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NEXT Chapter 6, September 2023 (Podcast Transcript)

9/15/2023

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Hi everyone! Welcome back to the Basin and Towel podcast!  I’m your host, Pastor Chris Cahill.  If you’re a pastor or church worker or in some type of ministry, I hope that the Basin and Towel podcast can help you fill in some gaps between ministry theory and practice.
Let's get started.
This is the fifth episode in a series about the conversations I’m having with our leadership at Christ the King Lutheran Church, where I serve as pastor. I’ve been thinking seriously about retirement and what that might mean for me and for our congregation. I hope these conversations will help us to plan together for the transition from this current ministry to the ministry of the next pastor.
Our conversations are based on the book titled “NEXT: Pastoral Succession that Works.” (As always in this series, in the shownotes I’ve included links for the book as well as for the ministries of both Zach and Mark Zehnder). In today’s episode, I want to focus on chapter six, “Resigning ‘Young’ to Start Another Ministry - and does the outgoing pastor always need to leave town?”
CHAPTER 6: “Resigning ‘Young’ to Start Another Ministry - and does the outgoing pastor always need to leave town?”
Let’s think about how these two topics influenced the history of the church that I’ve been serving for 34 years - Christ the King Lutheran Church in Lodi, Ohio.
This church was a mission plant that begain in 1980. Its first pastor was the Rev. Paul Rist, who was here for nine years. By all accounts (and my personal knowledge), he was a good pastor, friendly and engaging with the people, and the people who came and stayed liked him and one another, and the church grew.
But after about ten years here he received and accepted a call to another ministry, in the Pittsburgh area. I think he was not even 40 years old at the time - so, one of those pastors who “resign young to start another ministry.” When I came to Christ the King from the church I served in Chigago I was not even 40 years old - so again, one of those pastors who “resign young to start another ministry.” Granted, we both left the ministry of one congregation to go to an established ministry in another congregation, but for each of us it was a new start in a new place in a new ministry.
Now, I haven’t made it a secret here at Christ the King that I served in my first church for four years, and in my second church for five years, before I accepted the call to come to Christ the King, and have been here for 34 years. It’s possible that all three churches looked at my personal profile and thought “Wow! He’s still a young guy - maybe he’ll be here for a long time!” In fact, if that’s what people in the first two churches thought, it wasn’t very long until I disappointed them. And in fact, in our denomination quite a few pastors move after a few years, especially in the early years of their ministry.
But some of us don’t - I’ve known a couple of men in my seminary class from 1980 who have spent their entire ministry in one congregation. I’ve known several more who, like me, bounced a couple of times and have since settled down to be in the same place for decades. So one thing it would be helpful for congregations to understand is this: when you’re prayerfully considering calling a pastor, you just can’t predict how long his ministry among you will be.
This chapter suggests that there are several “pros” and several “cons” for staying long in a ministry. I won’t mention all of them, just three of each that I’ve personally observed or experienced.
Here are the PROS:
Growth. The authors say “while longevitiy doesn’t guarantee growth, growth rarely happens without a long-term leader.” (p. 96) I’ve seen both sides of this coin in our District, and in neighboring districts.
Effectiveness. We’d all hope that life in a Christian congregation wouldn’t come down to a battle of wits between the pastor and some members - but sometimes it does. And we’d all hope that it wouldn’t come down to the pastor and some members playing nasty games against one another constantly - but sometimes it does. But like the TV series “Survivor” with its subtitle “Outwit - outplay - outlast”, this “Pro” of long-term ministry says that a key to effectiveness is to just outlast the opponents and the critics - to weather the storms long enough for them to blow over and see clear skies ahead.
Long-term discipleship. I’ve said this several times at Christ the King - one of the great joys of being the pastor here for so long is that there are people who were elementary school kids when I got here, whom I confirmed, later married, still later I baptized their kids, and still later I confirmed those kids! Being able to witness, and be part of, a multi-generational ministry over the years is truly heartwarming!
Addressing deep issues. Sometimes a church has, or develops, issues that can’t be resolved in one or two prayer meetings - it may take years of patient care and steadfast presence to resolve those issues. And sometimes there are deeper issues in the wider community, and it helps to have a pastor who is recognized and respected by community leaders and others because they have seen him involved and around for years.
Long-term change. It’s been said (by “somebody”) that changing the course of a church’s ministry is like changing the course of a huge container ship - it’s a long, slow process that requires a lot of space and a lot of focus over time. And it helps to have the same person at the helm the whole time, too, to keep the course steady until the ship / church is going in the desired direction. And in the church, sometimes it’s actually helpful to have somebody say “we’ve never done that here before” because whatever “that” is doesn’t align with the church’s long-held mission, vision, and values.

