By“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
Matthew 16:25 (NKJV)
The verse above has been my favourite scripture whenever I speak or write about eternal impact.
Impact is the hallmark of every calling in Christ. The higher the calling, the higher the impact. But you cannot have an impactful and selfish life at the same time. Those two are enemies, not brothers, in the realm of God.
When God wanted all people to be reconciled back to Him, He sent Jesus into the world to come and die for us. God wanted the whole earth to be impacted by Him. But since He has given it to the children of men (Psalm 115:16), He found it wise to present salvation first to men. So that when people are born again and gradually become subject to spiritual transformation, they’ll live godly lives. In turn, affecting many others to get saved, as well as liberate the whole creation from bondage (Romans 8:19).
Impact is the hallmark of every calling in Christ. The higher the calling, the higher the impact.
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What Jesus did to multiply His impact to date
After Jesus was done with His mission on earth, it didn’t die with Him. He trained people to continue preaching the gospel. And till today, the Church is still thriving.
I want to ask you this question. Which organisation has been in existence for over two thousand years? To the best of my knowledge, it’s only the Church. That means a lot, especially to every organisational leader in this generation.
Ask yourself, “What must I do to ensure continuity and consistency in impact for my organisation?” The answer is simple, by doing what Jesus did (which I’m going to explain further in this article). I say this because Jesus’ method is authentic. After all, it has results.
1. He trained His team
When Jesus began full-time ministry, He chose twelve disciples to first be with Him. So that He’ll train them before sending them out to preach (see Mark 3:14). But that team was full of people from diverse backgrounds.
Some were fishermen, tax collectors and zealots. But Jesus managed to keep them together as one team except for Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him, and Thomas, who kept absenting himself from meetings – ending up as a doubter.
Dear leader with a corporate vision, God is not going to get you a team having all the requisite skills you need for them to work. No! You’d have to pay the price to train them. Imagine Jesus telling Peter and Andrew, “… Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” – Matthew 4:19 (NKJV). Jesus meant, “Though you two are fishermen today, I’m changing your life from a constrained fishing job to a large impactful ministry.” And it worked.
Some so many people lack the knowledge of purpose in their lives. So because of that, some are reading the wrong courses in universities, doing menial jobs to survive and living reckless lives. Unless a generational godly leader shows up in their lives, they’ll not have a meaningful life. And I believe many people are living wayward these days because the men of purpose God has ordained to shape their lives are nowhere to be found.
I pray that God will locate your leader for you or your team as you lead your generation. Pastor Vlad Savchuk once said, “Answer the call of God, and He will answer the cry of your generation.”
God is not going to get you a team having all the requisite skills you need for them to work. No! You’d have to pay the price to train them.
2. He set up decentralised systems of impact
In leadership, systems determine impact, and people are supposed to get trained to manage those systems. For example, receipts of items bought can get generated by finance softwares in stores. But the managers of those stores ought to train sales personnel on how to manage that system to help them serve customers well.
In the case of Jesus, He gave gifts to men. He appointed some apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists and pastors (see Ephesians 4:12). But why? So that these people will equip the believers to do the work of the ministry and build the body of Christ.
In your team, decentralise and departmentalise the workflow to be assigned to various people for them to do, or else the workload will become clumsy on a few sets of people.
Sometimes, the team members will not know how to do the work you give them. So pay the price to train them and help them discover their individual visions in the organisation’s corporate vision. Then, they’ll work effectively.
In leadership, systems determine impact, and people are supposed to get trained to manage those systems.
3. He appointed His successor before leaving the Earth
I don’t think Jesus chose the one who’ll succeed Him in mind when He freshly called the twelve apostles. But as they grew together as one team, He observed them all.
Peter was very outspoken and older than all the team members [I say this because only he had a wife when he was called (and for that reason, had a mother-in-law) – see Matthew 8:14]. Because of his zeal to know his Master well, Jesus poured out much of His knowledge in him. Peter became the closest to Jesus, while John experienced Jesus loved him more.
But before Jesus left, He said to Peter,
[15] “… Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”
John 21:15-17 (NKJV)
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”
[16] He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”
[17] He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”
And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.
I believe He asked Peter, “Do you love me?” three times because He wanted to be sure of who He was appointing. Leaders, please listen to me. Be intentional about training your successor, especially when you know you’ll be dying or leaving a position soon, or else there’ll be a gap when you’re gone and that organisation won’t thrive in your absence.
Remember that it is more significant to command greater impact than to build any organisation around your life meant to thrive and possibly die with you. You weren’t called to impact only your immediate-following generation but multiple generations. Think as such.
I hope this article has helped you.
