Passing the Torch
A little over a year ago I spoke at the annual conference of OMF (Overseas Missionary Fellowship). It was a great opportunity to visit our foreign missionaries, who are presently with a certain people group overseas. I was deeply impressed with the raw dedication of these OMF folk and was particularly taken by
a workshop led by a very vital OMF leader named abc who spent a chunk of time in the same prison as John McCain, a place known as the Hanoi Hilton. C is a few years younger than me and his workshop entitled “Passing the Torch” was quite gripping.
It is simply a working out of what we spoke on at last year’s ARC conference on generational unity.
C had 3 preliminary points on this subject before he got into his 7 lessons:
a. You need to pass the torch before you’re too old to tie your shoes
b. Success without succession is failure
c. You can do this in a grumpy or gracious manner
Here is the short version of C’s 7 lessons:
1. You’ve got to know when to quit and be willing to surrender your sense of significance. Further you must understand the shelf life of a church or organization
2. Aggressively encourage new, younger leadership and their new things. You can only be part of the future if you can cope with change.
3. Continue to lead by moral authority and be careful not to hold onto positional authority. Moral authority can never be taken away.
4. Be a cheerleader. Make heroes of younger men and women. Do it loudly. Be outwardly proud of them.
5. Show younger people the joy of “old things”. Like the joy of marriage and parenting and following Christ.
6. Be strong. Teddy Roosevelt said that young people are looking for strength and stability, for sacrifice, not safety.
7. Preserve and share history. Understanding the past helps make sense out of the present. Tell your story and the story of your mission.
Good stuff, right? As we take a close look at Titus at this year’s conference, let’s sustain our commitments to press out generational unity. I’m looking forward to seeing each of you and drinking deeply with you from the cup of the Lord.
In the love of Jesus,
Ned