PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION
It’s time to leave the leadership obsession behind. It’s never been about leading.

“Leadership” has become a runaway obsession for those who are called to equip the body of Christ for service in the Kingdom of God. The concept of “followership” is all but lost in the wake of this leadership fetish, a near hypnotic obsession. Jesus’ clear call, and the pattern of New Testament leadership, are actually found in a pattern of followership. We’ve been told otherwise but when it comes to a movement in our churches, our families, or the workplace, everything rises or falls on followership. Sweet proposes an intentional shift from leadership cults to followership cultures. He critiques the issue of leadership obsession but focuses on reigniting a passion for the “follow me” theme found throughout the gospels and the entire New Testament. Building on a set of metaphors/images, he stirs the imagination by showing what it means to be a follower of Christ and explains the vital cog that followership and the first follower play in helping others enter into the Kingdom of God.

I Am A Follower moves readers:

—from leaders that are over to followers that are among

—from sages and gurus to scouts and guides

—from Saul’s armor to David’s sling

—from having the right answers to asking the right questions

—from architects to gardeners

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I Am A Follower is a challenging book. Leonard Sweet challenge the idea in the modern church that “leadership” is a key paradigm in how we should think. He believes that we need to shift out of “leadership” and into “followership”. Followership stems from the idea that we follow Jesus first. He is our first love and above all else we should look to Him for our guidance, strength, wisdom etc. 

Some might argue that it’s semantics. They would look at references like “follow me as I follow Christ.” and call that leadership. And it very well may be. However, there is something mentally to the idea of shifting things around from leadership (I must lead, everything rises and falls on me.) - to followership (I must follower Jesus, everything rises and falls on Him.).

A wise pastor once  said, “If God were to die tomorrow, what would look different about your life? Are you saying you believe in God but living like you don’t need him?” I believe that gives us the fundamental shift to followership. Leadership can rest on my shoulders without Christ. Followership cannot.

I Am A Follower at the very least challenges the leadership paradigm in the church that has not been challenged at all. I think it’s good to question what we do and why we do it. The church should never get caught up in “that’s how we’ve always done it”. The church should be the most innovative and creative source in the world. That comes with putting priority on Jesus. That comes with followership.  

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

There we were hands raised high in praise.
Now we’re bowing our hearts in shame.
What happened to our first love?
We’ve traded the Creator for creation day after day.
We love you Jesus we just don’t like living out what we say.

Culture is changing. 
The way people interact is changing.
How we connect is changing. 
Relationships and how they flesh or code out are changing. 
The way people view intimacy, God, and worship… 
It’s all changing.  

The church…
Sometimes it’s standing still.
Some local communities however have begun to move forward.
They have pushed themselves to new models of what it means to be and what it looks like to live and breathe as the local church, the body of Christ-believers in community here on earth.
They know that the church/culture as a whole in a few decades will not look at all like it does now. They know that we are on the verge of something new. Something beautiful. Something different that we have ever known before.

We are walking into a brave new world.

Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson have been noticing the trends and changes that culture is making and have begun to ask the hard questions of how the church is (or should be) changing and hope to give some direction to the moving flame. 

In On The Verge, the main text for this past years Exponential Conference-a conference for missional church leaders, the authors give a great deal of data about the “missional church” and the “apostolic movement”. They see the best model of church being the church that looks outward and not inward. 

They aren’t afraid to ask questions or to let the readers wrestle with hard questions. Each chapter ends with some discussion questions for a single reader or a small group to dig through. Being the main text for Exponential probably had them thinking a little bit more in the groups realm. 

While On The Verge brings up some amazing questions and proposed answers about the future of the church it reads a little like a text book for a church planting course. Considering that it was used for the conference that makes sense to me. It’s great material and if you’re at all into church culture/trends/planting it’s a must read. 

Where: My Office. Lynchburg, VA.
Coffee: Home Brewed Starbucks Christmas Blend French Press 
Listening To: Scale The Summit: Carving Desert Canyons , Scale The Summit: Monuments & Of Mice And Men: Of Mice And Men

Pray.
Lord, I feel unrest in my spirit. I feel as though You are raising a holy discontent in my soul for the world around me and the state of modern Christianity. Lord help me to be love and not cynicism. Help me to be hope and not hatred. Help me to be light and not darkness. Make my heartbeat as Yours. Amen.

Read.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. 

(John 15:1-17 ESV)

Think.
……………………………………………

Write.
There are a couple of different individuals in this passage:
Jesus = The Vine
God, the Father = The Vinedress
Christ Followers = Branches

I have lots of questions right off the bat with this passage. The obvious devotional aspect is that we are to “abide” in Jesus. There are 11 mentions of the word “abide” in the passage.

Abide in me and I in you
Abides in the vine
Abide in me and I in him
Abide in me
Abide in me
Abide in you
Abide in my love
Abide in my love
Abide in His love
… that your fruit should abide,

There’s lots of “abiding” happening here. Here’s a closer look at the word:

 

To abide in Christ would mean to act in accordance with Christ. This makes sense considering how many times Jesus teaches us to “do as I do” or follow His example. To abide in his love would be to live in accordance with His love. To exemplify His love in our love. This is made more clear in verses 12 & 13 “This is my commandement, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” 

Jesus reminds us that if we if we abide in Him and His words abide in us than “whatever we wish will be done for us”. In other words He blesses those who follow Him. 

As always I strive to be open and honest with you. I don’t have all the answers and I don’t pretend to. I’m ok not having all the answers. I’m open to discussion.

