Preparing Leaders For The Next Generation (2 Timothy 1:1-14)
Today is a great day in the life of the Diocese of Kampala as we witness the passing on of the leadership mantle. It is beautiful in leadership to begin well and end very well with a grateful heart. In scripture Paul gives us the best model of discipleship and handover. Today most leaders guard their offices so jealously as if they will never depart. Others spend time eliminating all those who seem to be potential leaders and at the end they have nobody to lead. Such organizations suffer and take long to rise up again. However there are a category of mentees who seem to know it all and have no time to listen to advice making it very difficult for the leader to prepare a successor. This last
category includes people who join a job to get money and not to serve and so they look at everyone as an obstacle to their future. They hate advice and are always defensive, they are right even when they are wrong. They are fighters and will try to get what they want even if it means destroying life.
Paul viewed leadership as discipleship. His responsibility was to invest in the next generation. John Maxwell a great leadership speaker and author said “The best leaders lead today with tomorrow in mind by making sure they invest in leaders who will carry their legacy forward.” A good leader must put people and systems in place so that if they have to leave their leadership role for some reason, things will keep running smoothly. Paul in 2 Timothy 2:14, reminds us that Christian leaders are commanded to “guard the good deposit” of the gospel in themselves and in those who will take it over from them.
In Paul’s time people never sought positions. They were all ordinary people whom God chose and empowered to lead. Paul met Timothy in Acts 16:1-3.
Timothy and Paul traveled together all over Asia Minor preaching the gospel, encouraging believers, and planting Churches. The two men became so close that Paul affectionately refers to Timothy as his “son” (1Corinthians 4:17; Philippians 2:22; 1Timothy 1:2, 1:18; 2 Timothy 1:2, 2:1. Timothy stayed in Ephesus to lead the Church there, while Paul went on and later he was imprisoned and sentenced to death. The book of 2 Timothy is Paul’s final farewell letter to his close friend and ministry successor. It is a deeply personal call for Timothy to continue to lead with excellence and to pass the mantle to the next generation of believers. Leadership is discipleship and multiplication.
As a Christian leader, intentionally invest in those that look up to you: affirm their faith, acknowledge their gifting, act it out yourself, and abide in the truth together. In this way, ordinary people like you and me become the instruments by which the gospel is carried to the ends of the earth. As the mantle of Christian leadership is passed from one generation to another, the world recognizes that it’s not the person; it’s the truth of God and the power of God in the individual that preserves the gospel until Christ returns. Leaders are mentors, channels for the gospel to spread like bush fire, servants not bosses, simple but firm, imitators of Christ, and learners. Is your life worth investing in another person? How will it look like when you finally leave office? I wish you God’s blessing as we witness this great day.
The Very Rev. Canon Dr. Rebecca Nyegenye
PROVOST