Passing It On: Growing Your Future Leaders (22 page)

Matthew 1:18–20
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came
together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not
want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of
the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because
what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

He took the angel’s word on faith and, risking scandal and ostracism himself, accepted the mission to see that the Messiah
came into the world safely and that the boy Jesus was reared under the protection of his household. The Bible suggests that
Joseph did not even question the angel.

Matthew 1:24–25
When Joseph woke up,
he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

You want to see that kind of dedication and sacrifice in your successor. God chose Joseph to be the custodian of His legacy
for a while. For your successor, choose the one who would set aside his own needs and take a risk on your behalf, the one
who accepts a risk in the short term for the greater good.

When Jesus was ready to depart the world, He chose Peter to carry on the work because he had that spirit. Jesus saw him as
a man who would die for Him, not merely as someone who liked the rabbi’s preaching style and His great ministerial vision.
If Peter merely had wanted to carry out the vision in place of Jesus, he could have scattered with the others when the soldiers
came and emerged later when danger had passed to do the work in exile, not knowing if Jesus had lived or died. The vision
from Jesus might have survived in some form. Peter could even have claimed credit for it with Jesus out of the way.

However, Peter loved Jesus the man and mentor, not just the Master’s words, goals, or gift for making miracles happen. Peter
had trusted Him
enough to risk drowning. Peter was loyal when armed guards surrounded his teacher and was brave enough to attack the servant
in a vain attempt to protect Jesus—both at great risk to himself. He could have been killed on the spot. Peter loved his teacher
enough to stay within sight of Him in the enemy’s camp as a trial proceeded. He could have been jailed, tried, and condemned
as well. Jesus saw in Peter someone who loved Him when He was powerless to save Himself. Peter loved Jesus, not just His message,
or His miracles, or His vision.

Are there people who are still with you when the whole city attacks you? In my own country, when I was beginning this work,
I used to be a daily offering on the altar of criticism. I have people with me today who were with me through it all, and
I trust them with my life.

It is often tough, however, to identify who loves you because you might not know why some people are around you. You will
have to put them to the test. It could be a small thing, such as whether they are willing to reach into their own pockets
to serve you. As the chairman and founder of Bahamas Faith Ministries International, I take note of which of our many trustees
come to my island without any promise of getting any compensation and how many pay for their own plane tickets and hotel bills.
If they only come because they are speaking or because they are being paid, then I question their love for me.

The way you know people love you is to let their association with you cost them something. Jesus told the disciples that if
they wanted to follow Him, they would have to deny their mothers, fathers, children, farms, or fishing corporations (see Matt.
8:21–22). He was stripping them of all ulterior motives. Are people with you because they love you or because of what they
can get from you? Let it cost something to associate with you, and you will see.

Please notice that these principles all focus on
you
. This is a completely new paradigm for succession. The one who is qualified may not be the one who is talented, who is educated,
who is famous, who can speak well, who has personality and charisma, or the one who has influence over the crowd. It is the
one who loves you. The person who loves you more than your power, your authority, your gifts, or all the great things about
your personality is the right choice.

Look again at one of the biblical examples. Take the case of Moses and Joshua. After the Israelites had their fill of manna
and began to complain about the blessing they received in the desert, God told Moses to gather seventy elders so God could
put Moses’ spirit on them. They began to prophesy, but the spirit or the anointing also began to flow onto some people who
were not in the meeting. They were at home, in the tents. They too began to prophesy. Joshua, the young aide to Moses, was
in the camp at the time and ran to tell Moses these people were taking his job. He had competition. Joshua wanted Moses to
put an end to it. He did not, but Moses understood the young man’s protectiveness and frustration.

Numbers 11:26–29
However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did
not go out to the Tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and told Moses,
“Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said,
“Moses, my lord, stop them!” But Moses replied, “
Are you jealous for my sake?
I wish that all the L
ORD
’s people were prophets and that the L
ORD
would put his Spirit on them!”

“Are you jealous for me?” Moses said to Joshua, meaning, “Then you can be my successor.” The one who is jealous for your sake
and the one who wants to protect you are the ones to keep an eye on. That is the man or woman who is going to take the company.
Even Moses’ sister, Miriam, did not want to protect him. She wanted his job.

He did not give it to Miriam. You remember her attitude. Some of you
have that same attitude: “Who does he think he is? God can speak to me too.” Moses’ brother, Aaron, did not want to protect
him either. He and Miriam were preparing a coup until God put a stop to it.

Numbers 12:1–2
Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. “Has the L
ORD
spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the L
ORD
heard this.

God says in effect, “Miriam, I am going to kill you because of your attitude.” He gave her leprosy (see Num. 12:4–10).

Moses chose Joshua because he did not ask for the job. True leaders never ask for the job. Destiny and devotion choose them.

