Leadership and "Followership"
Two demands are paramount today in the church as in the world; namely, the demand for leadership and the demand for "followership." We are in a time of spiritual depression no less than of financial depression, and we face the danger within the church as in the world, of a famine of leadership accompanied by a strange palsy which is very contagious and has a tendency to cause the people to wander aimlessly like sheep without a shepherd.
It cannot be doubted that God, our supreme leader, holds the human leaders of His people today, His ministers, in their varying responsibilities no less accountable than in ancient times, when He said through Isaiah the prophet: "They that lead this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed." Isa. 9: 16, A. R. V.
There is danger that because of pressure and circumstances, we shall be inclined to muddle along, failing adequately to meet the paramount issues of this hour and the future. The processes and problems, the relationships and demands, of this late hour have become too technical, too sensitive, too interdependent within the church, for management by novices. The simple life and times of our fathers could survive even under a mediocre or temporizing leadership, but though God has blessed us with many able men, this complicated, enigmatical hour cannot survive.
We are all forced to admit that the finding and following of more leaders blessed with an unprecedented clarity of insight, an uncompromising courage of action, and an unbounded faith in God, is one of the paramount needs of the advent movement. And events will not wait long for the increase of such leadership.
Facing the Future
I speak advisedly when I also emphasize the following, as well as the finding, of leadership adequate to resolve the dilemmas that today distract the church. It is doubtful whether, as a people, we are yet equal to the challenge of this hour for a more authentically efficient leadership in our ministry. There is danger that we do not know how or have the courage to discuss certain problems which continually plague us, or conduct certain parts of our work save with the magic of worn-out shibboleths and methods. We cling with a kind of desperate devotion to certain obsolete and traditional forms for the presentation of our message, for instance, which result too often in leaving an old-covenant impression upon our auditors, as well as in the lives of those who may be responsive to our labors. But sooner or later fast-moving events will force us, if they have not already begun to do so, to see that even with the great message which we bear, the Spirit of God Himself must supplant our methods for His, and our fleshly impressions for those of the Holy Ghost alone.
Events of first magnitude in the fulfillment of the last prophecies of the Scriptures relative to the church are moving steadily toward us "as if driven by the mighty hand of God." The most baffling situations in connection with the cause of Christ are right upon us. Perplexities of every sort imaginable are multiplying and sweeping into the work of the closing gospel message. Such a storm as the church has never before seen, inspired by him who "knoweth that he hath but a short time," is breaking upon the leaders and people alike. "Followership" made perfect by a vital Christian life must now be developed to meet the called-for leadership of this hour. Leadership, be it ever so perfect, is inadequate without the development of a correspondingly efficient "followership."
The present hour is one of the greatest in Christian activity, but is accompanied by an entirely inadequate Christian experience, faith, and courage. Unless as leaders of God's people we sense this, our leadership can be but inadequate. A writer in the London Spectator, speaking of the world at large, stimulates profitable reflection by expressing the opinion that there is "one feature in the present aspect of the world which is most unusual, and that is the contrast between the magnitude of events occurring all around us, and the smallness, or rather the second-ratedness, of the men supposed to guide them."
Christian Statesmanship
Let not this be true of the church! A ministry of statesmanlike leadership is needed now in the sphere of God's cause in order to enlarge the plans. The enormous widening of opportunity which has come in recent years in almost every mission field calls for a great enlargement of the plans of occupation. Within a few years literally hundreds of millions of people have been brought within easy reach of the forces of this cause. The same improved means of communication, etc., which have accomplished this result, have likewise facilitated the further spread of the non-Christian religions, thus making the summons to larger plans of evangelism the more urgent.
It is worth repeating, that nothing short of statesmanlike planning is essential if the church is to measure up to an opportunity unmatched in all her history. It is evident that we must deal with questions of larger dimensions than ever before.
Another point should be emphasized here, and that is that the time has come to put an end to the wastefulness and comparatively meager results caused by lack of concerted plan and effort. We have no doubt that a practical plan of co-operation and concentration, entered into intelligently and adhered to loyally on the part of all our forces, would be more than the equivalent of doubling the number of our workers. Is this not important, then, in our planning for the speedy triumph of God's cause?
The enterprise of "finishing the work" has taken its place among those great works which require the ablest generalship. Tasks of such large dimensions make such demands that none but leaders of large mold are capable of dealing with them adequately. We do not mean men who in and of themselves are great or big, as this world counts bigness, but who, having talents of leadership, are so surrendered to God and so endowed with an adequate vision that the Holy Spirit can possess them in all fullness.
On the home field quite as much as on the mission field, there is need of more men of outstanding consecration, ability, and leadership to release the latent energies of the home church, and to relate these to the plans for the finishing of the work. Here lies one of the largest tasks of constructive, statesmanlike leadership. While there needs to be a great emphasis on "followership," this is largely a problem of leadership. Wherever the church has proved inadequate, it has been due to inadequate leadership on the part of her ministry.
New York City.
