Image from Bill Wohler
Last year, about this time of year, the beautiful wife and I went and saw The Passion Of The Christ by Mel Gibson. I know not a big surprise, etc, but that same day we had the Lord's supper at our church, and went to a 9/11 exhibit downtown. That is a lot of pain, death, agony, remembrance and hope in one day. After we got done with the 9/11 exhibit we went home and worked outside in the yard, in the sun, with the dogs. Some how that seemed like the only place we really needed to be then. Together, outside, with our dogs, on a beautiful God provided day.
That morning had begun with odd question from the beautiful wife though, and in hindsight it is one that fit the focus of the entire day. She ask me "Who do you think we should make the god parents of our dogs?" I know that may sound a bit odd, but we both have concerns about what happens to them if we both die suddenly. She wanted to be sure that whoever got them would love them, keep them together, and care for them. Her parents would not want them, my parents are really too old to care for them all the time, so then you begin going down the list of friends, neighbors, etc. We concluded by deciding to revisit the topic later as no one clearly jumped to mind.
Anyway, from this discussion my mind quickly ask the same question about our church, our Christian walk, and our ministries. Who is going to take over if / when we die? That is a hard one to stomach. One that reminds us of our transitory state. It also reminds us that we are not so important, and that the world does not end if we were not in it.
So many times we are so busy with what God is doing, and is going to do, with us that we forget that when we die someone has to take over. To take over the vision and passion of another we really have to know what is going on in the lives of our fellow believers. We have to know their passions, their goals, their calls, etc. Understand I am not talking about getting to know people via discipleship / Sunday school classes, though they help. No, what I mean is really investing and knowing others where we know each others hearts, we know each others visions, and we know the individual calls God has on the lives of others. If this happens, then if we die suddenly the things that we are being called too will continue in some form or fashion.
It is the old concept of reproductive Christianity, and like I said discipleship and Sunday school classes are great and do help, but in reality those things are only part of it. Through those classes / courses we generally do not get a grasp of what person A, B or C is really being called to do. Sure we know them, we hear them talk about the topic of the week, we get to know them on surface level, but we typically do not learn their passion.
Learning about others passions, and investing them with your passion, is the key to what I am talking about. We must learning what others are passionate about, and as well as share our own passions with others. The bottom line question should be, “If I died tomorrow who is going to continue the ministries that I love and that I have poured my life into?”. For me, the honest answer at this point of my life is that there are a few people that might, but there is really no single person who I believe would step up and take the ministries that I love (both on and offline) into the future. Basically, no one has really tried to step up to get the full grasp of the vision that God has for me, though I have tried to share it with several.
I think there are several reasons that lead to no one being ready to set in, even though I personally have tried to find someone. One key factor few people even know what God wants them to do, and to begin taking on the passion and vision of others is impossible until you grasp what God wants you to do. Hopefully you know what God is calling you to do, if you do not you really can not help anyone else until you get your own walk with God on the right track. For me, I also have found it is difficult to find people with the same passions as myself - college and career, web ministries, and alike. Sure, I have tried to partner my ministries with several others, and to some degree that has worked, but bottom line I have yet to find someone the same passions and a similar call as myself. I am sure they do exist, but they are just not in my life at the moment. Bottom line though I think we all need to work diligently at developing someone to take over, even if their passion is not the same, where the vision that God gave us goes on in some form. Sure the vision will be modified / adjusted by how God uniquely calls each of us, but the core of the vision will and should continue.
I know that I am far from old, but there is no promise of tomorrow and many times when it comes to ministries, visions, and calls I think it is easy for all of us to live like there is always tomorrow. That thought really convicted me when I first had it, and I know that personally I am earnestly looking for someone to take my ministries if I die tomorrow.
I also know that death is not a "happy" topic, and this post may seem like it is too close to Easter to do much good, but I think it is the right time to look death in the face and say - “You will not defeat the call that God has on my life. God's vision and purspose for my life will continue after I die.” We all need to remember that no one escapes death, and eventually we all will face it. It is vital that we are not just be prepared for death via our relationship with God via Christ, but we also prepare our ministries, and the things that we love to continue after we are gone.
Basically, this is just a quick thought, post that I hope makes you a bit more focused on reproduction yourself, and sharing your visions and calls with more then a few, but with the entire body of Christ. How can we expect others to get excited about the future of a ministry if we do not include them in it.
