There is a sticker on the back of my car. I'm sure I'm supposed to tell you it's a fish or it's about Jesus or Sunday School or my church, but it's not. (There's a pretty good reason for that. I used to have horrendous road rage and felt guilty about my witness. Not proud of it, but it's the truth.) The sticker is a little white apple. It's been there for years. At one point I was what you call a "mac-addict". If apple computer made it, I had it. My computers, tablets, and phone have all been apple for as long as I remember. I was brand loyal. And I'll admit I was pretty upset when Mr. Jobs died.
How many other brands can you think of that are so intertwined with their creator? I mean, we all associate Bill Gates with Microsoft, but do you look at your xbox and say "wow, the great pleasure I get from killing people in a video game is all do to the genius of Bill Gates? The majority of us shop at Wal-Mart, but could you pick Sam Walton out of a line-up? Jobs was the face and the genius of the company. When he died, a huge piece of apple died with him. After a series of confusing moves by apple's new leaders and an inferiority of mac products we hadn't seen before, many appleites such as myself jumped ship. In fact, I thought of this blog while I sat staring at my iPhone confused as to why it has to die everyday and then struggle to recharge. I caught myself saying "apple was awesome before Steve died and now look what happened."
Everything I've read about Jobs paints him as an egotistical genius who was brilliant at making himself indispensable. As far as I can tell, he was more concerned with making himself a legend than with leaving a true legacy. What if he had stepped away from the stage and mentored someone else to spread the message? What if he had prepared another to take his place?
You may say, "well there are lots of reasons they have struggled". That's true, but it's also true that Jobs's association with the product eventually made him bigger than what he was presenting.
So I see 2 lessons we in ministry can learn from Steve Jobs:
1. Always care more about the legacy than becoming a legend. I've watched amazing ministries continue for decades because the leaders were focused on preparing the next generation to take over. Likewise, I've seen great ideas fumble because leaders refused to give up control when it was time to go. Even worse, I've seen leadership intentionally throw out their replacement without the first day of mentoring so they will inevitably fail. In ministry, I've heard it said "we should always be working our selves out of a job." We should be setting up our replacements to do even more than we did! We should help them in whatever way possible. Even Jesus followed this premise. In John 14:12 He said that those who believed in Him would do even greater works than He. He was more concerned with the legacy of His message than anything else. His time with the disciples was a time of mentoring and preparing for the time when He would leave. If Jesus could train those He left behind, then so can we.
2. Never let yourself be more important than the message. Jobs did a great job of promoting his product, but he also made himself bigger than the message. That happens in the church all the time. A charismatic minister comes on the scene and crowds flock to his church. Then something happens, the pastor has to leave the church, and because he never instilled in them the virtues necessary for a change, they scatter. We should always be more concerned with the message than we are in making ourselves famous.
I challenge those in leadership, if you haven't already, begin to pray about who the Lord would have to take your place. Then, prepare what you think they should hear from you. Mentoring your replacement is one of the most important things you will do in ministry. What will your legacy look like?
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