A good leader or a good follower - which is more important?

Recently Ella, my almost 4 year old daughter, and i visited our neighborhood duck pond. Its a place that we like to frequent for some fantastic father & daughter time. We did our usual of walking to different areas of the pond to feed the ducks & geese, our favorite being the large gazebo that juts out into the water.

After we had overfed the birds with old hot-dog buns Ella decided that we should take a walk on a paved trail leading away from the pond (and our car). It was a beautiful day so i was all for it. This trail eventually ended at the entrance of a neighborhood. Ella again decided that we should explore the neighborhood.

At this point i began to weigh our options (classic ISTJ behavior). How long had we been gone? How far were we going to get from the car? Would i have to eventually carry her all the way back? Etc. So i began to formulate in my head the best thing(s) to say to lure her back toward the direction we came (using great logic of course - again ISTJ). And then (cue dramatic music) i decided to just let her lead. Where ever she wants to go that's where we'll go! I am just going to follow. No questions asked. Just follow the cute curly headed girl on an adventure.

This is when our time together really began to get rich and memorable. I am not kidding. It was so incredibly fun to simply let her lead and go where she wanted to go because of her whims and 4 year old logic. Our adventure was fantastic. (i would love to take the time to describe to you how we moved about the sidewalks and streets and yards but it would take too many keystrokes to explain it all - just trust me)

As we were getting back to the car (yes we made it back) it struck me that in our society we are ALL about leaders & leadership. Google it, check out Joseph-Beth bookstore, search for a conference on it, the topic is everywhere. Its worshipped and revered. Heck i even have a Master's Degree in it (i have the diploma to prove it). But we don't spend any time or ambition on followers & followership (the blog editor is indicating i just invented this word). But we should.

In fact, a couple of years back Brandon Schaefer, a co-worker of mine at Southland and oddly enough now has the title of Follow Team Minister, and i began exploring the idea of hosting a "Followers" Conference. What would that look like? What we would challenge people with? Who would speak at it? Would anyone come to it?

The truth of the matter is most of us are followers most of the time. But are we any good at it?! Do we read about it, do we go to conferences on it, do we study it, do we focus on it, do we work on being better at it, do we have ambition to become it? Something certainly worth pondering.

A good leader or a good follower - which is more important? You tell me.