Alright, enough of the PROs. We should talk about the CONs
Graying congregation and (graying donor base)
It’s been clear to many of us at Christ the King that the folks who were my age (roughly) when I came as pastor are still the same folks - we’re all 34 years older! The Sunday School that used to overflow every cramped meeting space those decades ago, is now less than 12 kids. Our kids have grown up, married, got jobs, moved away from the area, and have kids of their own. A church can get depressed over that - or like Christ the King more often, we enjoy sharing grandchildren stories and pictures with each other. One of our values is “Acceptance” - and when somebody’s grandkids show up in church, we’re glad to see them (and we chuckle at rather than scold their “antics”). Is there a chance that will change, and we’ll see younger families coming to the church? Time will tell.
Calcification. The dark side of what I said before (“we’ve never done that here before”) is, of course, the implied second half of the sentence “. . . and we’re only going to do it over my dead body!” We can bemoan the disappearance of Blockbuster video stores or the shrinking brick-and-mortar retail chains, but the social landscape is constantly changing, and businesses who don’t adjust get left in the dust. Something similar may be said about churches. In order for the original Apostles to spread the Gospel, they had to start preaching to Gentiles, not just Jews. In order to reach the Gentiles more effectively, they had to leave Israel and go into the world. What might Christ the King have to do in the future in order to reach the people of our community and world more effectively? This part of the story still needs to be written.
Habituation or lost effectiveness. I was assigned right out of the seminary to my first church. I wasn’t there too long when I noticed that one of the high lights in the sanctuary was out. I said to the congregation’s chairman and trustee, “the light in the sanctuary needs to be replaced - who’s in charge of that?” Their answer was “Pastor K and his son used to change those lights by putting long, heavy boards across several pews, and then a 12-foot stepladder on the boards.” My wet-behind-the-ears, but still perceptive comment, was, “Pastor K and his son are no longer here, so who’s gonna do it now? And don’t look at me.” Sometimes, churches get to the point where some things have happened in the same way for so long that nobody knows what else to do. I wonder what some of those things are at Christ the King? (Actually, I have my own mental list - but what’s on your list?)
So those are the Pros and Cons of long term ministry. But wait! There’s more!
This chapter suggests a number of reasons why pastors might move on “early,” without waiting for retirement or another call. I’m not going to discuss them here, just to list them so that you’re aware of some of these possibilities:
  • Some have a “holy discontent” and don’t stay anywhere for very long.
  • Some are “runners” - they’re either running to something else, or away from something else, or both.
  • Some get burned out.
  • Some just change - after all people change, and sometimes churches don’t change with them.
  • Some thrive better at planting than at maintaining - even Saint Paul acknowledged that he was a planter, not a waterer or a harvester.
  • Some have or develop a mismatch with the call. Our friend Wayne once told me that he was at a pastors’ conference where a Ministerial Health guy started his one-hour time segment by asking the pastors to get into small groups and discuss this question: “Is the bus you’re on the one you bought the ticket for?” - and then sat down for the rest of the hour.
  • Some are outgrown by their congregation. A pastor whose ministry style is a one-man operation may quickly be overwhelmed if his congregation grows too big, too quickly. If he’s not agile enough to make the switch to a team-style ministry, his most effective course of action may just be to leave before he gets in over his head.
  • Some shift to a new ministry paradigm and leave before they cause division in their churches. It seems to me that this takes a lot of courage and even brutal honesty for a man to admit that "if I stay, there’s gonna be a trainwreck” - but sometimes that may be what needs to be done.
  • Some have private family issues. Another time for courage and honesty (maybe not the brutal type).
  • Some have an almost complete lack of self-awareness. When I was still a vicar (intern) I knew a neighboring pastor who was one of these guys. He was so intent on being able to say that he would celebrate 50 years in active ordained ministry that he was oblivious to the harm he was causing as the congregation dwindled to nothing.
And there’s a third part for this chapter - should the pastor stay after he resigns? There’s no easy answer to this question, just a few examples of the possibilities:
  • “Outgoing pastors who continue to hang around usually remain much more in charge than they realize. . . . Their stature and shadow can remain immense.” (NEXT, page 101)
  • For some, an overlap of the outgoing and incoming pastors means that honoring the past unlocks the future (but that overlap has to be done well and intentionally)
  • For some, advance planning, passing the baton, and then staying away works best. This was the plan twice at our sister church Grace in Lakewood. When the church was first formed as the result of a merger, the pastors of both merging churches were greatly involved in the planning, they were both involved in the worship service of celebration for the merger, but they both passed the baton to the man who was called to pastor the new church (one of them moved away entirely, the other stayed in the area but stayed away from the church completely for most of that first year of that new pastor’s ministry. That new pastor has always said how much he appreciated that).
Here’s an issue that sometimes comes up - what happens when a pastor leaves, but his wife or family members stay in the congregation? There are a couple of congregations in our district in which that’s the case (I won’t name names), and they seem to be working out - but there are also a couple of cases where, in time, the whole family changes churches.
So the authors of NEXT suggest some ways to honor and support the pastor’s wife as he’s leaving (here are three):
  1. “Listen by an exit interview or another process that gives dignity to the person and role;
  2. Design a special farewell gift or experience tailored to the outgoing spouse’s personality; and
  3. Create a setting so that the outgoing and incoming spouses can meanigfully interact with each other.” (p. 110)


