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!