Sweet’s main idea, that following Jesus and wooing others to the same is more pertinent for believers than the questionable value of human-powered leadership skill, is well taken. I found myself recognizing how easily I can leave my need for Jesus behind when I put on a leadership hat.

More poetic than demonstrative, the book leaves me craving concrete examples of followers in various walks of life today. Sweet keeps safely between the guardrails of creative and quotable statements one the one side and metaphor on the other—even his personal examples turn out to be lead-ins for a metaphor. I come away from the book with a lot of language to describe followership, without a contemporary picture of it. I want to know a guy, Joe, or a woman, Clara, preferably that he knows personally, that was for a moment a living example to him of a follower of Jesus who really gets followership, and why. While I’m asking, I’d like twenty examples, if possible.

Sweet’s writing is full of energy and enthusiasm, at times keeping me engaged, and at times leaving me in the dust as he spryly leaps from idea to idea, apparently unconcerned with how large of a leap he just made from the previous paragraph.

The interactive elements at the end of the chapters generally led out past the periphery of his own content, where I would have preferred instead the opportunity to re-engage with his own quotes more deeply.

I hope there is follow-up material, as I think his crusade for followership is a worthy and timely one.

Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this e-book as part of the BookSneeze reviewers’ program. I was not required to write a positive review.

When I finished the text, at first I felt disappointed, and maybe a little cheated, having secretly hoped for a grand conclusion after pages and pages of pent up (misguided) desire for a neat and tidy conclusion. But after a couple of days of turning to the living God, God spoke, as only God can do, to my unique soul. God gave me an image for an anchoring hope in Him that was not articulated as such in the book, but which I was made ready to receive because of the book. And now, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Now I’m glorifying God, not Larry Crabb, and I’m grateful to Crabb as a brother on the journey.

Working through this book is an eminently worthwhile experience I would recommend to anyone desiring deeper fellowship with and purer hope in God. When I say ‘working’, however, I’m not kidding–this book is spiritual labor. But it’s great work if you can get it.