Just about every week I hear about a new book on leadership! Every year I read or hear about another conference on leadership. I am a leader and I have benefited greatly by attending great leadership conferences and reading excellent books on leadership. But what about the followers? Who's writing the books that followers read? Who's leading the conference on followership? Where do the followers turn to learn how to be a better follower. Is it each to their own leader?
So I thought I'd dedicate this blog post to the idea of followership. Jesus said, "Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men." Most followers in the Christian Church context are busy learning many good things. They are learning how to be a godly man or a godly woman. They are learning how to be a faithful husband or wife. They are learning how to be a more effective mother or father. They are learning how to pray and how to be an ethical/Christian business man/woman. They are learning Theology and how to study their Bibles but are they a good follower?
Does the average Christian know what it means to be a good follower of Jesus? Do they know what…
 |
Working Together to Stop Gun ViolencePosted on Sep 17, 2010 - 04:23 PM by Michael Allen |
Gun violence is a terrible symptom of what troubles our communities. Dealing with it has become a quality of life issue, and to understand how gun violence affects us, we need to take a look at our communities.
I am pastor at Uptown Baptist Church on Chicago's North Side. In this community, there is incredible diversity -- rich, poor and middle class, those with Ph.D's and those with no education, people of all colors and backgrounds. People live, work and worship next to one another. It's essential that they come together to fight crime, including the threat of gun violence.
We have seen here how a community can improve itself and deal with its problems.
For example, consider the murals that have gone up in Chicago's Uptown community. One that is intact at Sunnyside and Sheridan was done in the mid-1990's, before I got here. Before the mural went up, that area was called "Blood Alley," because of all the stabbings and rapes and shootings there. When the mural went up, crime took a nosedive in that area. There is still crime there, but it's way better than it was 8 to 10 years ago. A friend of mine has explained to me that where there is order and beauty, many criminals have been known to scatter.
Meanwhile, over the years our church has participated…
