Following Jesus

Finding and Fostering Hope on a Cosmic Scale

Jesus is such an engaging person! And his mission, the biggest thing in the cosmos, is compelling and captivating – when you really get it. Allan Demond has written this book to explain that mission with greater clarity and to show the people he serves as a pastor, and anyone else who wants to read about it, how to sign on and enjoy the ride with bold, joyful confidence. The book has two distinctive features: Allan uses an unconventional vocabulary and writes primarily as a pastor to followers, not a leader to leaders.

The content of this book is classic, but the way Demond has tried to say things is fresh and at times confronting. He talks at length about ‘Christianity’, the ‘church’ and our need for a program of ‘discipleship’—but he does not use those words in the main text. As he explains at the very end, he believes this inherited vocabulary has lost its power in the West, and frequently adds confusion to the conversation. We gain greater clarity and experience fresh confidence when we simply search for other words to restate the things we thought we knew.

Followers of Jesus are the hope of the world, and so Allan Demond has written for followers first and leaders second. If the movement for which Jesus died is to regain momentum in the West, and flourish around the globe, it will be the work of followers supported by leaders, and not the other way around; it will be to the honour of billions of under-celebrated ordinary people forming un-acclaimed communities of hope, regardless of whose biography says what!

Every follower in Jesus’ movement, which includes all of us leaders, is charged with servanthood, self-leadership and the joyful multiplication of followers. This is the challenge common to us all as we ‘follow Jesus in the power of the Spirit, on mission, in community and through the disciplines of Bible, prayer and giving’. It is the most exciting work on earth and Allan Demond hopes to serve it by offering this book.