Leadership and Followership

“Leadership is like the Abominable Snowman, whose footprints are everywhere but [he is] nowhere to be found.” (1)

I hear a lot about a lack of leadership, or poor leadership, or dysfunctional leadership. And these complaints are not just about politicians or bosses, but often about leaders in the church.

Unfortunately, often the complaints are justified.

We are told to consider our leaders, to consider the fruit of their lives and imitate their faith. While we all sin and fall short of God’s glory, if a leader’s life is bearing good fruit, then that’s a leader worth following. If not, maybe it’s time to look for another leader.

But instead of looking at those around me and pointing out others’ deficiencies , I realize that I need to spend some time following Jesus’ advice to take the log out of my own eye before worrying about the speck in someone else’s.

Whatever role I am in, whether leader or follower, the question remains: Am I doing this God’s way?

The reading this week was terribly convicting.

Do I really believe that my power as a leader comes from prayer? Or how much do I rely on my own talent?

Do I let my vision for what I am trying to achieve be cramped by my own fears and doubts, or I concentrate on the vastness and glory and might of the God I serve?

If my personal devotions are not what they should be, I won’t be praying or seeing the vision. And going through the motions isn’t good enough.

Am I letting the Holy Spirit guide me?

Do I have the faith to go against the majority opinion when God calls me to do so?

And do I recognize that I am expendable, and should be developing others to become greater leaders than I?

And what about when I am not in a leadership role? What am I doing to support those who are leading, to be a good follower? What I am doing to encourage, to support, to co-operate?

If I don’t think those I am following are leading well, maybe it’s because I am judging them by some other standard than God’s. Or maybe I am not being a good follower. Or maybe I need to do what I can to help the situation, starting by spending a lot of time in prayer.

Then maybe this elusive thing called leadership will be more easily found.

(1) Warren Bennis, quoted by R. Kent Hughes, in Disciplines of a Godly Life, Crossway Books, 1991.