Leaders and Followers

by Tim Howard

If you choose to do everything alone, you don’t need leaders but if you choose to do life - with a team mentality, you will need quality leaders and committed followers.

Paul the Apostle was undeniably one of the greatest leaders in the New Testament. His credentials were impeccable. He was courageous, creative, consistent, educated to the highest level and committed to doing whatever it took to succeed. If you want a picture of a driven, demanding, strong and determined leader, then study the life of Paul.

 There was one major weakness, however; Paul wasn’t a good follower!  At least until he had an encounter with Christ on a narrow, winding, dirt road in route to an insignificant place called Damascus.  That’s not surprising because God is like that. He meets you when you least expect it, when you least deserve it and when you’re on a road to nowhere…

The account reads like this in Acts 9. When Saul got to the outskirts of Damascus, a blinding flash of light suddenly dazed him. Being stopped in his tracks he fell to the ground and heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?” He said, “Who are you, Master?”  “I am Jesus, the One you’re hunting down.  I want you to get up and enter the city… While Saul was picking himself up off the ground, he found himself stone blind. They had to take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus.

This man had vision! He saw what he wanted in life and was in hot pursuit of it. He would not be deterred or denied. But then... God engaged him and everything went black. Lights out?  He couldn’t see. He needed help. It was so dark he had to follow the lead of someone else.

If you are too big to follow you will always be too small to lead! 

The best leaders are the ones who have learned to follow well. A Roman soldier understood this concept. He said in Luke 7:8, I am a man under orders and know how to obey. I also give orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; another, ‘Come,’ and he will come.

The first thing Jesus asked His potential leaders to do was: “Follow Me” Why? Because when you follow, you learn if you listen.

The word ‘Disciple’ in the N.T. means: learner or follower. Jesus didn’t recruit members for an organization; He invited people to have a relationship by following Him.

In ancient times, there were few higher learning institutions. Instead, those who wanted to learn a skill or a philosophy attached themselves to a journeyman or a teacher and spent significant time with them to learn the trade. In the case of those learning a philosophy, the student would follow the teacher for years, traveling wherever they would go, and the teacher would expound as they walked, teaching the intricacies of the faith. The disciples of Jesus did just that. Wherever Jesus went, the disciples would follow, and Jesus would show them things and teach them as they moved across the land. The disciples listened, learned and as a result, became great leaders.

 We’ve all heard variations of that old idiom: “Too many chiefs and not enough Indians.” “Too many bosses and not enough workers.” That may or may not be true in certain situations but I do know this for a fact. If you want to be a good leader, you must first become a good follower. We need both, quality leaders and committed followers.