It can be humbling to be told that something you have said, done or created has been helpful.
Recently I spoke to a man I have known since he was a teenager. He has been listening to my back catalogue of sermons at Lancing Tab and a few other places.
With the internet a comment, letter, blog or sermon can travel thousands of miles in an instant and can reach people who live in your own town.
It is good to hear about people who have read my books and been helped by them.
It was a particular thrill to see copies of my book on preaching God is in the House in Latvian being distributed in Lativia. I have been visiting Lativa for nearly half my life, so it is encouraging to have this book available to the church there and have “Good Bad No Dad?” in the process of being translated.
I don’t think I thought about leaving a legacy when I was a younger pastor. The unrelenting task of leading a church, preaching the word and caring for people didn’t always leave a lot of time for reflection on the future.
I guess it was in my late fifties and early sixties I began to think about things I could do to have an impact on not only this generation but on generations to come.
I have been reminded of this recently while teaching a course on the Book of Numbers.
I was speaking about the handover between Moses and Joshua recorded in Numbers 27.
“Moses said to the Lord, ‘May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all living things, appoint someone over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” (Numbers 27:15–17)
Moses realised that he was going to be moving off the stage of history, or as Brian Harris puts it in his book Stirrers and Saints, Moses realized that he was a chapter and not the whole story.
Sometimes when leaders move on or die it leaves a vacuum behind, so that in words that Jesus quoted, the Lord’s people are “like a sheep without a shepherd”.
No leader can be around forever but there are ways that the flavour of their lives, leadership and preaching can continue to live on in future generations.
At times it can feel that older leaders have become a minor footnote in history. Yet for this reader, who loves footnotes, there can often be stimulating gems locked away in a foootnote. A word is explained, a line of thought is traced, an invaluable source is given, or a memorable quote is offered.
We have no control over who will discover the scattered fragments of our words, deeds or creations but God does. All we can do is put it out there faithfully and imaginatively and pray that he will do the rest!
Photo by Ante Hamersmit on Unsplash