I Am A Follower

I have to admit, I had high expectations for this book.  The beginning starts out strangely—it asks you to watch a YouTube video and then introduces you to the concept of being a follower, specifically, the first follower.

The author then states that Jesus is like the first dancer shown in the video, and that we are all to be followers, and the first person that stands up is a follower.

With that in mind, I was pretty excited about the book, believing that it would be a lot about how the leadership style of worship is backwards and we really should be followers.  Unfortunately, what I kept expecting and looking for never really materialized.

It always seemed, as I read the book, as if right around the corner I was going to get some kind of illustration of exactly how a church that wanted to practice a followership mentality would be arranged.  I guess I wanted a blueprint, and what I found instead was a whole lot of quotes from everyone from Gandhi to Mother Theresa.

Don’t get me wrong, the main thrust of the book I’m totally in tune with.  I can see, in myself, where I have desired to have a clear hierarchical format in my church so that I knew who reported to whom, such that I had forgotten that he who wishes to lead should be a servant.  But I didn’t need a whole book for that.

I think that perhaps part of this escapes me because I’m not deep enough into contemporary mega-churches and their conferences.  Much of what’s written here alludes to these conferences, and perhaps the missing puzzle piece.  I wish that the author would have spent more time illustrating what “followership” would look like as compared to “leadership” and less time building his case.

For that reason, I’m not sure that I can recommend this one as it’s full of a lot of nice sounding titles but after reading them I’m left wondering “what am I missing” rather than being inspired to do something—anything!

I received a copy of this book for free from BookSneeze on condition of a review.  The review is entirely my own.