OK, so I’m not retiring and don’t plan to. I’ve asked the Lord to take me with my boots on and, if like my Dad, my Mom, my sister and my brother, I’ll go quickly. But I digress.

The real reason I’m writing this is because I determined decades ago that we Christians ought to leave a legacy. Writing our memoirs could be a part of that but I’d rather see my legacy being one of having had equals raised up in the Christian ministry who can carry on.

At the beginning of November, David, who is still active with the US Army, gave a message to Church of the Risen Christ one night that showed the similarity between the military life and the Christian life. In true military style, he used a large white board with a magic marker and divided the board with a vertical line and set up various military functions on the one side and the corresponding ministries and callings in the Christian life on the other. One mirrored the other and, on the basis of his study in the Bible, he was able to show that there are far more gifts and callings in the Body of Christ than just the usual “pastor, evangelist, teacher, worship leader and missionary.” The more he talked, the more it became evident that everyone in the room (and in your church, maybe?) has a calling of some kind, not necessarily to leadership but needful in a healthy body of believers nonetheless.

My message this month is short and to the point. It’s a rhetorical question I will have asked Church of the Risen Christ at the next service: “On the basis of what David Dryden taught last week, describing all the various and valuable ministries and callings he found in the Bible, I have one question: If I, your pastor, dropped dead tomorrow, what would you do?”

My challenge to you pastors reading this: If God took you Home now, how prepared is your congregation to take over? Frankly, if they call a seminary to get a list of candidates to replace you, something seems wrong. Why? Because, by now, you could have been preparing the people to survive as a church body where each could have been ready to exercise their gifts and ministries and there could well be a pastor waiting-inthe- wings. Or have you been too territorial and/or insecure to let go before to prepare others?

If we’re not careful, we can have people who are perpetual sheep rather than ministering brothers and sisters who can carry a body of believers. I’m determined to leave a legacy of replication of ministry equals, not necessarily of my ministry but those whom I consider equal in the ministry with me because I’ve encouraged them to do so, who can be the salt of the earth Jesus commanded us to be, making disciples, not converts, both in Salt Lake, in the USA and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Gee, that sounds like something I’ve read before (see Acts 1:8).

Copyright 2009 by Rev. Dave Roberts.+