Dr. Jackie Roese examines the question: Why do we spend so much time teaching people how to lead and so little time teaching them how to follow?

Okay, so… I have keep having this bizarre question run through my head. I figured I would throw it out to you & get your thoughts.

It’s this: Why do we spend so much time teaching people how to lead and so little time teaching them how to follow?  

Yup… you read that right. See, here’s my thing. I’ve worked in church life for along time. We church leaders spend a lot of time teaching and training on leadership. We have books, podcasts, conferences, blogs, and organizations that equip us to lead. All good. Kind of. Except I started thinking… “Well, what if most of us in life are followers? Not all of us are going to be big time leaders.” Oh I know, I know. We teach that we all lead someone like a mother leads her child etc., etc. I get that. But come on, seven BILLION people live in this world. Seven Billion!

All of those seven billion can’t be leaders. Who would be left to follow? You can’t be a leader if no one is following. So let’s be honest, some of us are followers. So why then, don’t we train people how to follow the leader well? Yes, we train people to follow Jesus well but what about the other leaders Jesus places in our lives? Do we ever teach how to follow them well? You see my dilemma?

And why is it we parents speak so much of our kids being such good leaders? I never hear a parent say, “My child follows the leader so well.” Do we have a prejudice against being a follower? If so, that’s a serious problem because the Scriptures are loaded with the idea of “following.” Following Jesus absolutely but also following our leaders He has placed over us. It’s there in Romans, check it out.