Follow Me vs. Look at Me

The greater the level of your success, the greater level of recognition you may receive.  And there's nothing as dangerous as increased recognition to the spirit of a leader.  Leaders can easily become addicted to admiration which causes them to move from a "follow me" to a "look at me" attitude. Every leader starts off with a hunger to influence people, but sometimes with increased success our motivation can subtly shift from influencing to impressing people. And when this happens the focus is taken off of Jesus and put on ourselves.Paul was undoubtedly one of the most successful and influential Christian leaders in the first century.  He understood the power of modeling because it was he who said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." (1 Corinthians 11:1)   But notice he said, "Follow me" not "Look at me".  The word "follow" in the Greek is Momois, which is where we get our English word "mimic".  It has the idea of watching someone so you can learn from them and do as they do. The objective is imitation not admiration. If God has given you favor in what you do, and that favor has lead to increased recognition, steward it well by modeling for others how to lead like Jesus. Question of the Day:  If people imitate your leadership will it result in them leading like Jesus?