Sacrificial Succession #21 - Pioneers and Settlers I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 1 Corinthians 3:6

• Through our experience of initiating large-scale missionary projects with hundreds of pioneers sent out by dozens of denominations working together with local pastors, we have observed a key dynamic. Both pioneering and pastoral people are different yet vital to spiritually sustainable, missionary work.

• Paul the Apostle understood these differences, too. Despite being criticised he received for not being pastoral enough because he did not: baptise many people (1 Corinthians 1:14), preach like the more pastoral Apollos (1 Corinthians 2:1) or stay long in one place as others did (1 Corinthians 3:10).

• Thankfully for the nations and people impacted, Paul was confident in his calling as a pioneer to lay the foundations. He was equally confident in the calling of his more pastoral colleagues Barnabas and Apollos and successors Timothy and Titus to build on them.

• I encourage you to confidently outwork your calling as a pioneer or pastor by producing healthy spiritual children as your successors. There is no higher calling. When both pioneering and pastoral gifts are working in tandem, this ‘marriage’ literally impacts nations!

• Another way of looking at pioneers and pastors (shepherds) other than in agricultural terms is to use the wording of colonisers of new territory. I know that the word “colonisers” can have negative connotations, but it literally means starting something new, usually involving a settlement.

• Neil Perkins in A Structure for Continuous Innovation: Pioneers, Settlers, Town Planners, states that: “Pioneers make future success possible; settlers make the possible future actually happen.”

• By focusing people with these different aptitudes (pioneers, settlers and planners) to each of these task areas allows you to capitalise on what each of these skill sets do best. Understanding where your personal capability fits—mine is more pioneering than pastoral—is liberating and increases personal and team effectiveness. Sacrificial Succession Podcasts

• Pioneers are brilliant people. They can explore never before discovered concepts, the uncharted land. They make future success possible. Settlers are brilliant people too. They can turn ideas into products and services. They build trust. They build understanding. They make the possible future happen. They turn the prototype into a product, make it manufacturable, listen to customers and turn it profitable.

• Planners and managers are brilliant people. They can take something and industrialise it taking advantage of economies of scale. Making something become an economy of scale is another skill that is needed in large projects like ours. Each of these skill sets, working together are vital for success.

• Exodus 18:14 When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?” 21 But select capable men from all the people— men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.”

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Sacrificial Succession #20 – Mission Accomplished?

“In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Judges 17:6

• President George W. Bush’s iconic speech on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 with the banner ‘Mission Accomplished’ behind him sent the wrong message, even though what he actually said was, “Our mission [in Iraq] continues.”

• Joshua, too, may have sent the wrong message by sending home the eastern tribes during the conquest of Canaan (22:6-8). The job was not yet finished because not all the territory promised by God had been conquered, yet they were having a succession ceremony.

• Another weakness was that Joshua did not prepare successors like his predecessor Moses prepared him and Caleb. One of the consequences was the period of the Judges in Israel, when there were no successors.

• Judges descended into a time when everyone did as they saw fit (Judges 21:25). Judges is a stark reminder of the unintended consequences of NOT preparing successors and giving them time to prove themselves before handing over leadership.

• In a Sacrificial Succession the mission is accomplished when at least three generations of leader: Predecessor, Successor and Disciple are generationally involved in a transition in an ongoing way (2 Timothy 2:2).

• The point of the many Sacrificial Succession analogies shared in the book about serving, sacrificing and sustaining successors is that practicing each of these principles indicates the likelihood of your successional mission being accomplished.

• There are four roles and functions required of sacrificial leaders in a Sacrificial Succession: 1) Successors serving through their leadership roles (deakonos), 2) Disciples serving without expectation as servants do (doulos), 3) Incumbents serving successors by sacrificing their leaderships (lytron) Matthew 20:26-28 and 4) Sustainers as advocates for current leaders (paracletos, John 14:16,26) were all modelled perfectly by Jesus. Sacrificial Succession Podcasts

• Note that the sacrificial analogy here is that of freeing a slave or a victim of a kidnapping by paying the ransom price. The price must be acceptable to the one in authority, like Aslan’s sacrifice in Edmund’s stead to appease the White witch.

• The minimum criteria for ongoing success in a Sacrificial Succession is three generations of leader: 1) Predecessors, 2) Successors and their 3) Disciples, working together in relationship and partnership of serve, sacrifice for and sustain each other in the succession.

• Apostle Paul explains this inter-generational dependency and relationship to his successor Timothy: “And the things that you [Timothy, 2nd Generation] have heard me [Paul, 1st Generation] say among many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men and women [3rd Generation] who will be qualified to teach others [4th Generation] as well, 2 Timothy 2:2).

• Incumbents model and make known to successors everything they have learned from their predecessors. Helpers actively guide, and directly model sacrificial qualities to, successors throughout a leadership transition.

• How is your successional mission being accomplished? What steps are you taking to serve, sacrifice for and sustain successors?

• If you are not doing that, what must be done to accomplish a Sacrificial Succession?

• Lord, help me to continue my mission of Sacrificial Succession till it is finished!” Resolve to continue your mission of sacrificial succession till it is finished

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Day 18 – Dangerous Dynasties

“Warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.” 1 Samuel 8:9

It is worth noting that Israel’s demand for a king came in response to the prophet Samuel’s failing family dynasty. He allowed his evil sons to succeed him. They turned aside toward dishonest gain, accepted bribes, perverted justice. (1 Samuel 8:3)

I wonder if he would have allowed someone else’s sons to behave so terribly? Probably not and that is the point about dynasties. We should not show favouritism (James 2:9) because it distorts our judgement of people, which is a sin. God’s warning about dynasties are as pertinent today as they were then.

They must be taken seriously, especially in successions, because precedents set about favouritism due to family and ethnicity have immediate and generational impact. Favouring successors due to family, ethnic or professional factors are a challenge for all leaders.

Sacrificial succession cannot endorse dynasties because of the danger family favouritism poses to unselfish motivations for sacrifice. There is no evidence of family dynasties in the early Church, neither should there be in ours. Jesus confirms this truth in Mark 3:35, “For whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”

What dynasties have you experienced? How do you avoid this form of favouritism?

Practically, we outwork this true succession principle in our projects by requiring our predecessors to personally prepare successors that they have discipled themselves from the target nation that they are impacting.

To avoid biological conflicts of interest such as dynastic nepotism, in most of our projects, predecessors are explicitly forbidden from discipling or handing over leadership to successors who are family members.

Preparing successor candidates from their own ethnic or professional group, when we are working across cultures and professions, is also discouraged.

Dynastic relationships through marriage and family ties are complicated and often compromised by the strong potential for favouritism due to this kinship.

Therefore, we cannot endorse this model of leadership for Sacrificial Succession, despite recognising that there are and can be exceptions to this rule, especially in family owned businesses.

Biblically, dynastic succession is not God’s original will, yet something that He allows, with the caveat being that favouritism and self- interest will always be a risk, 1 Samuel 8:10-22.

A study of the dynasties of Israel confirms these risky consequences. Less than a quarter of these kings were good.

There is no precedence for nor evidence of dynastic successions in the New Testament other than (maybe) James the brother of Jesus being a leader of the Jerusalem church, Galatians 1:18. However, it is unlikely that James was a physical brother of Jesus. More likely he was a spiritual brother or a relative.

Lord help me to not be dynastic by showing family favouritism in leadership.

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