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NEXT Chapter 5, August 2023 (Podcast transcript)

8/14/2023

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This is the fourth episode in a series about the conversations I’m having with our leadership at Christ the King Lutheran Church, where I serve as pastor. I’ve been thinking seriously about retirement and what that might mean for me and for our congregation. I hope these conversations will help us to plan together for the transition from this current ministry to the ministry of the next pastor.

Our conversations are based on the book titled “NEXT: Pastoral Succession that Works.” (As always in this series, in the shownotes I’ve included links for the book as well as for the ministries of both Zach and Mark Zehnder). In today’s episode, I want to focus on the fifth chapter, “Deciding When It’s Time to Leave.”

CHAPTER 5: “Deciding When It’s Time to Leave”

By now we’ve kind of become accustomed to hearing about people who “retire,” but don’t really “retire.” There are folks who “retire” and then take another job, or a series of jobs, because they just can’t seem to sit still. They may be jobs with different employers, or even completely different industries, but they’re always “working.” Then there are folks who “retire” from the same career several times in succession, until we begin to wonder each time they announce their “retirement” whether they’ll ever stop playing us for fools. This seems particularly true with high-powered professional athletes, some of whom “retire” from their sport only to re-enter the sport a year or so later with a different team; or those who tease their fans by saying “I’ll probably retire at the end of this season” only to come back later and say “I changed my mind - I’m staying.”

I’ve heard of - and even known - pastors who do the same. I’ve known pastors who’ve just kept going at their church until they basically dropped. I’ve known pastors who have “retired” from serving their church, only to spend the next several years substituting for other pastors who are still active in ministry (that will probably be me, by the way). I’ve known pastors who have “retired” from serving their church, only to stick around and be a nuisance to their successors as they second-guess everything the new guy tries to do. I’ve also known churches where the board has basically had to tell the pastor “We think it’s time for you to retire.”

Chapter 5 of the book NEXT suggests that it might be helpful to identify several broad types of ministry transitions. In practice, there are two large types - unexpected, and expected. Unexpected transitions occur when there’s some kind of unforeseen or sudden emergency (the pastor’s long-term illness or even death); when the pastor is involved in something that disqualifies him for ministry (moral failure, or physical competencies); or when the pastor is forced to leave (i.e., he’s been fired). Expected transitions include times when the church and pastor decide to enter an entirely new phase of ministry, or when the pastor accepts a call or position at another church, or when he retires. But the focus of the book and these conversations is on retirement.

So here are ten “Ways God Might Show You It’s Time to Move On” (NEXT, pages 86-87):
  1. God gives you a clear sign.
  2. Your leadership (council, board) speaks.
  3. Your part of the mission is complete.
  4. You lose heart.
  5. Others confirm it.
  6. You receive a new call.
  7. A mismatch develops.
  8. Collaboration ends.
  9. The church begins to show a lack of confidence in your vision and/or leadership.
  10. You reach physical or emotional limits.
Each pastor is different, in how he functions in ministry, how he perceives what he is good at (or not so good at), and what he believes the focus of his current ministry ought to be. Each congregation is different, too. The book NEXT cites this quote from Lyle Schaler’s book “The Small Church is Different”: While some professional competence and personal relationshps are necessary in both, the smaller the church, the greater the expectation of relationship, and the larger the church, the greater the expectation of function. Churches of fifty are more interested in a pastor who relates well to every member, even if the sermons are marginal. Churches of five thousand expect super sermons whether everyone know the pastor or not. (NEXT, p. 92)

I’ve only served in churches of 100 or less in worship attendance, and I know how true the statement about the small / relational church is. I’ve cherished not only the time I’ve spent in the pulpit, but also the time I’ve spent in hospital rooms or living rooms, in Bible studies or in individual counseling, in formal meetings and in parking lot conversations, sharing tears of laughter or tears of sorrow. I think many of the people I’ve served have cherished these times of ministry too, but not only because they are times of ministry but also because they are times of real friendship.

