Monday, March 14, 2011

Follower

As you can see in my last post, I finally caved in and signed up for Twitter a couple days ago.  Twitter uses interesting language.  On Facebook, the people who can "hear" and "see" you are your "friends."  On Twitter, people who can "hear" and "see" you are your "followers."  And the tweets (Twitter's terminology for the 140 character messages that are the backbone of their network) that I receive on my home page are from those people I "follow."

If you subscribe to (or at least grapple with) the Christian worldview, the idea of "following" should bring pause.  Jesus didn't use the word Christian, but he certainly called people to "follow" him.  When he confronted Levi (aka Matthew) the toll-collector, he commands, simply: "come follow me."  Our 21st Century Western ears miss the power of that moment, the power of that phrase.  Perhaps we think of Jesus as such a gravitational figure that Levi couldn't resist; or we assume the Holy Spirit was doing a mighty work in Levi's heart, such that he was already longing for Jesus before Jesus walked up to his booth.  While both of those imaginations are likely true, the cultural weight of that moment makes it even more powerful.  The invitation "come, follow me" was the manner in which a Rabbi would invite the best and brightest of his students to become his apprentices.  Culturally, when a Rabbi asks such a question, it would be rare (if ever) that a student would say "no."  The Rabbi had extended a rare honor. And by leaving his life behind, the student was now on the road to becoming a Rabbi himself.

"Following" shapes one's identity.  Who we follow will form who we are.  And every thinking person should be very critical about who we follow and why we follow them.  Paul gives the most significant criteria in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Follow me, as I follow Christ."  The NRSV, my translation of choice, draws out the nature of biblical following (Paul thought like a Rabbi too): "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ."  The weight of this criteria rests on the word as. Follow me, as I follow Christ.  In other words, if one isn't following Christ, don't follow that one.   


For those odd people who think of me as a leader, I implore you: only follow me as I follow Christ.  That puts a lot of responsibility on your shoulders.  

Now, with Twitter, the terminology is a bit misleading.  My friend Jeff "follows" 924 Tweeters, at present.  I may have the distinct honor of being his 924th.  Among my close friends, he's one I consider to be a "master of social media."  Just because Twitter uses the lingo, doesn't mean we're really following all the people we're "following."  But, the lingo has left me wondering... who do I follow?  In the Church, there are a handful of pastors and thinkers that I pay very close attention to.  In the Body of Christ, it seems to me that we all should be following Christ, and EVERY ONE OF US should be following people who are following Christ.  You could call this a version of mutual submission.  Below is a non-exhaustive list of people I follow.  As I consider who is and isn't on this list, and especially as I think about people who used to be on this list but were intentionally removed, I realize that my own personal criteria have more facets than Paul's first big requirement from 1 Cor 11.  There are a number of people I used to follow who began to teach, preach, and write things that were a twisting of the Bible.  Others were people who's passion inspired me, but ultimately their message created a false tension between Christianity and the mind; anti-intellectualism is a disturbing trend in Evangelicalism (though it seems to be fading... maybe just in my world, since I've stopped paying attention to those who pushed it).  Anyway, who do I follow?  These leaders, thinkers, and writers shape the way I speak, write, and think.  This list is in no particular order, nor is it anywhere close to exhaustive:

  1. Douglas Groothuis, PhD.  Professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary. 
  2. Rev. Timothy Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City. 
  3. Britt Merrick, Teaching Pastor of Reality Carpinteria (and founder of the Reality movement of churches which has now planted several churches along the west coast).  
  4. David Platt, Pastor of the Church at Brook Hills, and author of Radical.
  5. C.S. Lewis, author.  Though he is no longer alive, I follow him actively through his many books.  
  6. John Piper, Pastor, author, and teacher.  I love how seriously he takes the truth.  
  7. Ben Patterson, Campus Pastor at Westmont College, author. The man who, by his life and manner of speaking and related, defines the word "pastor" for me. 
The spark for this whole post, as I scanned Twitter this morning, was this thought: "Hmmm.  I'm a follower."  I've been trained to think that's a bad thing.  The truth is, it would be bad if I wasn't! Who do you follow?  And why do you follow them?  Entertainment value?  Shock value?  Character? Or because they follow Christ?  Choose critically and carefully.  Be willing to stop following someone who isn't worth following.  

No comments:

Post a Comment