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| FPC, Lowville, NY |
We are still working on the second criterion in the Mars Hill list, namely that, "The church is organized under qualified and competent leadership." The previous posting made the point that capable and faithful followership is as important to church life as is leadership. "Followership" in the context of the church can mean a couple of things. It can mean following Christ, acknowledging that he is the true head of the church. It can also mean following the leaders of the church, meaning both duly elected lay leaders and the pastor (assuming the church has one). Our concern here is with the second meaning, although the two are related to each other.
What constitutes effective followership? In any human group, not just the church, certain characteristics define a "good" follower. First, the follower is attentive to the church's leaders. You can't follow if you aren't paying attention. Second, the effective follower is responsive to those leaders. Again, one can't follow another unless they are willing to get off their duff and follow. Third, the effective follower has his or her own sense of direction, is not willing to be led too far off that path, and is willing to call leaders back to it when they seem headed in the wrong direction. In the church, fourth, an effective follower takes time to exercise the disciplines of our faith, which include prayer, worship, study, and service. The effective follower, fifth and finally, is knowledgeable in matters of the faith.
On the face of it, these skills and attitudes are not so different from those required for effective church leadership. Church leaders must be attentive to those who follow, willing to lead even when its a pain to do so, have a good sense of congregational direction, be self-critical in holding to that direction, and exercise the disciplines of the faith. Which observation leads us to an essential insight: church leadership is built into the life of the church and is shared by both "leaders" and "followers." Leadership is carried out through two-way relationships, which brings us back to following Christ. In a paper entitled, "Development of the Biblical Followership Profile," Rushton S. Ricketson writes that biblical followership of Christ entails five traits: "...(a) abandonment to the leader [Christ], (b) intimacy with the leader [Christ], (c) obedience, (d) faithfulness, and (e) persistence." In other words, we take our commitment to God seriously and seek to live it faithfully. While there's a lot more involved, in a nutshell, faithfulness to Christ is central to effective leadership and followership in the church, the point here being that faithful followership is at least as important as faithful leadership. Amen.
