1100 word whopper this week. 5 minutes to read and a whole year to ponder. But you can skim these headlines in 60 seconds. Don’t miss out on the opportunities in the ad section though.
We will all leave a legacy. It can be good. It can be bad.
Most will leave an unintentional legacy. Those are mostly “meh.”
But great legacies can be intentional and planned.
Whether you are a mid-career pastor or a late-season pastor, you can do things in 2022 to prepare for an incredible legacy season.
The predominance of my work with churches is in planning for succession.
As I work with many pastors, though, there is a need for some pre-planning, often 15 years before the church legacy season, to do some personal legacy planning. For this reason, I wrote the Pastor Legacy Life Plan and developed that process.
But even if you are not ready for Pastor Smart Succession or the Pastor Legacy Life Plan process yet, here are four steps to take in 2022, regardless of your age and stage as a pastor.
1. Make a list of close relationships you need to renew, establish or repair?
Why start here?
Because in surveys of Americans, it is where most find significant meaning in life. These could be relationships with family, close friends, colleagues, and perhaps past friends.
Pastors of churches can often feel isolated and alone. It is also why when I ask about their best friends, and they often point to someone on their staff team.
These are good relationships, but one needs a good circle of regular, sustaining relationships that walk through life with us on its ups and downs in future seasons.
The challenge is that few pastors take the time to nurture many of these relationships OUTSIDE their church context consistently.
I find broken relationships with children, siblings, and parents in too many cases. The pandemic has strained many familial relationships as well.
These could be high school friends or college mates to reconnect with. This is one of the strengths of Facebook. You can often find them and get reconnected to share your life history.
I guess about 80% of our high school class is now reconnected, thanks to this tool. Just today, I called a friend I only see at reunions due to his recent illness. We were both encouraged.
ACTION STEP: My encouragement is first to make a list of people you would like to renew, establish and repair relationally in the coming year.
Reach out. Take the risk. Connect.
2. Physical evaluation
I mentioned above my friend whose heart ailment sent him on a spiral and readjustment process.
In my long rambling letter for succession planning, or Pastor Legacy Life Plan process, one of the first questions is: When was your last physical?
The older pastors get, the more they tend to keep those up. Grateful for that.
But one needs to start earlier, check the numbers, and plan if there are deficiencies and issues to be addressed. Usually, that begins with diet and exercise improvements.
An early start will pay dividends, just like your financial investments.
The other question I ask: How much sleep do you get a night?
I can count on one hand the influential pastors I know that get less than six a night. It was once a point of pride with pastors to brag about how little rest they got.
That will kill you in more ways than physically. Lack of rest leads to deficiencies in multiple parts of your life.
Rest is a spiritual discipline to be nurtured.
HERE’S YOUR ACTION STEP: Schedule your physical and start tracking your sleep.
Article continues after the ad:
1 Online Event
2 Road Trip Working Lab tours to note
1 Online Event - on February 23rd 5 ET, 4 CT, 2 MT, 1 PT - Seven Ways Pastors and Churches Mess Up Succession. For Senior, Executive Pastors and Board members only. Private, cameras-off, boardroom briefing. 25 minutes.
There are no recordings.
2 Road Trip Working Lab Tours:
March 2-4 in Florida - Three locations across the Sunshine State including Orlando, Jacksonville and Tampa.
March 22-24 in Texas - Four locations in Dallas/Fort Worth, Waco, Austin, Houston.
Each two-hour working lab will contain a briefing, interactive session with the group, and rough action plan template.
Key Questions:
What are the cultural impacts that churches will have to address in this next season?
With the “great resignation” rippling through our culture, how does this impact staffing trends in the church?
What are the medium-term horizon issues that senior leaders of churches will need to begin addressing now?
How are other churches “bringing people back” and reaching out to new constituencies in the past year?
All of the above are FREE for qualified participants. If you are a Senior Pastor, Executive Pastor, or Board member, send me an email to Dave.Travis@generis.com to indicate your interest and we will get you a registration link.
And again, we will not record these.
Article continues….
Now let’s move to church legacy season planning.
Here is what I mean. Many of you are founders or long-term Senior Pastors. The church you lead now is more extensive, more prominent, and a much different place than when you took over leadership.
A change in leadership can be traumatic and challenging. It is vulnerable in many ways.
I will release a good assessment for leaders and churches as they think about these seasons in the coming year. But until then, in 2022, or even this year, you can start here:
3. Emergency Plan – What is it?
When I ask pastors and board leaders, do you have an emergency plan if the pastor is incapacitated, lost to illness, or moral failure?
The most common answer I get is: “We have an informal one, but it is not written.” This is the same as “no plan.”
The second most common answer is: “The lender made us put one together a few years back when we got that big loan.” This is often a reasonably robust document.
The board, staff, and the whole of the congregation must know there is a plan for an unplanned vacancy in the top role.
(I can send a template upon request to get you started.)
Besides being written down, that conversation needs to be reviewed annually. In the last one I looked at from a church, there was the name of another pastor taking over as interim head of staff for 90 days while the board figured out what would be next. The problem was that the executive pastor had been gone for over five years. Some of the board thought he might already be with Jesus!
Every year, a good review also keeps the cause of good succession in front of the board to make steady progress towards that eventual day.
ACTION STEP: SHOW ME YOUR PLAN Or ask for a free template.
4. Governing Document Check
In addition to the emergency plan, about half of the churches I work with have out-of-date governing documents. By out of date, I mean that they propose a succession conversation not in line with what the governing documents state.
The governing documents were probably acceptable for the last time they found a pastor, but the current situation is different. Alternatively, many documents are silent on the matter. It is assumed that the current pastor will live forever and lead forever.
Usually, when I review a set of documents early, we can see if any changes are needed and walk through them over time to get them where we need them.
Alternatively, if they cannot be changed or altered, we can create some workaround paths to help adjust to the current situation.
The essential questions in this Church Legacy Plan and Selection of a New leader are things like:
Who decides? Who is engaged in the process?
And how is the final determination made? What is the complete look at the process according to the governing documents?
ACTION STEPS:
For those churches starting to think about these issues, 2022 would be an excellent time to look at your documents to see if they are in line with what you are thinking about the future process.
I am willing to do a quick look at your governing docs and give you a one-page set of suggestions for free. Just email me at dave(dot)travis(at)generis.com and start the conversation.