6 Characteristics Of Faithful Following

6 Characteristics Of Faithful Following

Welcome to the 21st Century and the doctrine of constant change. One of the changes occurring across the Christian faith is the emergence of the importance of lay leaders.

Of course, lay leaders have always been important, but for much of the 20th century church leadership was largely carried on by professional clergy. That's changing now. In his book Dancing With Dinosaurs, William Easum, Director of 21st Century Strategies, offers 12 assumptions he says "will form a filter for the ideas" in his book. Assumption 3 is that "the distinction between clergy and laity will disappear in the twenty-first century."

I wouldn't go that far, but it's no secret that more reliance on ordinary folks in the laity to carry much more of the church's ministry is a generally agreed upon trend and need by today's Christian leaders.

We've concentrated so long on what it takes to be a good Christian leader. Now we'd better start thinking about what makes for good Christian followers.

I was lucky enough to catch a Sunday morning message by Aaron M. Fleming recently about just this topic. Aaron is serving as part of Communion Fellowship's pastoral team this summer. Communion Fellowship, located on 3rd Street in downtown Goshen is a Mennonite cell church. Cell churches are structured so that most of the congregation's ministry happens in groups of 10 to 12 people. Each cell group has a cell group leader (lay pastor) who provides pastoral leadership for that group. At least once a week all the cell groups meet together for congregational worship.

Because of their need for many lay pastoral leaders, cell churches have traditional focused a lot more energy on developing lay leaders and good followers than many more traditional churches. Aaron seemed to have given some serious that and study to the matter, judging from his "Six Characteristics of an Awesome Follower" message. It's a sermon all Christians should hear and a short edited version of his six points follows:

The two scriptures used most in Aaron's message were 1 Samuel 14:6-13, an account of Jonathon and his follower armor bearer disposing of a bunch of Philistines and 2 Samuel 12, the account of Nathan's confrontation with David. Aaron reminds us to begin with that life in Christ begins in following, not leading. Matthew 4:19.

1. Followers carry a load. Like Jonathan's armor bearer faith followers carry part of the leader's load. They don't come along for the ride, but are ready for mule labor when needed.

2. Faithful followers have spunk. A grouch in the rear is more dangerous to success than enemies in the front. Many church leaders have failed because their followers acted from like enemies than supporters. But one follower with spunk can inspire a legion of grouch followers.

3. Faithful followers have the ability to submit to a leader's vision. Well put Aaron! Submission to leadership is just as much an acquired ability as any other talent. Submission especially does not come easy to folks in our individualistic American culture. But no true relationship, or Christian ministry, can happen without it.

4. Followers help finish the job. Quitters profit much less often than cheaters. A faithful follower keeps right on working and following until the job is done or someone has proven they can successful take over the mantle of the follower's ministry.

5. A faithful follower protects his leader's moral character. Nathan was no yes man. He rebuked David knowing such an action might lead to his own death. (Old Testament Prophets really don't last much longer than preachers.) And when David repented Nathan helped restore the King even comforting David in the pain and loss that the King's actions would soon bring on David's family. All congregations should be luck enough to have those kind of followers.

6. A follower gives personal loyalty. Although Nathan opposed David at times, he was loyal to his King. A good follower's actions should always happen around the question "what can I do to make my leader, or leaders, successful?

Six good points to think about as churches power up for their fall programs. Feel free to share them with others. Aaron won't mind.

-monty keeling

8/14/2000

Search The Web
google
alltheweb.com
snap

Search CStation

About Us
...................................................