33 Basic Statements on Senior Pastor Succession

Editor’s Note: It’s finally here. The new booklet has arrived at the shippers. If you are U.S. Based, you can get a copy for free shipped to you. Find out more below.

The new booklet has 33 short chapters illustrated with lush photographs and images.

You can read it in less than 40 minutes. Here are a few of the chapters in less than 700 words.

1. The Larger and Longer, the more intentional the process

Elephants are the largest land mammals. Their pregnancy period is twenty-two months.

On the other hand, rabbits can go from conception to birth in around 28 days.

In my work with large churches, they tend to be more like elephants.

The larger the church and the longer the senior pastor has been there, the more critical it is to have a very intentional succession process. It needs good thinking and process.

Invariably in my opening conversations with a church, they will describe complications “unique to our situation.” Rarely are they unique if you work with over 200 churches, but they are unique to them.

Complexity and complications mean there needs to be a customized pathway that fits your church, not someone else.

(You will want to see our Senior Pastor Succession Process Model to understand fully)

2. Founders and Near Founders add another layer of getting it right.

There was a great wave of churches starting from 1980 to the early 2000s. Praise God for that.

Many of these leaders are true founders, the initial pastor that stepped out with vision and faith and built a large congregation around their gifts.

Now many of those that are the founders are retiring or stepping out of primary leadership.

Near founders are those transformational leaders that may not have technically been the founder, but the church was transformed during the season they have led. Often that meant a relocation, a name change, a significant model change, or multiple changes of the preceding items.

In addition, over 85% of the congregation has never known another pastor at this church other than the current pastor.

Here is what I find:

• Founders are more likely to stay around after stepping down as primary leaders. That role needs careful crafting, guardrails, and clear understanding, but most can do so with sound guidance.

• Each year you stay over 20 years as the primary leader also makes staying more likely and needed even if you are not the founder. Again, this can work with proper help.

• Honored successors with less than 15 years in the role are likelier to leave any future role. There are a few, but it is much rarer.

Which are you?

(These issues are addressed in the Leader’s Future part of our process)

3. The ultimate goal is the long-term health of the church. That is the client.

As leaders, thinking of our own needs and desires is natural. But we all realize the more important desire is to see the church flourish even more in its next season.

It is not wrong to think of the current leader’s needs and to give special consideration to their ongoing relationship with the church and its mission.

But we must align what we want for the church’s next season and what serves it best for that season.

In the Senior Pastor Smart Succession Process, we take the time to differentiate all constituencies' various needs and desires and craft a plan to maximize the best outcomes available.

The two extremes we want to avoid:

• Total focus on the next leader’s needs and desires without regard to the rest of the church.

• Letting the current leader dictate what they want and how the next season will create a tribute to them.

Those are obvious and meant to be funny. But you would be surprised how many church teams tend to err towards one of those extremes.

Staff and Boards can either be very loyal toward the current leader on one extreme or resentful on the other.

We need to recognize that the church's health is influenced by intangibles that include honor and respect of leaders but also set a direction towards more excellent health.

(This is addressed with our Purposeful Plan Framework in our process)

Want your FREE copy?

If you are US-based, we can ship it to you. Just email Linda.Stanley@Generis.com to get yours.

In future issues, we will share a few more of the chapters, but you will want to read all 33.

This blog post originally appeared on Church Leader Insider. For more information or to subscribe to Church Leader Insider, click HERE.