On July 6, 1776, over two hundred British warships and possibly 30,000 troops were amassing around Sandy Hook off York Island (later known as Manhattan), preparing to invade New York. The British command was now aware of the seditious work of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Colonel Henry Knox, six months out from his amazing feat in bringing cannons to Boston from Fort Ticonderoga (see What Do You Want? Achievement), realized his prior accomplishment was not going to be enough in itself to save New York. What would be required for all was a sense of legacy. He writes to his wife, "The eyes of all America are upon us. As we play our part posterity will bless or curse us"
We, like Henry Knox, should be humbled and motivated by that same thought for our ministry. The eyes of our community are upon us and as we play our part to bring Christ to a lost and dying world posterity will bless or curse us too.
The buildings, streets and markets of ancient Ephesus, Corinth and Rome can still be seen as historical and rich with archeological artifacts. Although they have no current utility, the ministry that occurred in the buildings and markets and on the streets continues to resonate today. Generations upon generations’ lives have been forever changed because of discipleship, fellowship, prayer and prophetic words of teaching, preaching and exhortation. The dedication of believers caused people to believe in Christ as the only way to salvation and eternal life.
The Body of Christ does not replicate merely by philosophical and theological assent. The progeny of the Body of Christ, you and me, are here because of two irrefutable facts—the calling power of God, and the living salt and light of 2,000 years of ministry. That’s legacy!
It’s no fantastical illusion to believe that the very ministry being done today will have the same impact of legacy, for better and for worse. Every staff member and volunteer needs to understand that the work he or she does is not just for today. Legacy results from words spoken in kindness, or not spoken because of busyness; from compassionate concern, or irritation from interruption; from the extra effort of excellence, or doing just enough to get by. Every leader needs to ask the question, what legacy will I choose to form? Will it be the legacy of Kingdom growth or the legacy of cynicism and doubt? The answer is in every leader’s hands and every leader’s tongue and every leader’s prayers.
Leadership has no choice. One person’s influential life upon another leaves a mark for years to come—maybe a lifetime. Staff must be recruited, discipled and developed with legacy in mind. And when correcting is necessary, and it will be for everyone including the leader, leaders must never forget that even in the unglamorous work of phone calls, reports, maintenance and mundane service, legacy is at stake.
Ray Blont, Associate Director and teaching fellow at the Washington Institute, in an address to the graduation class of the U.S. Navy's Leadership Logistic Program at Port Hueneme, CA, contrasts the legacy of two significant people of history and how they chose their time to influence legacy.
The lives of Thomas Jefferson and William Wilberforce are illustrative for us. A few years ago I was struck after a visit to Williamsburg that Thomas Jefferson when he served in the House of Burgesses of Virginia helped to introduce as one of his first acts a bill to abolish slavery in Virginia. He was soundly defeated. But I had just begun reading a short biography of one of Jefferson’s contemporaries in England whose time and career were a remarkable parallel to Jefferson’s. For he, too, began his career as a legislator, a Member of Parliament, and he, too, introduced a bill to abolish the slave trade in England and its colonies. He also found his youthful purpose thwarted by his elders. But their stories ended very differently. Some 40 years later, Wilberforce was notified on his deathbed that not only had the slave trade been abolished but slavery itself. He had spent those years tirelessly working in government for the abolition of the slave trade and of slavery and it had broken his health and derailed his career that should have ended as Prime Minister. Yet not one life was lost in a war that many thought was necessitated in England for such a monumental change to occur. Jefferson would die on the 4th of July, 1826, 50 years to the day of the signing of the Declaration of Independence where he wrote ‘. . . all men are created equal." Yet he lost his focus on that purpose and even as President and later as a revered senior statesman, he demurred from his earlier commitment and spent his remaining years building UVA as the first university free from religion in the curriculum. Whereas Wilberforce concentrated his time and energies on two great objects as he called them, Jefferson concentrated his time and creative energies on his own quiet candidacy for President as an opponent of central government that would dictate to the states. He achieved that office, Wilberforce did not, but 40 years later, 600,000 men would die to abolish slavery in America. But my point here is this—how we spend our time impacts what we will ultimately accomplish with others. And how we spend our time depends on what we use as our purpose for living.
The Last Chapter in the Life of the Rich Young Ruler
Ah, the last chapter in the life of the rich young ruler. What a sad story. So close to obtaining the one thing in his life he could not buy, make happen or achieve by being good. Eternal life. He choose to invest in the things he knew—wealth, power and a form of religion but not in the unknown of sacrifice and devotion. In the end the rich young ruler did leave a legacy. The problem was it was so small history doesn’t record it.
Being an observant Jew and of the aristocracy he no doubt was an acquaintance of Saul of Tarsus. Who knows, perhaps he and Saul could both have come to see Jesus on this day. What we do know is Saul’s legacy became one beyond anyone’s comprehension at the time. The rich young ruler’s selfish legacy is left in the dust of time. Why Saul and not the rich young ruler? Why Saul in a blinding light on the road to Damascus? Both could have been powerful influencers for New Covenant people. One chose not to fill in the one thing he lacked--selflessness--the other’s legacy lives on every time the New Testament is opened.
Four Thoughts About Legacy
1. Legacy goes before us into the future. Shouldn’t that be, "Legacy goes AFTER us in to the future?" No. Legacy creates its own shock wave, like breaking the sound barrier that pushes out in front of the moving aircraft. As servants we prepare others for the future, just like Paul and Silas or Barnabas prepared disciples to go where they could not go.
As a spiritual leader you are preparing people to go where you can’t or maybe even should not go. Consider this: when you die you do not leave a legacy; the legacy has already left and gone before you.
2. Legacy is the only thing you get to take with you and leave behind. If we hear the "Well done, good and faithful servant" from the master, it is not about a successful hermit life but about legacy in relationship, as we "one another" through life.
3. Legacy is. Whether for good or for evil, for unintentional casualness or intentional intensity in relationships, we are creating legacy.
4. Anti-legacy is too. Every time we see an opportunity and fail to seize upon it, legacy happens too; a life not given the opportunity to take a different road. Regret and remorse are the products of anti-legacy.
Contrary to our human emotions we should look forward to opportunities to expect, to encourage, to prod, push motivate, instigate and, if necessary, to correct a team member . It is the heart of discipleship and the fruit of the effort will affect the legacy for possibly generations to come.
So, what do you want from your ministry team? Compliance? Achievement? Innovation or creativity? Empowerment? While all of those are helpful none of those having lasting impact. Only the effort energized with the intention of legacy will produce any lasting impact for the Kingdom of God. If we think we can please God with our compliance it is only as good as our last good act. How can we present achievement to the Creator of the Universe and expect Him to be impressed? To God who knows all, is beyond time and is in a continuously creative process how can we think the Creator is pleased with our puny ideas? And empowerment? When the Holy Spirit indwells within our "new creation" life, the Spirit of Christ who raised him from the dead, perhaps our view of empowerment becomes "right sized" to a droplet.
All that is left that He has chosen to leave to us to do is to simply leave a legacy of ministry that not only is an agent for change for the moment but lives on to, perhaps, even influence another generation.
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