Followership

We can't go anywhere now days without running into books, articles, lectures, seminars, videos, and probably a few delivery devices I've forgotten, about Leadership Development. Create material on the topic and you have a hot product. I think, for a Christian, the focus should be on Followership Development.

A Christian is supposed to be a Christ follower. Period. Every Christian leader should ultimately be a Christ follower. Of course there are sincere Christian leaders who fail, but I think there are many more so-called Christian leaders who are not following Christ and who ultimately will fail spectacularly at being a Christian leader. It may sound like I'm quibbling but I think it is serious for a couple of reasons.

When we put so much focus on "Leadership Development" we fail to adequately develop other gifts even though we don't mean to. We need to be helping people develop their gifts no matter what they are. Some people do have leadership gifts that we need to help them develop, but we need to do that right along side those who need to develop their serving gifts or hospitality gifts, or whatever other gift God has given them. I know that developing these other gifts is championed in a few corners but, by and large, leadership development takes center stage. This is probably due to a thinking that developing leaders will lead (aren't I clever there) to the development of the other gifts. But I'm not sure this has been the experience. Instead it causes people to develop a superiority complex that doesn't do anyone any good.

That leads to the other concern and that is that failing to recognize our ultimate need to be a follower causes us to end up in the weeds more often than not. Using leadership gifts needs to be understood in terms of humbly serving Christ as a follower. Instead we can easily end up at the other end of the spectrum, haughtily dispensing our leadership talents on our followers as an egotistical maniac, or worse.

So I propose that we do away with Leadership Development and focus on Followership Development. It will include Leadership Development, but everything else as well.

Cohorting

I've been part of several "cohorts" but I'm not sure they are named correctly. The first time I can remember hearing the word was back in college when it came up in a class on genetics and negative mutations in people who lived near a nuclear waste sight over a 10 year period. They were a cohort because they lived in the same place at the same time and it was possible to study the collective results of that cohort in comparison with another cohort who lived in a different location or in the same location at a different time. But genetics gave me a headache then and does so even more now.

The point is that I was surprised to be told one day that I was being assigned to a cohort. I thought that I could be defined into one but didn't know I could necessarily be assigned into one. Oh well, what's a word or two between friends.

I usually end up in pastor cohorts since I'm a pastor. Being assigned to such cohorts, or groups, herds, or whatever you might want to call them, never works out well, in my experience. With pastors it usually involves accountability or being told what to do so we don't like them. I guess I have never really been satisfied with the basis of the group. They were never relational or authentic enough.

My friend Dan gave me a little card a few weeks ago that may change my mind. It has a few other things on it but the main statement on the card goes like this:

"Never let me get to the point where I can only be told the things I want to hear, as opposed to the things I need to know! Always tell me the truth. It is important to my ministry."

That struck a chord with me. I'm not sure it works like the card intends it to but I can see how a group could be built on a foundation like that. It requires relationship and authenticity. It takes time. It takes effort. You have to connect more than once a month.

I wonder if pastors would be more willing to join groups where this was the agenda. Maybe they would be more relaxed when they connected. Maybe they would even enjoy it.