because I’m on staff at a church, and I see church leadership behind-the-scenes every week.
For the purposes of a book review, though, suffice to say I don’t recommend it. It’s not what I had thought, hoped, it would be, and I don’t think it’s very consistent with scripture’s teaching/example on leadership.
Leonard Sweet’s thoughts on discipleship in his book “I am a follower” is nothing new. The Theosophist, Alice Bailey, has written extensively on how to be a Christ-follower without having to be a Christian. In fact, any one from whatever religions persuasion can be a Christ-follower. There are Hindu Christ-followers, Mormon Christ-followers and even Muslim Christ-followers. How do people like Monsignor Sweet who claims to be followers of Jesus turn others into Christ-followers? By telling them that a Christ-follower is someone who serves and loves other people. Well, of course there is nothing wrong in that. Jesus taught us to love even our worst enemies. Nonetheless, is loving and serving other people the litmus test for following Jesus? NO! absolutely not. The litmus test can be found in the following passages in Scripture – Mat 16:24-26; Luke 14:26,27 & 33.
The Emergent Church fraternity usually only quote fragments from Bible passages. They would for instance quote the first part of Mat 28:19: Go therefore and make disciples . . .” and conveniently leave out the rest which is a command ” . . . “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” They don’t like to be taught and they don’t want you to teach others sound biblical doctrine. Why? Because it discourages others from different faiths to become followers of Jesus. Who is this Jesus they are following? Is it the real Jesus or another Jesus?
Tom – Thanks for the comment. I agree with your criticisms of “emergent” theology, but I don’t know if it applies to I Am a Follower. I haven’t read anything else by Sweet, so you may be more familiar with his general philosophy/theology than I am. As per I Am a Follower, I didn’t really the the impression that he’s advocating being a “Christ-follower” without being a “Christian,” it had more to do with a questionable understanding of biblical leadership.