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LEGACY BUILDERS
By Fred Fulford
Tony Campolo was on a Christian TV show recently. My, he’s looking old (just like me). What an amazing guy (sociologist, writer, communicator par excellence, evangelist, apologist, social justice advocate, adviser to presidents, founder of Urban Promise and other ministries for the neediest around us)!
When he mentioned that he’d recently been at a funeral for his friend Walt, I stopped surfing the channels. I’ve heard him talk about Walt before. Tony grew up in Philadelphia’s inner core. His father was an alcoholic who abandoned his Mom when he was a toddler. Walt was a member of a small black Baptist church in the ‘hood’. He took a Sunday school teacher training course, but there was no class for him, so Walt went out on the street, bought some marbles and played with the street kids. He brought a flannel graph (remember them?) and bribed the kids to listen to his stories about Jesus.
Walt led Tony and two of his friends to the Lord; they were baptized in that church. When Tony and his Mom moved away Walt kept in touch—became a life-long friend and mentor. Years later, while doing sociological research for that Baptist denomination Tony found the records of that inner city church that Walt attended. He read these words in its annual report for the year he was saved at age 10, “We can’t afford to keep the church going much longer. The only conversions we had this year were three street urchins Walt brought in. It doesn’t seem worth the cost anymore.” The church closed its doors soon after.
Walt’s funeral was just a graveside service. Those three little street urchins, now seniors themselves, were among the few who attended. One had come from Johannesburg where he serves as primate of the Anglican Church for all of South Africa, another, the President of Duke University, and Tony.
“What do you want at your funeral,” Tony asked his TV host, “a lot of speeches about your accomplishments or a few who say, ‘He changed my life?’”
Not many of us can be a Tony Campolo; every one of us can be a Walt.Every one of us can be a Legacy Builder. I love that name for our PAOC ministry to seniors in B.C. There is no legacy as lasting, as worthwhile as changed lives.
The opening sentence in a recent Reggie McNeal leadership book I had my students read
this semester stabbed me awake. “Deliberate mediocrity is a sin.” I think when the old age pension starts being deposited in one’s account (three years ago for me), and you travel free on the ferry (if you live in B.C.) mediocrity becomes more acceptable. There is a strong temptation to coast, to settle for less.
Recently I was struck by how many of my Old Testament heroes didn’t finish strong. Even David disappoints at the end with cover-ups, an illicit relationship, unnecessary vengeance. Samuel, the greatest of the judges, who left a great legacy in the school of the prophets tried to pass the torch to unworthy sons. Hezekiah, one of the few good kings, set the stage in his final years for Manasseh, one of the worst leaders of all time. The list is long and it’s not pretty.
We are made of same stuff and face the same temptations. But we have great advantages! We live this side of Bethlehem, Calvary, Pentecost! They only caught a glimpse of the grace that flows from the fountainhead of the Cross. Those “greater things” Jesus talked about are for us senior citizens too. Let me share three convictions, which, if deeply held and lived, will ensure that we leave a legacy a lot more valuable than what is in our wills.
The HOLY SPIRIT is a PERSON and He is GOD!
What a privilege to grow up in a church that treasures the presence and power of Holy Spirit! Some of us, I fear, are in danger of forgetting He is a person (as real as our spouse, but even closer), is God (omnipotent, full of compassion) and that He dwells within us to manifest the character, love and power of Christ through us, if we listen and obey. “Good morning Holy Spirit. What’s on the agenda for today? Help me not to miss divine appointments you have for me” is a great way to start the day.
The Bible is the LIVING WORD of God and our FUNCTIONAL AUTHORITY.
What a treasure! This God-breathed Word—profitable, alive, infallible, authoritative. If that indeed is a conviction, we will love it, study it, pray it, obey it whole-heartedly, meditate on it, teach it to children, share it with other people’s children, even on the street! The greatest danger we face as evangelicals is that its doctrinal substance, its clear moral commands will be eroded in deference to cultural values of relevance and tolerance, or be stifled by lazy mediocrity.
CHILDREN and YOUTH are the investment portfolios that promise the greatest return for LEGACY BUILDERS.
The stats are the same today as when I worked with James Montgomery in the Sunday School Department of our fellowship in the ’60s, just a little more comprehensive. If kids aren’t saved and called to ministry by time they are 17, there is very little chance they ever will be. Seven to 13-year-olds are wired for spiritual experience. Their worldview is established during those same years. That is the way God made us. Kids who are discipled, (study the Bible, go on mission trips, trained for evangelism, discover spiritual gifts) don’t walk away from their faith in college.
The most fertile mission field in Canada is children, so bombarded with secular and sensual ideas and images from birth, with little spiritual, Biblical input. They are hungry for it.
In a lecture on Coaching and Mentoring Strategies I ask graduating students to go back in their minds to their last year in high school, to picture the members of their home church and write down names of three people in the congregation they respected most. When I ask them, “How would you have felt if one of them had come to you and said, ‘I’ve been watching you. I see the hand of God on your life. I’m going to be praying for you every day while you’re at Bible College. I’d love to have a visit when you’re home. If you ever need special prayer, give me a call.’” Most of them say, “Does that really happen?” and indicate that they would have been thrilled. Then I tell them to think about the freshman class, to write the names of three students that impress. “What do you think they would say if you as a senior student went to them and said something similar?” They get the point. Do you?
Fred and Micki Fulford have served as mentor-teachers at Summit Pacific College since 1996. During studies at McGill University, Fred responded to God’s call to pastoral ministry. After serving as youth pastor in Victoria B.C., he and Micki pioneered Mississauga Gospel Temple (now Portico) in Ontario (14 years), then served as lead pastors in Evangel Church, Kelowna B.C., for 12 years. Fred and Micki have two young adults of their own, JP and Rachelle.
Ten years ago, when considering re-entering the pastorate, the Lord led them to commit the rest of their lives to mentoring young people and to write the following mission statement: “We want to finish well by intentionally investing our remaining years in committed learners by sharing with them our life experience, resources and networks so that we leave a legacy of reproducing spiritual leaders, hungry for continual growth in Christ-likeness and in ministry effectiveness.”