My questions begin to arise early in the section concerning God the Father as the Vinedresser. “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away.” I have questions: How can someone be a branch of the vine and not bear fruit? Who are the branches that are “in me” in Christ but taken away because of not bearing fruit? Are they Christians that the Father is removing from the vine? We know from John 10 that nothing can separate us from the love of God… so what is this taking away process? Are these people who falsely believe they are Christ-followers of those who claim to be but are not? Can anyone help me shed some light on this issue?

As I look at the life of Jesus and the early Christians the more I’m convinced that modern Christianity is not what Jesus had in mind. Christianity was never meant to be comfortable. Jesus doesn’t call us to comfy chairs. He calls us to confront the world. Not to condemn the world, but to confront it with a better life. To confront light with darkness. To confront hate with love. Is modern Christianity an example of the branches taken away by the Father? 

Do.
Our response? Dig deeper into what we don’t understand. Don’t be content with surface level theology. Abide in Christ. Live in His love and live from His love sharing His love to all He loves. 

Blessings to you. 

The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons is an honest look at Christianity and it’s place within modern cand ulture society. It examines it’s past and points to it’s future with the rise of a new generation of believers Lyons calls “The Next Christians”. This is a generation that for the most part doesn’t want to be called Christian. It’s not out of a rejection of Jesus that they say this. The Next Christians are not ashamed of Jesus. They are ashamed of what Christianity has become. They are ashamed of the baggage that it brings. They view “Christianity”, in it’s current form as more of a brand than a relationship with Jesus. They want nothing to do with brands. They want Jesus.

For quite some time now I’ve been reading the gospel of John. As I read the words of Jesus and look deeper into how He teaches us to live… I see less and less of modern Christianity. I’ve blogged and written much about this in previous posts. The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons is a refreshing look into this new generation who has had enough of dragging Jesus through the dirt. They are a generation seeking His face and His face alone.

Gabe Lyons, like me, is a graduate of Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. He went to high school at the school started by Thomas Road Baptist Church, the church where I now pastor on the middle school staff. This is a culture in which it’s easy to become part of the “Christian” culture. It’s easy to be comfortable around loads of other Christians. It’s easy to have zero idea of the world around you in an area like this. Gabe wasn’t content with that. He wanted to follow Jesus. Not the culture, Jesus.

Lyons cites the “death of Christian America” as a falling on May 15, 2007. The day Jerry Falwell, the pastor/founder of Thomas Road Baptist Church/Liberty University/The Moral Majority, died. I remember that day clearly. I had been on staff since December of 2006. I was just out of college and had many opportunities to interact with Dr. Falwell, or “Doc”, as we called him around the church. It was a dark day indeed. Lyons cites this day as “emblematic of a passing era”. 

The era arising is one where pluralism and post modernism lead way to a larger post-Christian nation in which the general populous is spiritual and seeking God, yet the god they seek on a given day can change based on their needs. The Next Christians see this is an opportunity to show the love of Christ. The see opportunity in the midst of a nation slipping away from the God who loves it so. 

The Next Christians follows this generation’s characteristics. It looks at the life of Jesus and finds this generation trying more than ever to be the light of Jesus and to share the gospel with so much more than words. They are our brightest hope we have for restoration.

This video segment is from a talk Gabe Lyons gave at the leadership conference, Catalyst, in 2010 on The NEXT Christians. Enjoy. 

I received this copy of THE NEXT CHRISTIANS by Gabe Lyons for free from Waterbrook Multnomah Press’ Blogging For Books Program in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Book Description

Have Christians rejected pilgrimage?

The Israelites knew it. David knew it. The writer of Hebrews knew it. John Bunyan knew it. “Blessed are those whose strength is in You. They have set their hearts on pilgrimage.” (Psalm 84:5) We are strangers and pilgrims here. We’re passing through this world on a sacred journey to somewhere else. Charles Foster explores the approaching of each day as a pilgrimage—a chance to move one step closer to our ultimate goal and to even now experience tastes of that goal through prayerful awareness, study, and meditation.

Culling from his many journeys across the globe, Foster exhibits the very definition of pilgrimage: a journey to the most holy locations of our faith. This is at once both internal and external, and the author shows us how the two intersect.

A best-selling author and barrister in Oxford, Foster has spent much of his life testing the limits of human and spiritual endurance.

A volume in the eight book classic series, The Ancient Practices, with a foreword by Phyllis Tickle, General Editor.
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The Sacred Journey by Charles Foster is one volume in an eight volume set called The Ancient Practice Series. I’ve reviewed The Sacred Meal , Tithing: Test Me In This , and Sabbath from the series and have enjoyed every volume. I’ve felt stretched by this series of books. I’ve grown in my own practice of spiritual disciplines and have loved every step of this new journey into discovery more of how I can worship Christ with my life.

Charles Foster writes with passion and conviction. He’s been on the road. He’s traveled far and wide and in his book The Sacred Journey he invites us to follow Jesus onto a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage being a journey that Jesus is calling us on. That journey may be as simple as crossing the street or as difficult as going around the global. The point is that where Jesus calls us we must go.

InThe Sacred Journey we travel on we find the beauty of God in a world around us we’ve never seen before. We see His love and His truth spilling over in the eyes and hearts of those in other cultures around the world. As we journey we realize we are not the only ones on the journey. The journey pulls us outside of our realm of safety, reality, and self-centeredness into a life of risk, dreams for a better world, and a loving spirit of giving that is forced to the surface as we see others in need. 

The Sacred Journey is a challenge. It’s an easy read, but a hard thing to put into practice. Only Jesus can call us to our destinations and only we can follow Him there. 
My prayer is that I’ll have the courage to step out and follow my Rabbi to where he calls me. That I’ll be willing to get lost with Him and in turn be found in Him. I pray the same for you.