Lesson 94 · Unit 14 · Each Part Working
Raise Up a Second
The measure of a ministry's success: when you are not there, it still is.
Open
The week your colleague left, the last thing he did before going was not the farewell dinner but the handover document: where the accounts are, how the process runs, where the pitfalls are, who can cover. HR would not release him until the document was written and the person taking over had nodded. You watched him revise it to a seventh version, and it suddenly occurred to you to think about the service in your own hands: if I had to hand it over next month, could I even write the handover sheet? Or is it the case that apart from me, nobody knows where the keys are, how the song list is ordered, or what that older sister is not allowed to eat? At work, "handoverable" is common sense; in ministry, we often wear "it falls apart without me" as a medal. God's arithmetic runs exactly the other way.
Scripture
One of the last things Moses did in his life was to ask for a successor for the flock. (Numbers 27:15-20, 22-23, WEB)
15Moses spoke to Yahweh, saying,
16“Let Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation,
17who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in, that the congregation of Yahweh may not be as sheep which have no shepherd.”
18Yahweh said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.
19Set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and commission him in their sight.
20You shall give authority to him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may obey.
22Moses did as Yahweh commanded him. He took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation.
23He laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as Yahweh spoke by Moses.
9When they had gone over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be on me.”
2The things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit the same things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
See
Moses' last request
God has just told Moses: go up the mountain, look at the promised land, and then be gathered to your fathers (Num 27:12-13). Moses does not haggle, and he does not arrange a posthumous reputation for himself. What he asks for is this: "appoint a man over the congregation... that the congregation of Yahweh may not be as sheep which have no shepherd" (27:16-17). A man who has led the column for forty years is finally preoccupied not with his own name but with the flock after he is gone. God's answer is a name: Joshua, the young man who had "watched" inside Moses' tent for forty years. Then comes a public act: hands laid on, "set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation," and "you shall give authority to him" (27:19-20). The commissioning is done in public and the honour is shared out - succession is not a note passed in private, it is hands laid on in front of the whole congregation.
The sense of being irreplaceable is a slow poison
"It falls apart without me" sounds like faithfulness and is in fact poison: on one side it feeds our pride (lesson 57 dissected that disease), and on the other it quietly swaps the foundation of a ministry for one person's shoulders. Servants who will not let go leave wreckage when they go - how many church choirs, children's areas and sound desks have dissolved because one person moved away? Elisha asks, "let a double portion of your spirit be on me" (2 Kings 2:9), and Elijah does not take offence - the prayer of a real leader is that the one taking the baton will outrun him. Paul counts the chain to a fourth generation: "The things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit the same things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim 2:2) - I teach you, you teach him, and he must be able to teach somebody else. So when you measure a ministry, do not ask, "how did it flourish while I was there?" Ask the nail of a question: when you are not there, is it still there?
Four steps to bring someone along, and one step of letting go
Raising a second has four steps. Let him watch - he comes through the whole process with you, including watching you get it wrong. Let him do it while you watch - hands off but not away; no correcting in the moment, review it together afterwards. Let him do it alone while you carry the risk - his name on it, your responsibility. Let him bring along the next one - the chain is only connected when it reaches a fourth generation. The hardest part is not the steps but the heart: the moment you give up the place, watching him do "your" ministry a different way, and do it rather well, the hollow feeling in your chest is real. There is no need to be ashamed of it - lesson 79 said that authority exists in order to complete people. Take the ache to the Lord: this was never your ministry, and the towel in your hand was handed to you by somebody else too.
Deeper
Laying on hands (Num 27:18, 23)
entrusting in public, endorsing in public; hand out the authority and the honour together, where the whole congregation can see.
A double portion of the spirit (2 Kings 2:9)
the largeness of heart in spiritual succession: ask for the one taking the baton a greater share than your own.
A chain of four generations (2 Tim 2:2)
Paul to Timothy to faithful men to others; only a handing-on that can be handed on again is a handing-on.
The sense of being irreplaceable
wearing "it falls apart without me" as a medal is pride in the coat of faithfulness; the foundation of a ministry should never be anyone's shoulders.
Story
In 1900 the health of Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, broke down. This man who had given his whole life to China made a decision that surprised his coworkers: instead of holding on until the day he collapsed, he appointed D. E. Hoste acting general director while he was still there; and in 1902 he formally resigned the office of general director - the founder of a mission society, watching someone else take his own seat while he was alive, and writing to workers across the field asking them to submit to his successor as they had to him. In 1905 Taylor died in Changsha. The mission did not collapse; over the following decades it became the largest missionary body in China, and Hoste led it for more than thirty years, known for spending hours a day in intercession. When people took stock of the estate Hudson Taylor left, it was not buildings and funds but a group of people he had raised who dared to take the baton. All his life he said over and over that the work is God's, not the workman's - and this time he proved it by handing it on. (Historical; see Roger Steer, J. Hudson Taylor: A Man in Christ, 1990.)
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1Numbers 27:15-20: what did Moses ask for? What did God command? Why was the laying on of hands done before the whole congregation?
2If the service in your hands had to be handed over next month, could you write the handover sheet? What do the parts you could not write tell you?
3At the thought of giving your place to someone who does it differently from you, what is the first emotion that comes up?
Saved on this device only — visible to no one but you.
Pray together
Yahweh, God of the spirits of all flesh: you care about sheep with no shepherd, and you care about me, gripping a position I dare not release. Save me from the poison of "it falls apart without me," and give me Moses' eyes - to see Joshua and lay hands on him in public; give me Elijah's largeness of heart - to hear "a double portion on me" without alarm and without envy. Teach me to bring one person along: let him watch, let him do it, carry the risk for him, and watch him bring along another. On the day I am not there, let your work still be there. Amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 15 min
Pick one specific small thing in your service that could be handed over, and write out your "four-step plan": who will watch, when you will let them do it, how you will carry the risk. Then take the first step - invite that person this week to come and watch once.
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
Every time you pray for your service this week, add an Elisha-shaped request: ask a double portion of the Spirit for the person you are bringing along (or want to bring along) - ask God to make them surpass you.
Memory verse · 2 Timothy 2:2
Thethingswhichyouhaveheardfrommeamongmanywitnesses,committhesamethingstofaithfulmenwhowillbeabletoteachothersalso.
Walk further
Joshua, the successor who watched in the tent for forty years; Elijah taken up, the cloak falling and the apprentice picking it up; Hudson Taylor, the missionary who handed over while alive; lesson 50 on passing this book on; and the theme of discipleship.