In the last few years I have said goodbye to several Christian friends,ministers and pastors who had tremendous anointings in God (one of whom died a week ago). They provided vision and leadership to the ministry God gave them. When they died they left a huge hole. It wasn't filled or was filled differently from the legacy they wanted to leave. In one case a great church built on the power of the Holy Ghost is now a seeker sensitive church with no power at all.
Most to the day they died didn't believe the truth of their mortality. They weren't going to go despite the statistics. So they didn't prepare the ministry or church they led for the day when they changed worlds.
Zola Levitt did. He died Wednesday. He prepared and left things in good hands.
I respect and honor that ultimate vision.
The Apostles of the early church were under no such illusions of immortality on this side of the veil. Paul had his Timothy. To the day he died he invested in the young man. When the executioners axe came he could smile at the face of death. He would live on in Timothy and then in Timothy's Timothys.
Are the Apostles of today developing Timothys? I fear that many good men do not invest in strong men because they fear that before they are ready the young man might take away their church or split it. And sometimes, they invest themselves in men who are less than able to take the ministry or church over when they move up. Kind of like the old adage, ""first rate people hire first rate people, second rate people hire third rate people out of fear of being usurped"".
That's true in corporate American and more true than we ever might think in the Christian world.
So I address the hundred or so Spiritual Leaders who will read this. Who is your Timothy? Is he worth your investing in, and if so, are you? Will your ministry survive you?
You owe it to the gift God placed in you to see to it that it will.
Invest in Quality. That's true in the world and truer in the Church.
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