Everyone Will One Day Be Replaced. Who Will Replace You?

I remember the first year I helped to co-lead a Cinema Church outreach in Hardy, Virginia. We had some great team members, including a couple named Bob and Nancy Stouffer.

They were every church leader’s dream because their whole philosophy in ministering to others was to empower the people they raised to replace them. Coming from a sales background in which they worked as mentors to numerous business leaders, they applied those same skills to help people in the church develop and lead others.

They always did their part to make people feel right at home, and I will never forget what they told me one Sunday when they said, “Ezra, our number one goal in this ministry is to replace ourselves. We want to bring people along behind us who can steal our spot on the team and do the job that we are doing right now.”

A Godly Legacy or Rope of Sand?

Whether we like it or not, virtually everything we do in life will be replaced. When we retire from our jobs, within days, someone (or something) will replace our role. Our culture is built on the understanding that people are temporary, and we realize that any organization that relies on a single individual is headed toward eventual doom.

A thought I have always tried to keep at the forefront of my mind is this simple question: If I died today, what kind of legacy and replacements would I leave behind to take my place?

Leaving a legacy is important, but it does little good if there is no one to carry it on after us.

A great example can be found in the lives of two dynamic preachers in the 1800s—John Wesley and George Whitefield. Wesley was someone who preached powerfully, but he also took great care to ensure that those who heard his message would continue in the gospel long after his departure. He organized countless small groups and did all in his power to bring people around him who would replace him after he was gone.

In contrast, George Whitefield was also an incredible communicator whose voice, it was said, could be heard over a mile away. Benjamin Franklin stated of Whitefield,

“Every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice was so perfectly well-tuned and well-placed, that, without being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with the discourse; a pleasure of much the same kind with that received from an excellent piece of music.”

But while Wesley focused on raising people to follow him, Whitefield simply moved on to the next speaking engagement and did little to follow through with the people to whom he ministered. In reflecting upon their lives, Whitefield stated,

“My brother Wesley acted wisely—the souls that were awakened under his ministry he joined in class, and thus preserved the fruits of his labor. This I neglected, and my people are a rope of sand.”

We Long for Significance

Part of the reason we struggle to replace ourselves is our personal striving for significance. We feel important when our role is valued, and so the urge to replace ourselves wanes because we fear losing that feeling of significance.

Just think about it for a minute. Imagine your boss suddenly walking up to you one day and saying, “Hey, I appreciate all you have done to train all of your workers in your department. In fact, because of this training, we feel that your job in our company is no longer necessary.”

How would you respond? I think for most of us, thoughts of anger and frustration would be pouring through our heads. "How dare you replace me after all I have done?!"

Let Go Early

If we are not careful, we take this same philosophy and apply it to our spiritual walk with God and to our church.

Rather than raising others, we position ourselves as the professionals. We hang on tightly to positions and titles we've held for years rather than holding them with an open hand.

Numbers 27:18–20 provides a powerful example of what it means to intentionally replace ourselves. When God told Moses that his time of leadership was coming to an end, he instructed him to appoint Joshua as his successor.

Moses didn’t resist or try to hold on to his role. Instead, he obeyed God’s command, laid his hands on Joshua, and publicly affirmed him before the community. Moses understood that the mission of God was far greater than his personal position.

By empowering Joshua, he ensured that God’s work would continue beyond his lifetime. In doing so, Moses modeled the humility and foresight that every leader should emulate: to prepare others to carry the torch forward, even if it means stepping aside.

So let me pose the question to you: if you died today, who would step up to replace you and all that God currently has you doing in his kingdom? Have you developed yourself enough that people should replace you?