The dictionary defines the word legacy: “anything handed down from the past.”
I think if you ask most people if they want to leave a great legacy, they will probably say a resounding yes. When it’s all said and done, most everyone wants to be remembered in a great and positive light. We want people to say nice things about us at our funeral. After we die, and our name comes up in conversations, we want people to describe us in a beautiful and positive way. We want to leave a great LEGACY.
As I started to write this, I decided to google the word “legacy” to see what would come up. The first image that came up was a Subaru Legacy. I found this to be very symbolic, because when we look at our current society, it’s all about that kind of STUFF.
When we make our legacy about stuff, it’s a legacy that eventually fades. When we make our legacy about people, it’s a legacy that lasts, or what I like to call a LIVING LEGACY.
In a big-picture sense, the ultimate way to establish a living legacy is what Jesus did: DISCIPLESHIP.
In a leadership sense, MENTORSHIP is vital to establishing a living legacy.
When you look at the Old Testament, Asaph is an excellent example of someone who left a living legacy as a worship leader. He was a Levite and was appointed by David to be the chief musician and lead in giving God praise (I Chronicles 16:7). Later on, you see David using the “sons of Asaph”, which were either family members of Asaph or those mentored by him. Asaph’s descendants continued to be used by Solomon, King Jehoshaphat and King Josiah. Even hundreds of years later, after the people came out of Babylonian captivity, the “sons of Asaph” led worship when they started to rebuild the temple. It’s a legacy of worship leaders that just kept on living, because Asaph intentionally mentored and realized that what he was doing was bigger than himself.
For worship leaders, I think there are some practical steps we need to put into place in order to see this happen. I believe and have seen that when we focus on the concept of mentoring, we have the potential to leave a legacy that lives on and on.
