As I move closer to the finish line of my life and ministry (or, to change the metaphor, as more of my experiences are visible in the rear-view mirror than out the front windshield), I wonder more and more if my life’s work will remain. Will those who follow after me care about the values I held? Will they maintain the ministries I have committed myself to help build?
During the final years of my ordained pastorate (now forty-seven years) and moving into retirement from full-time service, I am repeatedly drawn to my current favorite book of the Bible, 2 Timothy. We believe this is the final letter the great Apostle wrote. He gives us this clue in the fourth and last chapter: “The time for my departure is near” (2 Timothy 4:6).
Last words are very significant. We are drawn magnetically to the final words of our Lord before His crucifixion (the Upper Room Discourse and Prayer in John 13–17), and then the final words before His ascension (Matthew 28 and Acts 1). Final words tend to be the most important, memorable, and significant.
In 2 Timothy we find Paul repeatedly using the Greek word, “paratheke.” Apparently, this was uppermost on his mind as he approached his personal finish line. The word in the New International Version is translated “entrusted.” It is what a person would do with their valuable and precious possessions to ensure their protection and preservation.
This concept is of huge importance to our modern life and occupies a substantial part of our national economy. Preserving money and valuables is why we have created banks, pension funds, insurance companies, financial planners, IRAs, etc. We demand that they be reliable and trustworthy stewards of our assets. Usually, they are. But nearly a century ago we witnessed the failure of those who were “paratheke” or “entrusted,” when banks collapsed during the Great Depression and families’ life savings were wiped out. To prevent that from happening again the government created the Federal Deposit Insurance Company and other safeguards.
In the ancient world of scripture there were no banks or other institutions. If a person was going on a trip, they needed to “paratheke” or “entrust” their assets to another individual who would be reliable. It was a significant concern—and, in a spiritual sense, very much on the mind of Paul. Entrusting our assets and our legacy is also a natural concern for anyone approaching the end.
In the space of a few verses of 2 Timothy we find the concept of “entrusting” used in three separate ways:
(1) In 2 Timothy 1:12, Paul has confided that he has entrusted his own most precious assets—his immortal soul and his life’s work of building the church—to the keeping of God. And he is totally confident in the Lord’s trustworthiness (which gives us an even greater security than the U.S. government can provide).
(2) Then, having entrusted what is of greatest value to God, Paul tells us two verses later in 1:14 that God has entrusted to us that which is of greatest value: the Gospel the spread of His kingdom. This is why serving the Lord is the highest of all possible callings—of even greater importance than governing a nation, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, etc. (And when I have the opportunity to talk with young men and women wrestling with career decisions, I challenge them to see their life’s work through a spiritual prism).
(3) After a few words about some individuals to conclude chapter one, Paul returns to his primary theme of “entrusting” at the beginning of chapter two. The essential strategy for how followers of Christ can fulfill the sacred trust of the Gospel is spelled out clearly in verse 2: “the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” Put simply, the only way the church can survive from generation to generation is if we raise up, teach, equip. and support those who will follow us.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great twentieth century German martyr, is a powerful role model. In opposition to the Nazi government and the corrupted state church, he labored to teach faithful young German pastors who would not bow the knee. He is quoted as saying, “A righteous person is one who lives for the next generation.”
In my own final years of ministry, I have felt the growing concern within my heart to do what I can to help raise up another generation of Christian leaders. It has been proven repeatedly that churches and ministry organizations can only flourish up to the level of their leaders. And because of our mortality, even the best leaders only have a short tenure. Whatever our job title might be, we are all actually just Interims.
Cultural headwinds are blowing hard against the church in the western world (especially since the decline and in some places collapse of the moral consensus of values we refer to as “Christendom”). The task of raising up new leaders is even more crucial than in previous years and deserves more intentional planning and effort by the church. We cannot take for granted that the places of those of us who are retiring or departing as leaders will automatically be filled by equally or more competent replacements.
Specific tactics we need to employ will include:
- Recruiting and motivating young people to take up the cause of the Gospel for their careers. We need the best and the brightest to embrace the highest of all callings—even though we face competition from other professions that may seem more lucrative or have higher social prestige.
- Supporting financially and personally students who undertake the high level of education and training needed to equip excellent leaders (especially in a climate where the cost of formal education has soared way beyond inflation, and where crushing student debt loads can become a severe personal handicap).
- Mentoring (both prior to and during the critical early years of ministry).
- I am greatly encouraged to see Theology Matters involved in extensive networking with others across the Reformed community to further this timely vision. My prayer is that many current pastors and church leaders will embrace the priority of the raising up and equipping of our next generation of men and women—to whom we may “entrust” the life-changing Gospel.
Christian author Ernest Campbell reminds us of the God-ordained rhythm of life with these words:
To be young is to study in schools we did not build; to be mature is to build schools in which we will not study.
To be young is to swim in pools we did not dig; to be mature is to dig pools in which we will not swim.
To be young is to sit under trees we did not plant; to be mature is to plant trees under which we will not sit.
To be young is to dance to music we did not write; to be mature is to write music to which we will not dance.
This address was delivered on March 5, 2026, at the fifth Theology Matters’ conference at Providence Presbyterian Church, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
