Daily Inspiration Quote by Bill Hybels

Leadership gets the glamour; followership gets the risk. Bill Hybels is deliberately flipping the usual church-and-corporate storyline in which courage belongs to the person at the microphone. In his world, where “calling” and “vision” are prized, he’s naming a quieter vulnerability: the moment you hand someone else influence over your time, reputation, and moral agency.

The intent is pastoral and managerial at once. For a clergyman who built a leadership brand, “follow another person’s lead” functions as both an affirmation and a corrective. It dignifies the staffer, volunteer, congregant, spouse - anyone asked to trust a direction they didn’t design. Hybels is also inoculating against a familiar failure mode in religious communities: people who equate spiritual maturity with independence or constant critique. By calling followership “courage,” he frames obedience (a loaded word in church life) as an active choice rather than passive submission.

The subtext carries a warning. Following well means accepting ambiguity, tolerating imperfect leaders, and owning your part in outcomes you didn’t author. That’s scary precisely because it strips away the ego-protection of “I would’ve done it differently.” It also hints at accountability: if you choose to follow, you can’t outsource your conscience entirely. Courage here isn’t compliance; it’s discerning trust.

Context matters because Hybels’ ministry emphasized systems, teams, and scaling impact. In that environment, the quote is a bid for cultural glue: loyalty without idolizing the leader, unity without erasing dissent. It works by elevating the uncelebrated role and making it morally serious.