Succession Planning
“Leaders understand that there is no success without a successor. No one wins when transitions don’t go well.” — Vanderbloemen and Bird*
If you could avoid the bumpy ride that happens far too often during pastoral transitions, would you be interested? If you could lower the risk of a messy pastoral transition and increase the changes of continuing to fulfill your mission even during a pastoral transition, would you be interested?
The reality is that all pastors are interim pastors. A recent study in the US put the average tenure of a senior pastor at 4-5 years. This means that many pastors face succession and transition a few times during their career.
The majority of pastors and churches do not have a plan for the pastor’s inevitable transition. There’s a cone of silence over this topic that needs to be broken. You are invited to join this discussion unless one of the following four scenarios is true:
you plan on being the pastor when Jesus returns
you have a plan to miraculously avoid death and retirement
you plan to close the church when you leave
you already have a rock-solid succession plan in place
What is succession planning?
Dave Travis, CEO of Leadership Network, defines pastoral succession as: “the intentional process of the transfer of leadership, power, and authority from one directional leader to another.” In his book Next, describes succession as when “one senior leader intentionally transitions and hands over leadership to another.”*
Pastoral succession is not primarily about retirement. It is really all about planning and preparing a church for the pastor to leave, putting a plan in place for the time between pastors, and preparing for the time when the new pastor will being leading the congregation. Succession planning is all about helping pastors and congregations have the conversations necessary so they don’t loose momentum, people, finances, meaningful ministry during the seasons of pastoral transition.
The preventable conversations
Succession planning prevents the following conversations from being heard:
“Our pastor just found out he has cancer and has to step down immediately for health reasons. We are stunned but worse than that, our board is split on the best approach to take to deal with the challenge.”
“Our pastor was just elected to serve in a denominational role and will be leaving in six months. We are excited for him, but no one was ready for this, and we hear rumblings that half the congregation could walk out.”
“We’re in shock. Our pastor is going overseas to serve as a missionary and it caught us all completely off guard. We have no plan and just want to find another pastor as soon as possible but we’re not sure if that’s such a good idea.”
“We just found out our pastor has been using church funds to support his gambling habit, so we’ve had to ask him to leave. Beside having no idea how to deal with the chaos we now face, we are starting to uncover other messy and broken situations that have been there for a while. Who will help us?”
The possibilities are great
Even though we cannot control all actions and outcomes of pastors and congregations, we can influence and increase the chances of healthy and God-honoring success. Proactive succession planning opens the door to a brighter future and invites God’s best to be realized.
Succession planning makes the following possible:
it lowers the risk of having an unplanned pastoral transition put the breaks on mission achievement
it lowers the risk of a leadership change blindsiding the congregation and setting it back three years
it manages change instead of being rattled and negatively impacted by it
it refuses to keep quiet about pastoral transitions creating a culture of trust and openness instead of secrecy and avoidance
it allows for the development of a rock solid biblically based plan for leadership transition that honours Jesus
it fosters a culture where experienced leaders mentor and equip up and coming leaders at all levels
it helps a congregation not be scattered by confusion and conflict due to the inability to normalize pastoral exits
Succession is God’s Idea
The Bible is full of examples of where succession planning was a critical part of the transition from one leader to another. Take Moses for example. He cried out to God for a leader to succeed him. “May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all living things, appoint someone over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd” (Numbers 27:16-17). God’s answer was Joshua.
Elijah apprenticed and passed the baton to Elisha. Authority and a double portion of God’s anointing was passed on as well. “When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?’ ‘Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,’ Elisha replied” (2 Kings 2:9).
Jesus spends many hours and days preparing his disciples for succession. John 21 gives us a snapshot of how Jesus re-engaged with a defeated Peter. This interaction was a critical step in preparing for the imminent succession of leadership. When Jesus exited earth, he entrusted the launching and building of the church to his disciples who would receive help from the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ exit was a horrific shock but in time, closure occurred, and they became ready to take over.
God continues to be involved in succession as the Holy Spirit leads and guides the transition from one leader to another. “God does use people and systems in conjunction with the Holy Spirit to help build leadership teams in the church.”*
The pastor’s role in succession planning
Not all pastors are gung-ho about succession planning. Why is that? It could be due to a lack of role models* or due to fear or low self-confidence.**
The self-talk of a pastor may include conversations like these: “If I talk about pastoral transition, I might put the idea into someone’s head and that will make it more likely to happen sooner than I want it to happen.” “I will create a lame-duck situation and effective ministry will become impossible.” “Talking about transition may create unintended consequences for myself or others in our church.” “We don’t have the resources to deal with succession planning right now — there’s too much on my plate!”
The reality is that with the right support, resources, training, and spiritual strength, these fears and anxieties can be replaced by wise planning and crucial conversations. Avoiding the inevitability of transition by living in the land of denial, pays for itself with unintended negative consequences and chaos that can be avoided.
A framework for succession planning
Succession planning is a process, not an event! The process includes certain elements essential for success and help prevent the bumpy ride of a poorly planned pastoral transition. We’ve looked at the “why” of succession planning, now let’s turn to the “what” of succession planning. What does the process look like?
There are four elements to the process. This will look different for each situation, but I suggest you look for principles you can use to help navigate the process you use to deal with a pastoral transition, the time between pastors, and the entrance of the new pastor.
Phase #1: Engage – in this phase, the pastor and key leaders are engaged in a conversation to build the case for and gain agreement to the importance and value of succession planning.
Phase #2: Evaluate – in this phase, it’s important to assess health, vitality, leadership, current issues, and the context that will influence the exact succession plan you create that fits the situation.
Phase #3: Create – in this phase, you work on mapping out goals, milestones along the way, an interim ministry process, ministry planning integration, and a healthy leadership culture.
Phase #4: Implement - in this phase, the succession plan is put into action and embedded into the culture and fabric of the congregational life and ministry. Coaching and facilitating may play a roll at this phase.
Final Thoughts
Succession planning will look very different depending on the context. In one situation, a pastor may be able to groom a staff member for the lead role who is already positioned to take over once the senior pastor leaves. This can work in larger churches. In other situations, especially smaller churches, you don’t have the capacity to have the next pastor on staff who can be prepared to succeed the lead pastor. In that case, having an intentional interim pastor helping to facilitate a healthy transition process is often a better option to the succession of the lead pastor.
“Succession is a coming crisis in the church. The most expensive mistake a church can ever make is a bad transition from one senior leader to the next. Smart churches are ready for transition even when they’re not expecting it. We are all interim pastors.” — William Vanderbloemen
“The decision to pass the torch moved the congregation from uncertainty of the future to anticipation of the future. Once that decision was made and communicated, it set the tone for a well-planned and exciting future for the church.” — Jay Passavant
Resources:
*Next: Pastoral Succession That Works by William Vanderbloemen and Warren Bird.
**The Elephant in the Boardroom: Speaking the Unspoken about Pastoral Transitions, by Carolyn Weese and J. Russell Crabtree