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Will your leadership contribute to the success of your successor? Will its influence outlast your lifetime? Will it pass the test of eternity? Christ-centered organizations that follow a secular business model will often measure their success by the completion of current projects or the achievement of short-term goals. If so, they are like politicians who "kick the can down the road,” leaving financial debts and spiritual deficits for their successors and future generations. The biblical model of leadership, however, puts priority on sustainability. This means leaving a base upon which our successor can build, assuring long-term assets for future leaders, and meeting the standards of biblical accountability. The net result determines not only the impact of our leadership upon ministry for years to come, but whether or not our organizations are fulfilling our redemption mission of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20).

Christ provides us the direction when he startles his disciples with the promise, "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12). His motley crew must have blinked in disbelief. They had seen Jesus heal the sick, drive out demons, and raise the dead. His eloquent words had stunned the scholars and his uncanny reasoning had reduced the scribes to silence. No stretch of the imagination could take them into the realm of greater things. Yet, with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Jesus’ promise proves to be true. Leaving his disciples the example of his life, the truth of his teaching, the efficacy of his death, the power of his resurrection, and the promise of the Spirit, he gives them the gift of greater things.

After watching Christian leaders come and go for more than four generations of combined ministry experience, we have come to realize that our legacy will be written by the sustaining values of our leadership. To stand the test of time and eternity, we need to:

1. Maintain mission integrity. Christian leaders have an obligation to maintain the historical, theological, and philosophical mission of the ministry they guide, and must courageously maintain those values in the face of cultural pressure. All decisions need to stand the test of long-term implications on the biblical values of the historical mission. Once mission drift starts, reversing it can be so formidable that it is like trying to turn a battleship with an oar.
   
   
2. Assure visionary flexibility. Vision statements that extend too far into the future or set unrealistic expectations for the ministry community can do permanent damage to organizations because they can blind us to alternative routes or bind future leadership. We must maintain strategic options for timelines and tactics based upon changing external and internal circumstances, and guard against the danger of short-term vision derailing or impeding the organization’s long-term effectiveness.
   
   
3. Build a cohesive climate. We know that the body of Christ is not perfect. Emotions rise and fall and relationships ebb and flow, but unless the ministry community is able to function together, progress is paralyzed. Most often, dysfunction can be traced to a person or two who sabotages leadership and poisons the whole community. We have the option of putting on a gas mask and waiting until we leave, or doing radical surgery on the dysfunctional member(s) to restore a functional environment for the rest of the body. The long view suggests you do the surgery, even though painful, so the immediate and long-term health of the community takes precedence.
   
   
4. Facilitate communal morale. Depending on a leader’s personality, we are all tempted either to delay decisions or to make them quickly. But to maintain community morale, it is important for us as leaders to provide timely decisions in a transparent climate. The exact amount of deliberation and input required for each decision varies by circumstance. However, maintaining open communication in which people can grow and issues can be resolved will go a long way toward maintaining the trust necessary for long-term success. Delaying or deferring difficult decisions is seldom in the organization’s best interest.
   
   
5. Insist on financial discipline. An annual budget process paired with a long-term plan to assure the organization’s economic viability is essential if we are to move forward with kingdom work. "Good times hide bad management” is a proven adage. Hiding financial troubles has sunk many otherwise exceptional organizations in the long run, and it behooves leaders to take advantage of the resources available to avoid fiscal default.
   
   
6. Encourage institutional loyalty. Great leaders are able to cultivate relationships in such a way that key people connect more to the mission of the institution than to the leader’s personality. Whether financial supporters or employees or volunteers, they often become attracted to the personality of the leader, and without the leader’s intentional effort, they will not move beyond that stage. Wise leaders encourage institutional loyalty that lives beyond their tenure.
   
   
7. Invest in organizational momentum. Institutions advance in their mission at varying speeds. Thrusts of high speed are matched by natural declines as external circumstances or internal decisions affect the speed of progress. Some leaders have their foot on the gas pedal while others have their foot on the brake. Fear, failure, fatigue, and emotional detachment are common causes of lost momentum. As leaders, we must be invested in the destiny of our organizations, cultivating a sense of movement leaning forward into the future with energy and enthusiasm.
   
   
8. Facilitate your constituent’s spiritual growth. Because a Christ-centered organization finds its identity in the name of Christ, motivated by Christ’s mission, personalized by the mind of Christ in its character, and guided by the Spirit in its behavior, then it has a responsibility to facilitate the spiritual growth of its constituency. If all of your communications and appeal letters are just to get money, then you will not be lifting your supporters spiritually. One of the best ways to facilitate spiritual growth is through how you ask for funds. Raising resources for Christian ministry is not solely about securing gifts from transactions; rather, it is through spiritual transformation, helping people become rich toward God (Phil. 4:17). To encourage generosity, you need to emphasize sowing spiritual seed in your constituents’ lives. The goal is that generosity flows from spiritually transformed hearts as they conform to the image of Christ, who is generous. Without a constituency that has grown spiritually, you have had little success in God’s eyes.

As you can see from the above, as Christians, we define success differently than our secular counterparts. Short-term, outcome-based activities that build a person’s reputation matters less to God than our long-term, sustaining investments that secure eternal fruit and continue to pay dividends long after we are gone. By assuring that the viability of our ministries stands the test of time and sustainability, we are able to imitate Christ in giving the gift of greater things.

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David L. McKenna served as president of Spring Arbor University, Seattle Pacific University, and Asbury Theological Seminary. He may be reached at dlmckenna957@comcast.net. Wesley K. Willmer is senior vice president at Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). He has initiated and directed over $1 million in research grants to study nonprofit leadership. He may be reached at Wes@ECFA.org.

Adapted from an article first published in ECFA FOCUS on Accountability Quarterly Newsletter, Second Quarter 2010.

Willmer will co-lead a workshop entitled "Discipling Generous Givers” during the 2011 Christian Leadership Alliance National Conference, Dallas, April 26-28 (claconference.org).