Why Most Churches Don’t Have a Succession Plan
And What It’s Costing Them
About a 4-minute read — on the conversation most pastors know they need to have but keep postponing.
Last year I sat with two different churches navigating pastoral transitions. The first had been planning for three years. The second called me six months before the pastor’s final Sunday.
The difference wasn’t subtle.
The first church had time — time to identify internal candidates, time to let the congregation process the change, time for the outgoing pastor to finish strong rather than scramble. The transition felt like a passing of the baton. The second felt like a fire drill. Staff were anxious. The board was reactive. The pastor was exhausted. And a church that had been thriving was suddenly just trying to survive the gap.
Same size churches. Same genuine love for their congregations. Completely different outcomes — because of one decision: when they started.
And that discomfort is exactly why most churches — including large, well-led ones — have no formal plan in place. Not because they don’t care. Not because they lack resources. But because a set of predictable emotional and organizational blockers keeps the conversation from ever starting.
Here’s what I see most often.
Blocker 1: “It Feels Like I’m Giving Up”
I’ve heard some version of this from nearly every senior pastor I’ve worked with in this season. There’s a quiet fear that naming a successor — or even beginning the conversation — is an admission of decline. That it changes something.
One pastor said it to me directly: “If I start this conversation, I’m not sure I can un-start it.”
I understand that feeling. But here’s what I know from the field: succession planning isn’t a retirement announcement. It’s a leadership act. In fact, it may be the highest-leverage leadership decision a senior pastor ever makes. The question isn’t whether your ministry will eventually transition. It will. The only question is whether you’ll lead that transition or simply survive it.
Have you ever avoided a conversation — not because you didn’t know it was important, but because starting it felt like it changed something you weren’t ready to change?
Blocker 2: “We Don’t Know Where to Start”
There’s no seminary course on this. No standard playbook handed to you at ordination. Most churches that attempt succession planning default to a flawed strategy: find a younger version of the current pastor and hand them the keys.
That almost never works.
Effective succession planning for church leadership requires separating the decision from the person. It means asking: What does this church need for its next chapter? — not Who reminds us most of who we already have? Those are very different questions, and the first one takes courage to ask honestly.
If you were to start this conversation with your board this month, what would you even say first? That uncertainty is exactly where a structured process helps.
Blocker 3: “We’re Not There Yet”
This is the most dangerous blocker because it sounds responsible.
Pastors waiting for a specific age, a milestone anniversary, or some felt sense of “readiness” are operating on what I call chronos time — calendar time. But the churches that transition well aren’t watching the clock. They’re reading kairos signals: the health of the leadership pipeline, the spiritual maturity of the congregation, the organizational capacity to absorb change.
A church leadership succession plan built on kairos rather than chronos gives everyone — the pastor, the board, the congregation, and the successor — room to breathe. The research and my own experience consistently confirm: the churches that do this best start three to five years before the transition, not six months out.
Are you planning your transition around a number on a calendar, or around the health and readiness of your church?
You Don’t Have to Figure This Out Alone
If any of this is landing, I want you to know there’s a structured way forward. Through Pastor Smart Succession, I walk with senior pastors and their boards through every step of this process — from naming the conversation to shaping what I call a “framed fit” for the future. You don’t have to improvise this.
I also want to invite you to consider the LeadWell Senior Pastor Finishing Well Cohort — a peer community for pastors in exactly this season. Sometimes the most clarifying thing is hearing another pastor say, “I felt the same way, and here’s what we did.”
If you’re ready to take a first step, reach out directly: greg@ligongroup.com or book a conversation here.
One Last Thing
Starting this conversation is the hardest part. It’s also the most generous thing you can do for the people you’ve spent your ministry serving.
The best succession plans aren’t written in the final chapter. They’re written in the middle of the story — when there’s still time to get it right.
Found this helpful? Share it with a pastor or board member who needs to hear it. And if you want to go deeper on the chronos vs. kairos framework, read my earlier post on Finishing Well.