~900 words plus a bit
This is part 3; see part 1 here and part 2 here.
As a reminder, 90% of my client work is with large churches helping them plan for Senior Pastor Succession and transition seasons.
Now that I have had over 50 clients, counseled several hundred churches, and spoken with over 400 lead pastors who followed a long-term leader, I have arrived at some thoughts and developed tools, helps, and process pieces to help leaders make crucial decisions.
The clients I most frequently serve are led by founders/near founders, have led for a long season, and the church looks completely different from when they arrived on the scene. I call these pathbreaker pastors.
While the prime leader is only part of the equation, they are the starting point.
The client is the church, however. The ultimate health of the whole congregational system is the priority for decision-making. The STAY markers mean that we feel the ultimate health of the congregation is better served by the current leader playing some role in the future but letting the next leader lead the congregation in its vision and mission.
Succession is the intentional transfer of power, leadership, and authority from one primary leader to the next.
But that means it must be transferred FROM one leader TO the next.
But a question often comes from these pathbreaker pastors – Should I stay here at the church or should I go?
Photo by James Lee from Subsplash
First, this mainly concerns the component of the Leader’s Future area that I call Resourceful Role formulation.
Leaders must lead something. It is infrequent for me to counsel a pathbreaker pastor who wants to totally retire from leading. If leaders have nothing to lead, that twists them up inside. This is an identity issue for their heart and soul. It destabilizes their internal gyroscope to go from leading a large church to nothing.
What I mean by go or stay – Go means leaving the current church to endeavor into another ministry or leadership calling. We covered this in part 2.
Stay means remaining at the current church in some new role at some level, and I usually guide clients on the stay scenario, which is the need and desire to stay for the start of the next chapter of the church’s story. It does not necessarily mean to stay forever!
Stay – Markers
“I am the founder”
In my formulation, long-term, pathbreaker pastors constitute four groups – Founders, near founders, modern founders, and honored long-term leaders. Think of this as a continuum of left to right on a line.
The closer to the left on that line, the more likely the pastor will need to remain connected with the church for its next chapter.
This is because leaving would likely cause destabilization of the system in the 5-year horizon.
Team Teaching
If the current teaching and preaching team consists of multiple voices from multiple generations and the current lead pastor is at 30 weekends a year or fewer, the likelihood of staying in the team with a much-reduced teaching role is greater.
When the congregation is used to hearing God’s word preached and taught by others, the less disruptive effect is on the congregation’s health.
How many of the pastor’s family serve in a paid staff role?
This is often a church culture question. Churches tend to divide into these camps on this issue:
“We do not allow that.” In that case, this is a non-issue for this client.
“We discourage it, but we have some of that.” In that case, churches and pastors can get a bit squirrely over the future decisions to be made.
“We expect it.” There are many churches where the current pastor’s family is expected to serve, are the best qualified to fit the church's culture, and will be expected to remain, even if an outsider is brought in as the pastor.
The further down the list of bullet points above, the more likely the current pastor will be encouraged to stay in some role.
Additionally, if the current pastor’s family number is less than 1 FTE, this becomes less of an issue. But the greater the number, the more likely the current senior pastor will stay in some role.
Story after the ad…
This is tomorrow! And whether you are 45, 55, or 60 plus, it could be for you.
12, no 13 Questions To Guide Your Succession Thinking
After working with over 400 churches – churches in transition, pastors that led through succession planning, and successor pastors – I have found 13 critical questions that must be asked and answered by every larger church in this process.
On September 7, at noon ET, I will share those with everyone attending a unique, registration-only webinar.
Whether you are five years or five months away from this crucible moment at your church, you need to understand the right questions to develop the answers that fit your church and situation.
Assorted freebies for attenders after the session.
Prior pastors set a historical pattern for this idea
This is a case where an “honored long-term leader” category pastor often observes how their predecessors were addressed in prior transitions.
If these were good experiences for the church and the next leader, there is often strong desire, willingness, and expectation that this pattern will be repeated. The current leader knows the expectation not to “break the chain.”
The stepping-down pastor's roles may change and flex, but the openness and encouragement remain.
Looking back at part 2 – to two issues – health and finances.
If the pastor and their spouse are in good health, the likelihood of staying can be high.
If their finances are shaky, they often stay to keep the income as long as they can.
Regarding that second issue, the pastor was often underpaid for a long season in founder cases. Those who helped lead a church from small to large were also historically paid less than their keep.
Some wise boards and churches correct this matter in the middle of the pastor’s tenure, but many more have not and feel a worthy obligation to provide now for the current leader to be prepared for retirement season. In these cases, the pastor remains in a role where the church can provide for them financially over the next chapter.
In the final issue in this series I will describe the issues that really have little impact as to whether a pastor should “stay or go.”