“Jesus never once used the word leader or anything like it to refer to his disciples.”

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival (p. 64). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Here is the key, Jesus is to be the leader, we are to be the follower.  That is what He taught but we have been consumed by our culture to believe the opposite.

I mean there are some who teach that if we do a series of steps we will get God to give us what we want.  But here is the problem of that. Does a follower go to the leader to get them to give them what the follower wants?  No it is the other way around. Somehow we have gotten this in the wrong order.  What does the leader want, what does the leader teach? 

Now Jesus all through the Gospels is telling His disciples what His Kingdom is all about.  Now we need to really understand what a kingdom is.  For one it is not a democracy.  There are no elections in a kingdom.  A kingdom has a ruler/leader/king and it has followers.  His kingdom has Him as the Leader and those of us as His followers.

In this section of his book, Leonard Sweet is dealing with the social phenomenon of Twitter and that it only knows two categories: whom you follow, and who is following you.  He says that Twitter’s categorical imperative is one of followership, not the fast track to leadership, which is so inherent to our culture.  And he says that in Twitterdom, you are who you follow.

Wouldn’t it be great if we who are Christians would take this to heart is our living out our relationship with Christ?  We are to be Christ-followers.  And in that we are who we follow.

Thanks for the very good thought, Dr. Sweet.  I really needed that.

What about you?