March 1stWhat if I don't want to follow?
This paper is from the Church Planting Resource - Fall 2022 - A resource written by Norm Dyck, Mission Minister, Michel Monette, Catalyzer Minister and Fanosie Legesse, Intercultural Mission Minister. You can download the complete resource or read individual articles online.
Norm Dyck, MCEC Mission Minister - The brothers, Simon and Andrew, were attending to their family business when Jesus, according to the Gospel of Mark, walked up to them and said, “Come follow me.” Countless sermons have been preached and commentaries written on the willingness of these brothers to submit to the invitation of Jesus. They went willingly. They went immediately. From pulpits and Bible studies we have encouraged would be disciples to submit in the same way – if Jesus asks, we go. However, is it possible that within these portrayals of Simon and Andrew, the evangelical church has encouraged passivity among those who follow?
Have we missed the point of Jesus’ invitation to Simon and Andrew? Further, what if I don’t want to follow?
There is significant correlation between the academic study of followership and the Christian invitation to discipleship. Traditionally the evangelical church has defined discipleship along similar lines to those of Harvard academic, Barbara Kellerman, who defined followership as, “subordinates who have less power, authority and influence than do their superiors and who therefore usually, but not invariably, fall into line.” As such, the pastor has studied theology, received a degree from the seminary, and therefore must be an authority on all things related to faith, which we as followers should listen to. As Joseph Rost has highlighted in the study of followership, religious institutions have tended toward the passivity of encouraging adherents to uphold doctrine and obey.
In a pre-modern world where lines of hierarchy, class and status were more clearly defined (and enforced), the challenge to obey and follow served the purpose of maintaining a social order and lines of authority. However, we have since learned, enforced passive followership also resulted in significant abuse and colonial forms of missiology. Have we missed the point of Jesus’ invitation to Simon and Andrew? Further, what if I don’t want to follow?
What would compel me to follow Jesus? This is hardly a passive question.
We can assume that Simon and Andrew were raised within Jewish customs and traditions, including the celebration of the Passover, which encourage children to ask questions of their parents throughout. As Edgar Bronfman has written in a Washington Post op-ed., “to be Jewish is to ask questions.” This realization should immediately bring into question our assumptions that Simon and Andrew dropped everything without ever asking a question. The Gospel of Mark can be read as a narrator in a hurry to get to the punchline of the story. Mark is not overly concerned with the minutiae that accompanies any social interaction between intelligent human beings. The focus of the writer is to move us along to the Good News of the salvific purpose of the incarnation of Jesus. As such, there are relationship details that have been left for us to wonder, to question, to ponder. What would compel me to follow Jesus?
This is hardly a passive question. It requires a posture of questioning, as Kellerman has highlighted in Followership: How Followers Are Creating Change and Changing Leaders, good followership always requires two questions: “Is something being done? And if something is being done – to what end?” To this we add a third question, inherent in the step of faith, do I willingly give my heart, soul and even life to this journey?
“A leader has to have a great deal of security, a goal and a belief in the cause being fought for—and not only ask bold questions himself, but be unafraid to be questioned.”
Jesus also grew up within the cultural milieu of Judaism. As such Jesus understood, as Bronfman notes, “A leader has to have a great deal of security, a goal and a belief in the cause being fought for—and not only ask bold questions himself, but be unafraid to be questioned.” In the rabbinic style of Jesus’ teaching and conversation presented in the Gospels, we find a leader inviting, urging and compelling would be followers out of complacency and passivity, to participate in their salvation, become activists in inviting others along, bringing restoration to all creation, and when necessary even surrendering their very lives because the ends of the salvific journey are so much greater than the current experienced reality.
As a result, it is even possible to experience a surge of excitement when asked within the church, what if I don’t want to follow? In the questioning rests the beginning of shaping a disciple of Jesus who will come to know the wonder, trial and exhilaration of collaborating with the Triune God to change the world.