Building a legacy or holding tenure?

A reflection by Phil Stokes

Last month my wife and I handed over leadership of the church that we planted over 30 years ago. It wasn’t the ‘one in, one out’ handover that can so often happen in churches. Rather we commissioning a couple with whom we have done life and with who we have walked through leadership during much of the life of the church. We laid hands on them and commissioned them, and then we were prayed for, prophecied over and ‘sent’ by them and a host of friends and our church community into our next missional adventure. We remain on staff but serving from a ‘different seat on the bus’. A growing proportion of our time and energy is now being directed into the vision of REACH London, helping church leaders and leadership teams grow a missional and discipleship culture in their church. It was a powerful moment of missional release. 

Earlier this year in the days when conferences were still together in buildings rather that online, I spoke at the Ekklesia Church Leaders conference and challenged those present with this question; ‘Have you got a delegation or succession plan? because without one you are probably not bringing your best to the game’. 

Jesus models to us a way of working that starts with the end in mind. He knew he wouldn’t be (physically) around for very long – non of us are in the big picture – and so His time had to count. He didn’t just hold tenure; that is to say, He wasn’t interested in simply signalling his identity as the Son of God for 3 years and then just hope for the best. His goal was to create a movement; to build a legacy that would outlive his 3 years and continue to role through history.

We are the legacy of a missional strategy that was highly intentional. A mission that included – to borrow a phrase from Star Trek – a ‘prime directive’. This prime directive can be understood best when we see how Jesus both began and ended his ministry. He prayed all night and then chose 12 ‘to be with him’, and at the end, in his post resurrection farewell, he commands them to go and ‘make disciples of all nations’. 

Jesus is making clear He is looking for both a method and a movement. 

The method? Invest into a small group of people, presumably in the same (or similar) manner that He did, with the result that we would reach nations through a growing legacy of missional discipleship. 

This level of missional disciple making has been challenged at each turn of the road over our years in ministry, and I can honestly admit there have been seasons when we have failed to keep focussed on the ‘prime directive’. In those seasons when we have made it a priority I believe we have seen the clearest fruit in terms of mission and multiplication. 

So how is your time in leadership going? Are you building a legacy or holding tenure? 

There is a Way to make your time count, a Way to build a culture that will last, and a Way that will lead to movement. Jesus made it clear there is a cost, but that we will leave a Kingdom legacy.