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In light of the recent inauguration it seems appropriate to offer some musings on leadership and followership. There is an unending number of volumes both written and read on the topic of LEADERSHIP but almost nothing written on FOLLOWERSHIP. I don't think it is even a real word! Growing up in the 1950s and 60s I unwittingly witnessed and participated in a major cultural shift. Looking back, I realize I grew up in the midst of an entire generation who learned to mistrust authority and leadership --- politicians, police, coaches, teachers, parents, pastors. Perhaps the backdrop for the Baby Boomer generation is the Nuremberg trials of the Nazi war criminals (1945-49) where their defense of "I was just following orders" was judged to be an inadequate rationale for immoral behavior. The Baby Boomer generation has a definite reluctance to follow and we approach everything, especially authority, with a critical eye.
The result is that leadership is in crisis. People are reluctant to take leadership because, as former kicker for the Denver Broncos Rich Karlis put it, "the further up the ladder you get the more your butt sticks out." In fact, we tend to automatically mistrust anyone who wants to be a leader --- they must be doing it for selfish reasons! Perhaps a big part of the leadership crisis is a followership crisis. We are a nation of armchair quarterbacks second-guessing decisions with 20/20 hindsight. We've taken this attitude into every area of life, critically evaluating our parents, our politicians, our sports teams, our bosses at work and our church leadership. There are two extremes we must avoid if we are going to get a handle on followership. The first is represented by the famous line in Alfred Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade, "Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die." Most of us are instinctively repulsed by the mindless obedience and abject submission represented here --- history is strewn with the abuse of power that often accompanies it. But most of us are in more danger of embracing the second extreme, represented by the closing verse of the book of Judges, "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" ((Judges 21:25). Indeed, most would wonder why people doing "what was right in their own eyes" should be a problem. It feeds our pursuit of personal autonomy and freedom. But this verse serves as the summation of the book of Judges, which was probably the bleakest period in the history of Israel as recorded in the Old Testament, and it was written as an indictment. It is an apt description of anarchy and it should serve as a fair warning to us, lest our pursuit of absolute freedom also lead to gross immorality, exploitation, and injustice. With the country deeply divided in our political persuasions, and with new leadership in our country, let us hope and pray for leaders who are worthy of our trust, who will speak the truth, who are not self-absorbed and who will humbly go about leading to the best of their ability. And let us pray that we will allow them to lead by following responsibly. |
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by Rev. J. Patrick Curtis, Senior Pastor |
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