After years of serving as a chaplain to professional teams in four sports, I can identify the Christian coach, player or wife who has the greatest impact. It is not the one with the most dramatic conversion, or the most dynamic delivery, or the most public ministry. The Christians who make the greatest impact are the ones committed to equipping another believer to lead the team ministry when they leave.

Check out John 17:18. Jesus equipped just 12 men, then handed His earthly ministry over to them. If you follow Jesus, you can thank those 12 who in turn were committed to replicating Jesus’ ministry at any cost.

The most important word in today’s passage is “Go.” That word is about intentionality, about taking the initiative to build your faith into another person.

Jesus took the initiative, and He handed the task to us. This is the stuff of everyday faith.

We are wired to have an impact in other people’s lives. Too often we think it has to be in terms of huge movements or organizations. A better perspective is to think small, let God produce big.

The typical apple has only five seeds. That’s easy to count. Plant one seed, nurture it into an established apple tree and it will produce bushel upon bushel of apples, year after year.

Thousands of seeds are produced from that one tree.

The same is true about ministry on your team. Don’t let your influence on your team end with your departure. Pray that God would give you a teammate of like mind and heart who you can build your life into while you are still active on your team. That is multiplication. Go.

Today’s devotional is one of five this week on “Everyday Faith” by Tom Petersburg.

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