Ten Celebratory Number Facts! Happy 10th Anniversary – Part II!

Let the Celebration continue!!!  Legacy Shepherding Ministries, Inc. is 10 years old!!!

In celebration of the 10 year anniversary, on June 1st I shared Ten Fun Facts about Legacy Shepherding Ministries, Inc.

With 10 still being the celebratory number, here are Ten Number Facts to celebrate.

(Note: I don’t think it is generally possible to quantify spiritual growth through the use of numbers.  Too much has happened that can’t even be put into words, let alone numbers.  At the same time, numbers can be a helpful tool to see how things are going and, in this case, what things we can celebrate.  That said, here are some numbers I am aware of that are reason to celebrate the first 10 years.)

Ten Number Facts about Legacy Shepherding Ministries, Inc:

1. Over the past ten years, God through Legacy Shepherding Ministries, Inc. has spiritually mentored on a regular basis 122 people, who are now more equipped and empowered to do what they were designed to do with their lives, making a significant difference in the world through God’s love.  Each person is usually mentored for an average of 2 to 2.5 years.  That averages to meeting with between 24-30 people regularly at any given time.  (Note: The 122 number does not include people who were met with on an occasional basis or via various retreat weekends and training events, which would be over a hundred more people.)
2. One young man currently being mentored, named Tyler, oversees 28 section leaders at Willow Creek Community Church for the Saturday night service.  His job is to invest in these section leaders.  These 28 section leaders are employed to pastor the people within their seating sections within the church.  The average attendance of that service is 5,000.  So indirectly, this young man’s role impacts 5,000 people.  And that is just one of the awesome individuals, this ministry has the honor to equip, empower, and guide.
3. Rough estimates show that the individuals who have been mentored through Legacy Shepherding Ministries have or have had a direct leadership impact on over 5,000 people, and that was using very conservative estimates per person. The impact they are making is a high quality impact, coming from a more spiritually mature and emotionally healthy place than before they were mentored.  The indirect impact, then, that these individuals are having has to be well over Ten thousand people, just based on Tyler (in #2) alone.  That’s amazing!  Little Legacy Shepherding Ministries is like a mega-church!  With an unknown, introverted leader shepherding behind the curtain.  God can do anything…through anyone!  All things are possible with God.
4. During this past 10 years, two churches have been planted by Legacy Shepherding mentorees.  One church hit their all-time attendance high on Easter – over 1,000 attenders (usual attendance is around 700.  The church started only 4 ½ years ago with just 20-some people. So far, they have baptized over 140 people!  Yeah, God!).
5. The other church plant started in October of 2015, so it’s still in its first year. Attendance is currently over 140 weekly and growing.  They recently had their first baptism, where 5 adults got baptized!  It’s great to see young people, at both church plants, carrying the Church into the future.
6. After going through the mentoring process, 21 individuals have gone into vocational ministry, 2 started their own organizations to benefit others, and 3 became professional counselors.  Eighteen were already in full-time ministry when we began meeting.
7. At least 44 people, who I am aware of, actively and intentionally spiritually mentor others since going through the process themselves. Many meet with multiple people.  Some of the people they’ve mentored, now mentor others.  The multiplication effect continues!  (I’m aware of one mentoring chain that had 5 generations at one point).
8. At least 62 people currently lead small groups. Many of them also meet one-on-one with their group members.
9. Two alums, Brian & Jodie (a married couple), moved out to Colorado where they help lead a full-time nine-month live-in discipleship/leadership ministry for college age and twenty-something individuals. Each year they pour into a new class of students, who they do life with for nine months.  They have graduated 35 people so far!  I recently met one of their graduates and was very impressed.
10. Over 50 mentoring relationships have formed at the church plant mentioned in #4.  After experiencing the power of spiritual mentoring, the church leaders are developing a church culture where it’s a growing norm for people to be invested in individually, not just from a stage or through mass programs. This makes my heart sing.  I think it make Jesus exceedingly happy also, since he’s the one who modeled this method of ministry – investing in the few to impact the masses through multiplication.

Thank You:
What an incredible 10 years!  A movement is beginning.  And none of it would have happened without the body coming together, believing that God could do something amazing through them and through their resources.

I shared in one of my first letters when I was asking people if they would join me in this crazy endeavor…one snowflake by itself can’t make much of a difference, but many snowflakes banding together can stop traffic.

Thank you for assisting God in stopping traffic and making a huge impact on young people’s lives.  They are already carrying that impact into the future.

In His Love,
Randy