Legacy Building

When it comes to legacy, it can go both ways.  A person can, and often will, leave both good and bad legacies for the next generation.  Over these past few years, I have started to see the importance of building a legacy and passing off your knowledge.  Whether it is ministry, work, teaching, coaching, etc, one must not only look to train their students/employees but know that there needs to be a successor to carry on your legacy.

I have had many influential people and figures in my life around building a legacy.  I want to share 2 in particular.  The first one is my Judo coach.  As a student, I was being trained by him and started to grow in my own abilities as a coach.  He said one thing that I will never forget.

My job as a coach is not to only train you, but to train you in a way that you will eventually surpass me.  If I have done my job, you should be able to beat me in a match.  - Marty Sprecker - 

 I have held onto this as one of my fundamental perspectives when I coach/mentor my students.  But we have to ask, is this a biblical principle?  To answer that, I want to bring my second person who has greatly influenced me in legacy building.  Jesus.

Jesus' model of ministry I would have to say is incredible.  He was an incredible visionary, healer, leader, and miracle worker.  But as I read through Acts and the Letters of Paul, I am equally amazed at what his disciples and the following generations of were able to do.  What I realized is that with each generation of disciples, they did greater and greater things than the last.  Now when I say greater, I don't just mean doing more, I am actually thinking it more along the lines of the faith of each generation of disciples increased drastically.  Jesus didn't hold back and the model of mentorship was in a lot of ways similar to what my coach said around training his disciples so that they would surpass him in his works through a deeper faith in Him.  Jesus wasn't in the ministry to train partners in the ministry, he was in the ministry to train successors!

This is something that both Barron and I are really passionate about.  Especially students being in University.  We need to keep in mind that our students are not going to be there forever.  At most we might get them for 6 years.  We have to remember that we are not only training partners but successors.  It doesn't mean that they will take over the ministry, but it focuses more on training them in a way that they will be Extraordinary Kingdom Leaders not just on the SFU Campus but when they graduate and go into the world.

I have been here for a period of 4 years now and have seen a number of students graduate.  The thing that surprises me is that the faith of each passing generation of students increases from the last.  Not saying the earlier generations are not faithful but they have laid an incredible foundation and have successfully passed off their vision, passion, and faith to the upcoming generation of students.

Students like Lida, Esther, Donald, Daniel, Carrie, Mona, and Vanessa.  If I could spend time in each of these students and the legacy they left behind it would take you my readers hours to read.  If you would like to read a story of legacy, read Donald's Story here.  I would say though, without the faithful work of these few students we would not be where we are at with the SFU ministry in witness and evangelism.  Read more of what's happening at SFU today here!

Donald's Legacy

Coming into his second year, Donald was walking down the hallways of SFU thinking about what it means to be a witness on the SFU Campus.  He then looked up and saw a table set up in the hallway of the AQ and three guys sitting behind a table.  Looking at the sign, he realized that it was IVCF, an organization his friend from church was telling him about.  Without thinking he proceeds to sign up for this group.  Little did he know though that this was IVCF's Pioneering year on SFU and that he would end up starting a movement that continues to this day.

I remember sitting with Donald at Pearl Fever waiting to extend two fairly large invitations.  The first invitation was for him to fully invest in IVCF (he was jumping between two ministries at that time) and to be mentored by me, while the second one was for him to come on the China GP with me.  As I gave this first invitation, he sat there, looking down for a few seconds thinking.  He then raised his head and said a simple, "Ok".  I was surprised and excited at the same time at the quickness of his response.  But if the first invitation wasn't daunting enough, I'm sure the second one would scare him off.  So I went ahead and asked him the second invitation, "Come to China with me."  Now this one took a bit longer and was indeed more daunting but after months of prayer and discernment, he decided to come.

Since Donald was coming to China with me, he was also required to come to Mark West (in Alberta at this time).  Donald didn't want to go to Mark West by himself so he decided to ask his Brother Daniel to come with him.  To his surprise, Daniel said "Yes".  Daniel had never been a part of any IVCF stuff but he decided to come, spending $400 of his own money to study the bible for 40 hours.  By the end of Mark West, both Donald and Daniel were committed to the ministry of IVCF and they proceeded to invite their peers and friends.   After China, Donald decided to take a year break in Edmonton before transferring to BCIT for Engineering.  He is now finishing up his last semester and is engaged to be married in August.

The following year, Daniel continued to be a part of our leadership team and constantly invited his church friends and the people he met.  From Daniel, and his help in pioneering IVCF SFU Surrey, he connected with Esther, Catherine, and Andy.  From Daniel, he found and passed off an incredible vision of witness to his friends and peers.  To this day, Esther has been the source of incredible life and invitation in our community, Catherine is now leading as our student president in beginning of an incredible movement of evangelism and witness and Andy is witnessing on the Varsity Track team of SFU.

