Dear Friends:

I was listening to the radio the other day to a story

on leadership. It mentioned all of the books written

about leadership on Amazon.com. Interested, I went

to the Amazon.com website and did a search using the

word "leadership." There are 8, 517 books on

Amazon.com that relate to the word "leadership."

Next, I did a search using the word "followership."

Amazingly enough, there actually were two hits. I

say "amazingly" because I did not even know

"followership" was a word. Still the ratio of

leadership books to followership books is 4,258 to 1.

In our society, being a follower is not a highly

coveted position. You never hear any parents

encouraging their children to be followers. "Hey,

son, go out there and succumb to peer pressure today.

Be a follower. Make me proud." Rather, we try and

instill leadership qualities in our children.

Leading is to following in our culture as winning is

to losing. At my alma mater, you can actually major

in leadership. Needless to say, there is no

commensurate major in followership. There aren't any

catchy sayings or inspirational posters about being a

follower either.

I think followership is underrated. In fact, I would

go so far as to say that we need to perfect our

following skills much more than we do our leadership

skills.

Leadership is important. Don't misunderstand me.

However, for those who desire to be in the Kingdom of

God, followership is a much more important skill.

When it comes to true Christianity, not all followers

are leaders, but all leaders are followers and all The

apostle Paul makes this point when he states "Be ye

followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." Paul

was a follower of Christ which, among other things,

qualified him to be a leader of men.

In North American, where individualism has become its

own god, learning to follow Christ can be a difficult

skill to master. Followership requires that we humble

ourselves and admit that we need to be led. We admit

as it is written in Proverbs that "there is a way

which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof

are the ways of death." Culturally speaking, this is

akin to espousing communism. It is taboo. We are

taught that we should give orders, not take them.

The disciple of Christ must, I repeat - MUST, learn to

follow. The subjugation of the will to God's will is

one of the prerequisites to successful discipleship.

It is counter to all that we are taught in our

society, but essential to our salvation and to the

glorification of our God.

"Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the

God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day."

Have a good week!

Kyle