Sacrificial Succession - Investing in Who‪?‬ Sacrificial Succession

Sacrificial Succession #18 “Investing in Who?”
• “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” 2 Timothy 2:2 • Billionaire founder of Christian Vision, Lord Robert (Bob) Edmiston once said, “When I am on my death-bed I am not going to be thinking about the last million dollars I made, but about my investment in people.”
• Whether or not we make a million or billion dollars, the same principle applies to us. Who are we investing our lives and leaderships into...people or things? Jesus personally invested in 12 disciples. At least five times that number were sent out on his behalf (Luke 10:1). They changed their worlds. Apostle Paul had his Timothys and Tituses.
• Even when imprisoned he wrote letters to the churches and pastors he was discipling. That is why we have Paul’s Epistles today. Investing in successors is the greatest legacy any of us can leave. Their impact is felt long after we have left this earth.
• I have been blessed by some great investors in me, who have and are taking the time to help me invest in others. This mutual sacrifice of time between predecessors, successors and their disciples is what makes these human investments a legacy paradigm.
• Paying this greater price, positionally, and practically, by serving, sacrificing for and sustaining successors can only be made by a predecessor personally invested in the process. A Sacrificial Succession is constituted by the total time invested in the transition by its practitioners plus the specific time allocated for each sacrificial stage.
• Reflecting on his role of leading from behind, Pete says, “In many ways, I am more effective now that I am no longer top leader because I have more time to spend investing in younger leaders and helping other churches with their successions. Sacrificial Succession Podcasts • Despite the extreme political and social pressures many of our projects bring, we have always had many ‘friends’ supporting us who gave us good business and community intelligence about who is against us and for us in that nation.
• As entrepreneurs, we intentionally use our resources to make friends for ourselves as an investment for support later. In everything that we do we aim to be wise in our dealings with our enemies without hurting them, confident that through our generosity and good conduct we will always have many [secret] supporters. • Jesus commands us to go out amongst the ‘wolves’ [our enemies] and to be smart about it like snakes, yet to remain as innocent as doves, Matthew 10:16. This is a challenging investment, which reaps great rewards when applied to successors.
• Jesus goes on to say that worldly people are smarter in their business dealings with each other than spiritual people are and exhorts us to use the worldly things we have now to make ‘friends’ of unbelievers, some who as believers will welcome us later in heaven, Luke 16:8-9.
• By faith, we can be confident that there are always people who have not ‘bowed their knee to Baal’ (1 Kings 19:18) and are [silent or secret] supporters of our mission as they were of Paul the Apostle, Acts 18:9.
• Who are you investing in, yourself or others? How are your human investments going?
• Thank you, Lord, for those who have invested in me and help me to invest in others, not things.

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