Book Review: I Am A Follower by Leonard Sweet

Just finished my first read of a Leonard Sweet book, which is a pretty impressive thing for me since his bio says that he has written close to fifty. What I lacked in raw numbers, I seemed to make up for in quality, for I Am A Follower is a good read that challenges many of our church culture presuppositions. Whether or not you agree with his conclusions, I would recommend picking this book up in order to examine your presuppositions.

The book is divided into four sections. In the first Sweet tears down the leadership culture that has been established in the western church. Instead, the idea of the 'first follower' is presented. It is not about abolishing leadership, but rather changing its form. This first follower idea is illustrated with a YouTube video of a Sasquatch Festival dancer. (One problem, the link listed did not work no matter how many substitutions of '1', 'l', '0', or 'O' I made.) Once the dancer had his 'first follower' it became easier for others to join in the dance and there was soon a mob dancing where a short while before there had been one awkward, lonely dancer.

After elaborating on 'first followers', Sweet then spends the rest of the book talking about The Way of the first follower, The Truth of the first follower, and The Life of the first follower. Of course, we recognize the way, truth, and life as words Jesus used to identify himself, and that is the point of the structure, that the first follower is first and foremost a follower of Jesus, following the dance of the Savior with the result being others around us following our lead and joining in the dance.

For Leonard Sweet, friction arises as those who lead in the church, rather than being buried in Christ and following His dance are instead following the lead of corporate America and using leadership principles and structures as a system of attraction for those outside the church. Thus, rather than modeling people to be disciples first, the western church is training its members to be leaders first, giving them skills that could be displaying in any arena, with any beliefs.

One push back I would have if I were dialoging with Mr. Sweet would be over his premise that leadership is not espoused or mentioned in the New Testament writings. While we might not find the word 'leadership', Paul did have some things to say on structure and Jesus displayed great leadership without describing what He was doing, as was His style. Yet, I understand and respect the need to swing the pendulum of church culture in the direction Sweet does.

What Sweet has written is really a book on identity. That is why this book is important. Those who lead in the church find it so easy to turn their role into their identity. So rather identifying as a follower of Christ, the primary identification becomes church leader. So, as an identity, things are done to bolster that way of defining self. If I am a leader first, then it matter how many followers I have. It matters how big my space is, how many leadership books I've read so that I can speak the language of leadership.

Within a leadership culture, those who are following sit and wait. They wait for the leaders lens to interpret things in their lives and they wait for the OK from the person up front. But even worse, if leadership is the goal, then it becomes a way of comparison. Those who don't 'lead' in the corporate way are lacking. Within the church, there become a dichotomy between leader and follower.

Leonard Sweet reminds us that we are all followers. Followers first. The follower is to identify with the way, truth, and life of Christ. And it is his contention that leading is best done by walking alongside other followers.

If you are looking for some sort of rating system, I'd give this book 4 out of 5 stars. There were a lot of distracting quotes thrown in middle of pages that I did not like the format of. In my own personal system, this would be a second shelf book (one below the top so it's a good thing), one I underlined a lot, learned from and was challenged by and will definitely recommend.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.