BOOK REVIEW: "I Am A Follower"

Review: "I Am a Follower: The Way, Truth, and Life of Following Jesus."

By: Leonard Sweet

Sweet's book attempts to turn the well established idea of leadership within the church on its head by looking at what the Bible has to say about leadership. Thousands of dollars, millions of books and many conferences focus on how to be leaders within our churches, communities and in our households, but is that what Jesus has called us to? Or is that simply 'extra' that we have added to the gospel over time? The book is divided among four separate sections, The Place, The Way, The Truth, and The Life which seek to both attack the position of leadership within the church as it is today as well as provide an argument for what it means to be a follower. It the book could be summarized in a tweet it would be: 'The world believes it needs better leaders but Jesus has called you to be His follower.'

I really wanted to like this book. I read lots of Christian living, church growth, leadership (whoops), and have many of Sweet's books as well. When I received this and got an idea what it was about I was excited to crack it open and begin reading. The organization of the book is great (much like his other books) and is logical in its flow. Leonard Sweet is a pretty easy read too and even has a good literary voice throughout. So while I was hoping for something really powerful, I kind of felt a little labored through reading it and it left me questioning the entire premise of the book.

As I said earlier the organization of the book was perfect, I really understood the four sections and believe that they were all important and explained his argument well. The problem is that each section was overly repetitive and by the end of each section I was really ready to move on to the next idea. Like many authors Sweet explains the idea in the beginning of the section then takes it apart and explains each piece to the reader on why it's important. I found myself reading the same thing several time throughout the section and simply losing interest toward the middle of the section.

While these seem to be little issues, the main critique I have of the book is it's benefit to the reader. After reading the book and thinking through the concept of follower verses leadership I felt like it was still missing something. While trying to explain that the role of leader in the Bible is minimized, Sweet correctly states that word 'leader' and 'pastor' are only found once each in the New Testament. This raises two issues, first being that there are several actions taken within the New Testament that would be leadership-like roles even if that isn't what their called in the Bible. Certainly the selection of elders and overseers Paul gave to Timothy demonstrates some decisions on leadership, as well as the various times in the The Book of Acts where men and women are given specific responsibilities (i.e. choosing of the seven in Acts 6). The second issue is a dangerous one, should we base a belief against leadership on the absence of specific words? Think for a moment what that would mean... trinity - not there. Personal Relationship with Jesus - not there. Abstaining from illegal drugs - not there. Simply because an issue isn't specifically mentioned doesn't give us the ability to say whether or not that thing is right or wrong, it takes an entire view of scripture to do that.

All of this to say though, Leonard Sweet has some really good insights when we focus too much on leadership rather than on being a follower, it would seem to me though that leadership might be an attribute of a follower in some cases. We are all called to be followers of Jesus, but Jesus has us all following in different ways and capacities according to our gifting and calling. The final chapter of Sweet's book emphasizes what a follower does, and how he should live his life, I felt at ease in this chapter. Being a follower is difficult, counter cultural, and liberating but at the end it's really about how we can be incarnational in living the Good News out int he world around us.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”