To protect the people you love, choose a successor who loves you. That is the one who will protect the family, staff, or country
that you leave behind. If you are president, whoever takes over will love the country the way you loved it. I find these examples
in Peter and Joshua. The young Joshua hated the things that Moses hated and loved the things that Moses loved. Peter loved
Jesus so much he was willing to risk his life.

Whoever loves you will:

Love the ones you love
. If I love you and you are my friend, I would take care of your wife, your kids, your business, and your legacy if you died.
Whoever loves you will love the people you love. Can you trust your spouse to someone after you die? Could you say, “Take
care of her. See that she is provided for and has the things she needs.” Your successor should be someone who would do that.
The one you could trust to do that is the person you want to succeed you. The one who brings security to your children is
the right choice. You are confident about what is going to happen to your own family when you die if the person who succeeds
you loves you. That person does not merely want your organization, your vision, your money, or your building, but rather desires
to see you prosper and to see your legacy live on.

Love what you love
. If your successor loves you, he or she will love what
you built. The person you chose will honor what you worked for throughout your life. Their values are your values. The successor
will maintain it and take it to new levels.

Protect what you love
. The right successor will preserve what you built after you die. He will protect it and make sure nothing happens to it because
he respected and loved you. The love he has for you motivates him to keep your legacy alive and thriving. The one who loves
you will defend the enterprise to which you devoted your life. He will watch over it and help it grow in tribute to you.

Value what you love
. The one who loves you will value your vision and the legacy you have built. He will value your personality. The successor
who loves you will keep alive the things that make you valuable. He will keep your memory alive and never say, “Take his picture
down.” Instead he will remind everyone, “This man put fifty years of sweat and blood into this, and we will honor his memory.”
That person will love your name and protect it. A successor will preserve the mentor’s success because she loves the mentor,
and she wants to honor what the leader she loves has achieved.

Jesus knew that love was the key to preserving a legacy. If you love me, you will love the people I love. If I love you, I
will take care of your husband. If I love you, I will take care of your son. They become mine. I have seen horrific examples
of unsuccessful succession in the church after a pastor’s death. These experiences would make you stop believing in God—situations
in which a pastor who built a powerful, thriving ministry with his spouse for forty years died, and in one week the board
fired the pastor’s wife and children out of the ministry—the whole family—and put them out of the parsonage. I ask, “How could
you have done this? This man and his family built this ministry from nothing.” The board says, “Yeah, but it’s our time now.”

These were his deacons, board members, and elders, the inner circle, but they did not love him. That pastor, not the board,
failed because if he had chosen one who loved him to mentor and had transferred the vision, that person would have protected
his legacy and his family.

For Jesus, the church was His wife. Peter loved what Jesus loved so much he was willing to die for it. The church of Jesus
Christ was like a beautiful woman, referred to in Revelation as Christ’s bride (see Rev. 19:7, 21:2, 21:9,
22:17). Peter loved his master so much he preserved His wife. If I die today, what would happen to my wife? Will your successors
defend your wife or dump her? Will they put your husband off the board and kick him out of his office? If you mentor people
effectively, they will protect you later.

If you like power and you train the people around you to value power more than other things, they may come after your power.
If you are in ministry or business just for money, you are training the folks around you that money is valuable. That is where
their values will be, so they will be after the money. However, if they sense that you love, respect, and want to invest in
them, in people, they will protect you out of gratitude.

Mentoring guarantees succession. One of the most successful transfers of power was Moses to Joshua. Normally when we see a
transition of power, a war begins. Board meetings become violent, wrestling matches break out, and people start jockeying
for position, lining up and laying claim to different pieces of the organization.

No war accompanied the transfer of power from Moses to Joshua because as an aide to his leader since his youth, Joshua wanted
nothing but to protect Moses. You want to mentor people who do not want your position, but who want to protect your position.

Those who love you will be there to protect you as Joshua was for Moses. When Joshua urged Moses to stop others from prophesying,
he seemed to be thinking, “I don’t want them to take my boss’s job. I have to protect him.” I believe this is the moment that
Moses decided, “This kid gets the company because he doesn’t want it. He wants to protect me.” When people talk about your
boss or your pastor, what do you say to them? When people gossip about your leader, what do you say? Do you protect your leader?

“Don’t you talk to my president like that! Stop. You don’t talk about my leader like that.”

“You should never say that about my pastor. How dare you!”

Do you defend your boss, or do you join in and criticize? If you join in, you will never be a successor.

A true successor becomes a protector. Peter and John valued Jesus so much they carried on the miracles, the work, and the
teachings. When the Romans jailed them and tried to stop them from preaching and healing, they refused to quit.

Acts 4:18–20
Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied,
“Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what
we have seen and heard.”

Which one of your children should inherit the family business? Go back to the list. Choose the one who loves YOU. Which person
in your department should you take on to mentor and train to take your place? Use the list. Who is the best candidate to become
the next pastor or chief executive in your place? Use the list.

Now, to review the qualifications:

Choose one who:

•  Loves you, not your vision.

•  Loves you, not your gift.