I still don’t know what my exact “retirement date” will be. At the church where I am still the pastor, there is still quite a bit of work that needs to be done before that happens. These notes and conversations are part of that work as we all get ready bit by bit not for the “end of the Cahill era” but for the move into the next phase of ministry into which the Holy Spirit is leading Christ the King Lutheran Church.
​
I’ve often said to people that when I was in college I didn’t really have the pastoral ministry in mind as a career path; I always resisted the suggestions of everyone around me that I should become a pastor, until finally there didn’t seem to be any other choice. I’ve said for a long time that I didn’t have a sense of a “call” into ministry; it seemed more like the Holy Spirit dragged me, kicking and screaming, to the seminary. Now, after 43 years in the ministry, I don’t clearly see any of these “Ways God Might Show You It’s Time to Move On” in my life or ministry right now, but that’s not to say that they aren’t there. I hope I’m more aware of the moving of the Holy Spirit this time, so that He doesn’t end up dragging me kicking and screaming OUT of the ministry.
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​SHOWNOTES
  • Zach Zehnder is author, program leader, and President of the Red Letter Challenge at https://redletterchallenge.com/; along with Chris Johnson, Zach cohosts the Red Letter Disciple podcast at https://redletterchallenge.com/red-letter-disciple-podcast/
  • Mark Zehnder recently retired as the senior pastor of King of Kings Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska, and currently ministers at https://www.alwaysforwardministries.com/ to pastors, boards, staffs, and churches as they work through periods of leadership transition.
  • The book “NEXT: Pastoral Succession that Works” by William Vanerbloemen and Warren Bird is available at Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Next-Pastoral-Succession-That-Works/dp/080100571X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=SF9EGP9KPD3&keywords=next+vanderbloemen+bird&qid=1681756932&sprefix=next+Vand%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-1


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NEXT, Chapters 3 & 4 - Some Essential Questions

7/7/2023

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​This is the third episode in a series about the conversations I’m having with our leadership at Christ the King Lutheran Church, where I serve as pastor. I’m starting to think seriously about retirement and what that might mean for me and for our congregation. I hope these conversations will help us to plan together for the transition from this current ministry to the ministry of the next pastor.

Our conversations are based on the book titled “NEXT: Pastoral Succession that Works.” (As always in this series, in the shownotes I’ve included links for the book as well as for the ministries of both Zach and Mark Zehnder). In today’s episode, I want to focus on the third chapter, “Three Essential Questions” and the fourth chapter, “Ten Models of Post-Pastorate Professions.”

CHAPTER 3: “Three Essential Questions”

It seems that “retirement” means different things, depending on who you’re talking to. For a pension plan or the Social Security system, it seems to mean little more than a process for determining the amount of your monthly benefit checks. For family members, maybe it means your schedule is more free to help with the baby-sitting and transportation of children to school and sports events. For your spouse, maybe it means you finally have time to address that list of chores that has been lengthening for years - or maybe it means that you’re constantly under foot. Maybe for members of your current congregation, it means that they’ll lose you as their pastor and have to embark the dreaded process of looking for a new pastor. But sometimes, the retiring person has no idea what “being retired” might actually mean for them. So, these “three essential questions” are good places to start.

Essential Question 1: What would a successful hand-off look like, and how do I achieve it? or What do I need to do now to prepare for passing the leadership baton? (NEXT, pl. 61). I can’t answer this question for anyone but myself and the congregation I’m currently serving; if you’re listening to this podcast, this is something you have to figure out for yourself. However, I think there are several pieces that will become apparent over time. These two are already in the works at Christ the King:

First, I’d like to see some kind of “Retirement Worship Service” that would see me hand back to the congregation’s leadership the various “symbols of the pastoral office” that I agreed to when I was first installed as pastor. For instance, I’d like to see a part of the service where I hand a Bible to the Sunday School staff and say something like “When you called me to be your pastor, I accepted your call to a ministry of teaching the Word of God; as I hand this Bible to the Sunday School staff, I relinquish this ministry to the congregation, to be held in trust until the next pastor accepts the call to teach the Word among you.” This part of the service might also include handing a Chalice to the Board of Elders, a Baptism shell to the Congregation Chairman, etc. This would be a visibile reminder to everyone that these functions (preaching, teaching, caring, the administration of the Sacraments) belong to the congregation and are held in trust by the pastor.

