Follow the Leader

Barbara Nauta

edited by Bob Terwilliger, summer 2022

There are not a lot of ways I can participate in the life of the RCA. Not directly. The RCA church in my area, The Reformed Church in Plano, the church I served as associate pastor, closed more than five years ago. There are no other RCA churches in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. The Classis I belong to holds its meetings too distant geographically for me to attend.

So, I rely on the denomination reaching out to me. For which I am sincerely grateful. For instance, when my RCA retiree chaplain gets in touch to schedule a time to get together for a conversation, I make every effort to be available.

Ever since the pandemic most of the interaction takes place virtually. I watch and listen to the YouTube presentations from our general secretary, Eddy Aleman. I read the emails and newsletters from the Synod of the Heartland. I appreciate the updates that come from the headquarters in Grand Rapids.

When the offer came to participate along with general synod delegates in the devotions to prepare them for General Synod, I participated as well. The devotion on leadership particularly reminded me of the short essay, Follow the Leader, I wrote during the pandemic. I thought I would share it with you.

Follow the Leader

by Barbara Nauta

March 2020

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

Mark 1:17 Peters Digital Press

A favorite game children enjoy is “follow the leader.”  I can still see my first four grandchildren playing it.  Tyler, the first born and the tallest, in the lead with the three others following behind, one behind the other from next tallest to the shortest, like walking down a staircase. They weave back and forth and in and out like a living creature imitating their leader’s every move.

I, however, would find myself sitting on the couch in our family room watching the coming and the going with great joy and satisfaction. The children are happy and I admire the interest and energy they put into their game. It is a good game to play. But I am satisfied to admire the way they are playing together. I am not about to get up off the couch and start imitating all the things the leader is doing. I am not interested in following the leader.

As I sit here and remember and reflect on my experience of non-involvement with follow the leader as role-modeled by my grandchildren in their grandparent’s home, it struck me as an apt illustration of how we confuse the terms admire and imitate. If I were to ask any of my friends, family, neighbors, and fellow church- goers about imitating Jesus, would they confuse the term with admiration?

These two terms juxtaposed were brought to my attention by Eugene Peterson in his book: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Admiration is passive. It does not require anything of us. We can hold ourselves at a distance. Perhaps, not on a family room couch, but uninvolved with the action just the same.

Some of us were talking about this the other day and we noticed how the word “imitate” is a verb. Verbs connote action. Participation. Often inducing some level of change. If I am going to join the group following Tyler, I might find myself crawling under the dining room table and running down the sidewalk.

Jesus said, “Come, follow me.” The Greek gives the sense of “come join.” If I am to follow Tyler, I have to join in all Tyler is doing to be his follower. What is Jesus doing that I need to be a part of doing as well if I am going to consider myself a follower of Jesus? How is Jesus relating to other people in his encounters with them? How am I?

Over and over, we can see how approachable and hospitable Jesus is. Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46 – 52) calls out as Jesus was passing by and Jesus stops and tends to the man’s request. When Zacchaeus was so eager to get a glimpse of Jesus the day Jesus came to town, but was frustrated by the large crowd, he climbed a tree so he could see. Jesus noticed. To such an extent that he initiated a visit with him. If you the read the story in Luke 19: 2-8 note Zacchaeus’s response.

In his book, The Art of Christian Listening, Thomas Hart writes:

“The purpose of our lives is to become like Jesus, and not just to resemble him externally but to be rooted and grounded in him (Ephesians 3:17), to be ever more closely identified with him so that we can say, ‘I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me.’ (Galatians 2:20). Any growth in the living out of the great commandment is growth in Christ. The entire object of Christian spirituality is right here.”

If the purpose of our lives is to become like Jesus, then the question is: What is Jesus like?

Jesus, move me beyond my admiration of you to become more like you.  Amen

Barb received her A.B. from Wheaton College and her M.Div. from Perkins School of Theology. She came through the TEA (MFCA) program for certification for ordination. She was the associate pastor at the Plano Reformed Church in Plano, Texas, and has served on the MFCA board. She and her husband, Ronald, live in Frisco, Texas. bjnauta@gmail.com