I guess you learn something after 40 years or so in ministry in a local church setting and in a wider setting which I seemed to be called to be part of for 1 or 3 decades. Here is one thing I have learned. When people rubbish the past they rarely take anything into a better future. In actual fact they tend to undo ground patiently and unostentatiously taken for the Kingdom.I have spoken with people who saw their calling being to bring what God had blessed to an end so that the “more” could emerge. They actually told me to my face without any embarrassment, that they had been called to bring what I myself was involved in, to an end! They told me that with a straight face and no awkwardness! They told me that was their calling. But they are either no longer involved in Christian ministry or are achieving exaggerated successes, hardly moving the Kingdom on at all and having undone previous progress in order to progress the minimal advance of their own ministry.

Pride comes before a fall.

Don’t rubbish what has been gained , because of the strength of your passion for your own particular passion which makes you sneer obviously or ever so slightly with an unreal smile towards others who in your eyes are Yesterday’s men and women. They may still be standing and bearing fruit after your venture in self aggrandisement has been long forgotten.

know that will not be listened to.

My sadness is only that some of those associated with me have been labelled “ Kenny’s boys,” and dismissed as no longer relevant to what God wants to do today. Of course they were not actually mine! But they were humble and willing to learn on their way to becoming their own man or woman. I am glad that despite being dismissed as irrelevant for what God is doing now, their humble ministries are advancing the Kingdom of God in Scotland and beyond in both new ventures and more traditional ways. Both types of advance are needed. One is not better than the other! I remember in the past that people used the erroneous term “ Kenny’s Boys” in a positive way. It has not been used positively across the board. For some that label placed upon them has led to shut doors , a feeling of being dropped and being inexplicably out of favour, bypassed, no longer the favoured flavour. That is hard. But you know what? Every time I have had a true encounter with God, doors have shut before more doors opened. I have had invitations withdrawn after fresh encounters with God! Several! It seems to have been almost a pattern, if such a concept as “pattern” is not irreverent to the Living God , the God who does not hold as guiltless those who use His Name in vain, attaching it to their own plans, projects, passions, pursuits, prophecies and proclamations.

God bless

Kenny