This past Sunday, many churches celebrated All Saints’ Day, a time to remember and give thanks for those men and women who have gone before us in the faith. Some were pastors, teachers, mentors, or family members. Others were ordinary people whose extraordinary faithfulness made a lasting difference in our lives.
Hebrews 12:1 reminds us, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders … and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (NIV)
I don’t know about you, but when I think about that great cloud of witnesses, faces come to mind. People who believed in me, encouraged me, challenged me, and helped shape my faith and calling to ministry.
And here’s something I’ve learned over the years. None of us got to where we are in ministry all by ourselves!
Somewhere along the way, somebody saw something in us that we couldn’t yet see in ourselves. Somebody opened a door, gave us an opportunity, offered a word of encouragement, or perhaps even gave us a much-needed kick in the pants!
Maybe it was a Sunday school teacher who first introduced you to Jesus. A pastor who recognized your calling before you did. A professor who challenged your thinking. A church member who encouraged you when you were ready to throw in the towel. Or perhaps a faithful saint whose quiet example taught you more about following Christ than a hundred sermons ever could.
We may not remember everything those people said, but we remember how they made us feel, what they believed about us, and how their faith helped strengthen our own.
But here’s the part of All Saints’ Day I don’t want us to miss. We aren’t just remembering the great cloud of witnesses. We are becoming part of that cloud for somebody else!
Think about that for a moment. Right now, somebody is watching how you live, how you lead, how you handle disappointment, how you treat people, and how you respond when life gets difficult. Somebody is learning what it means to follow Jesus by watching you.
Just this week, I received an email from a former member of the church I founded, letting me know that she was enrolling in seminary. As part of her application for admission, she shared a story about an encounter we had many years ago.
It was Thanksgiving Day, and she was sitting on the curb in a grocery store parking lot, crying. Locked out of her car, with no one to help and nowhere to share a Thanksgiving meal, she felt helpless and alone. Drawing on a few lock-jimmying skills that might have raised a police officer’s eyebrows, I managed to get her back into her car. Having completed my brief career in breaking and entering, I invited her to join us for Thanksgiving dinner. She accepted, and soon afterward began attending our church.
After joining the church, and taking some core discipleship classes, she began volunteering in our children’s ministry. A few years later she moved out of state and we lost touch, but her faith journey continued, and now decades later she was preparing to enter seminary. In her admission letter, she recalled that Thanksgiving Day and how a simple invitation, some encouraging words, and an example of Christian hospitality had helped her understand what ministry all was about. She wanted me to know that.
Her email reminded me of something we sometimes forget. We never know how God might use a simple act of kindness, a word of encouragement, or a moment of compassion to shape someone else’s faith journey. What we say and do today may become the example someone else follows tomorrow. And long after we have forgotten the moment, God may still be using it to influence the next generation of faithful servants.
The Apostle Paul understood this principle. In 2 Timothy 2:2, he encouraged Timothy to entrust what he had learned to reliable people who would, in turn, teach others.
Paul invested in Timothy. Timothy invested in others. Those people invested in still others. Four generations of spiritual influence in one verse! That’s how the Gospel keeps moving forward.
As pastors and church leaders, we spend countless hours preparing sermons, planning programs, managing budgets, and worrying about attendance. Those things matter. But I am convinced that the greatest legacy of our ministry won’t be the buildings we constructed, the programs we launched, or even the number of people sitting in our pews.
The thing I am most proud of in the now forty plus years in ministry, are the people I have helped to discover their God given purpose and who have become everything God created and called them to be.
Who in your congregation is waiting for someone to recognize their gifts? Who needs a word of encouragement? Who needs an invitation to lead, an opportunity to serve, or someone willing to walk alongside them?
And are we so busy doing ministry that we’re neglecting one of our most important responsibilities, developing others for ministry?
I encourage you to take the time right now to remember someone who helped shape your faith. If they’re still living, give them a call or send a note of thanks. Tell them their investment mattered.
Then look around and identify one person you can encourage, mentor, or help discover God’s calling. Don’t just recruit them to fill a position. Invest in their spiritual growth.
In a relay race, it doesn’t matter how well you run your leg if you never successfully hand off the baton. (I dedicate an entire chapter to this in my new book, Leadership Turnaround A-Z.) Somebody faithfully ran before us and placed the baton of faith in our hands. Now it’s our turn to run, but also to prepare someone else to carry it forward.
All Saints’ Day prompts us to remember those who came before us, but it should also remind us that someday, we’ll be the ones who came before.
And when that day comes, may someone look back and say, “Because that person believed in me, encouraged me, and showed me Jesus, my life was never the same.”
That’s a legacy worth leaving. That’s a race worth running. And that’s Good News worth passing on!