What will happen after Catherine and Andy move on?  I don't know, but what I do know is that they see the importance of building a legacy and I trust in God's work through them that they will train and empower the next generation of students to take their place in this ministry of SFU.

The Heart of Evangelism

At the beginning of December was a conference for all the IVCF Canada Staff.  The theme of this
conference was around developing a heart of Evangelism and Witness and to show us that it is possible for us to be doing this even without a particular "gifting".  Both Barron and I came away with a conviction that this needs to be true for the SFU ministry.  So we went ahead to prepare our students to receive the news of this direction for SFU.  Barron worked with Abraham in the small group leaders material and training around evangelism and I worked on communicating with the other exec around what the new direction is going to be like.  

As the student executive and small group leaders walked through my doors at the beginning of classes, all of them had differing ideas on what small groups looked like.  However, as Barron and Abraham have been planning and started sharing the vision, I could sense a tension of fear filling the air.  We were basically asking our small group and executive team to be stronger witnesses and to proclaim the Gospel to their non-believing friends.  A few of them expressed their concerns and reservations, but to our surprise, they all agreed that it needed to be done.

Them saying yes is a result of the faithfulness of the students who went before them.  They said "yes" even though they knew that they may be hated or labelled for it.  Despite that, they chose to step into this fear and discomfort which put their minds off of what they can do themselves to what God is capable of doing.

A couple of weeks later, we as a team went to Denman Island where Ian Elliot (Director of Evangelism) hosted our group.  Ian and his wife Naomi lead our team through the sending of the seventy disciples, got us to name our fears, and brought attention to the sin of tolerance in Canadian culture.  During all of these portions, he shared incredible stories of witness which revealed to our team the practical (and attainable) applications of Evangelism.  That week, we became inspired to be bathing this vision in prayer and to be fervently praying for the friends we are called to witness to.

As a result of that weekend, Anika our Spiritual Direction Coordinator lead us (the Core Witness Team) through an incredible prayer time of confession and repentance.  We were reminded of the truths of who God is and that if there are fears in us, it's because these truths were not active in us.  To help us with a deeper understanding of these truths, we started praying specific bold prayers.  Prayers of healing, prayers for God to intervene, prayers for God to create opportunities and open up doors to witness.  We saw God giving prophetic words and images for each other who were dealing with these fears.  The initial fears these students are having are starting to disappear as they come to know and believe the truths of God's character.

With the combination of fervent prayer and exceptional training for our leaders, one can only imagine what will happen this semester.  As a big bold prayer, we are praying for 20 students who aren't Christians to be coming out to the Ski Retreat.  We are praying that by the end of the semester that we will have 10 students who aren't Christians come and study the Gospel of Mark at Mark West Pacific.  But most of all, we are praying that our lost friends will be able to find Jesus this semester.  

Please join with IVCF SFU through intercession.  We are in desperate need of your prayers and know that your prayers are being heard and answered.

Pray for the continued breakdown of walls and fears that prevent us from witnessing to our peers and friends

Pray that God would open doors for them to explore deeper faith issues.

Pray that God would compel a large amount of students to say "yes" to the Ski Retreat

Pray for our current community of believers that they would receive the heart and passion for witness.

Pray that the Holy Spirit would penetrate deep into our hearts.

Upcoming Events and Prayer Requests

Upcoming Events

• Ski Retreat - Feb. 6-8
• Donor Visit (Regina) - Feb. 10-16
• Urbana & Mark West Pacific Registration Opens - Mar. 4
• GROW Training (Toronto) - Mar. 9-12

Students & Campus

• Pray for the continued breakdown of walls and fears that prevent us from witnessing to our peers and friends
• Pray that God would open doors for them to explore deeper faith issues.
• Pray that God would compel a large amount of students to say "yes" to the Ski Retreat
• Pray for our current community of believers that they would receive the heart and passion for witness.
• Pray that the Holy Spirit would penetrate deep into our hearts.
• Pray for my funding.  I am nearly fully funded in monthly donations.  Pray that God would place on the hearts of donors to come on as supporters
• Pray for Barron as this will be his last semester on Staff with IVCF.

Personal

• Pray for my growth as a leader and mentor.
• Pray for me as I continue to network and connect with other Churches in the Lower Mainland.
• Pray for the Inter-Generational Dialogue between 1st and 2nd Generation Chinese Pastors.
• Pray for mine & April's relationship in our marriage and a deeper understanding of God's Love for each other.
• Pray for more opportunities and clients for April in her field of work.
• Pray for our general finances.  We are asking God to allow us to break even each month.
• Pray for me that I will rest well during my Sabbaths.
• Pray for me that I will be exercising more regularly.
• Pray for the regular rhythms of time with God for both April and I

Praise Item

• Praise that Lord for his work in our students lives and the exciting opportunity to be strong witnesses to our friends
• Praise the Lord that my health has been greatly improving and energy levels have been increasing.
• Praise the Lord that April was able to get some more contracting work.