Leadership has led us to the place where everybody is trying to get everybody else to do something, and no one ends up doing, according to Leonard Sweet in his book I am a Follower. In the recent past, the church has placed too much emphasis on leaders and leadership, diverting attention away from the importance of being followers of Christ. Jesus’s primary call on us is for us to be followers, not leaders.
The book goes on to describe the call to discipleship in thre segments: the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Way involves missional living, bearing fruit, and growing in the fruits of the Spirit. The Truth involves relational living, following Jesus to the cross, counting the cost, letting God work through our weaknesses, and being led by the Spirit. The Life involves incarnational living, pursuit of harmony, and having a spirit of trust.
There are many aspects of contemporary church leadership culture which the author helpfully critiques. However, in my opinion the author goes too far in attacking the concept of leadership itself. While I agree that it is more important for a person to be a disciple than a leader, I do not agree that the relatively few New Testament references to leadership mean that it is unimportant. After all, the word follower and its variants appear only 10 times in the New Testament, and only two of them refer to followers of Jesus.
In my view it is most unfortunate that the author chose to attack respected church leader Bill Hybels by inviting readers to draw a parallel between Hybels’ recommending that pastors read books on business principles and Isaiah 31:1-3 (“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help…”), especially considering the extent to which the author himself cites business books throughout his own book. Indeed he seems to have drawn considerable inspiration from The Power of Followership and The Courageous Follower, both secular business books. Further, it is surprising that the author should, immediately after attacking Hybels, boast about the number of his own Twitter followers, in a book which decries leadership and celebrity culture.
Leonard Sweet has an attractive writing style and it is for the most part a pleasure to read this book. However the significant flaws highlighted above preclude me from giving it a better rating. This review is based on an electronic review copy of the book provided by BookSneeze.