Second, a little over a year ago several folks in our congregation joined me to begin to explore a process that would help us to see what the values of Christ the King are - how we express them, how we teach them, how we encourage them. We also thought about the direction God might be leading us in the future. It seemed to us that He was leading us to focus on this transition from the end of my ministry to the beginning of the next; but what about the “gap” in between? That’s where we think we need to work on discipleship and leadership development here. So, recently I enrolled in a course called “The Disciple Making Playbook” to help me gather a lot of scattered thoughts into some organized and targeted discipleship emphasis at my church over the next couple of years. (“The Disciple Making Playbook” was developed by Zach Zehnder and offered through his Red Letter Living organization - there’s a link in the shownotes.)

Essential Question 2: Identify a new life passion. We’ve all known of people who retire, but can’t seem to sit still! They’re always doing something. Some join bowling or golf leagues; some get into hobbies or crafts; some get some kind of job (maybe several in succession); some get involved in community groups or activities; some are always traveling. Then there are others who don’t seem to do much of anything.

What might retired pastors do? Any of the above, but there are other possibilities, too. (This seems like a good time to say that in the book NEXT the authors offer “Ten Models of Post-Pastorate Professions” in Chapter 4. Here’s their list of possibilities (some of these require specific training and licensure from some denominations):
  1. Intentional Interim Pastor
  2. Seminary Professor
  3. Politician
  4. Church Consultant
  5. Missionary / Mission Organization Ambassador
  6. Prayer Minister
  7. Ministry Champion (in the congregation the pastor just retired from)
  8. Church Planter and Coach
  9. Denominational Leader
  10. Chaplain
  11. (bonus suggestion) Author

Personally, I don’t know yet what I might do in retirement - but I think that I will probably at least still continue to preach and lead worship on Sundays, either as a substitute for other pastors, or as a regular preacher at a small congregation that can’t afford a full-time pastor.

Back to the Essential Questions in Chapter 3, and to Essential Question 3: Determine Financial Need. My wife and I have been particularly concerned about what our finances might be over the next twenty years or so, since our family medical histories seem to hint that unless some catastrophic health condition comes to light, each of us stand a pretty fair chance of living into our nineties. We’ve already done some significant work in this area with the help of a couple of good financial advisors that we trust.

As I said before, this is what I’ve been doing. Your situation may be different - the point of these chapters is to say “please don’t go into retirement without giving each of these essential questions some considerable thought and prayer.”

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THESE POSTS:
  • Zach Zehnder is author, program leader, and President of the Red Letter Challenge at https://redletterchallenge.com/; along with Chris Johnson, Zach cohosts the Red Letter Disciple podcast at https://redletterchallenge.com/red-letter-disciple-podcast/
  • Mark Zehnder recently retired as the senior pastor of King of Kings Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska, and currently ministers at https://www.alwaysforwardministries.com/ to pastors, boards, staffs, and churches as they work through periods of leadership transition.
  • The book “NEXT: Pastoral Succession that Works” by William Vanerbloemen and Warren Bird is available at Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Next-Pastoral-Succession-That-Works/dp/080100571X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=SF9EGP9KPD3&keywords=next+vanderbloemen+bird&qid=1681756932&sprefix=next+Vand%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-1
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Ten Comandments of Succession Planning (podcast transcript)

5/25/2023

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This is the second episode in a series about the conversations I’m having with our leadership at Christ the King Lutheran Church, where I serve as pastor. I’m starting to think seriously about retirement and what that might mean for me and for our congregation, and hope these conversations will help us to plan together for the transition from this current ministry to the ministry of the next pastor.

Our conversations are based on the book titled “NEXT: Pastoral Succession that Works.” (As always in this series, in the shownotes I’ve included links for the book as well as for the ministries of both Zach and Mark Zehnder). In today’s episode, I want to focus on the second chapter, “The Ten Commandments of Succession Planning.”

First, though, I feel like I should make the following disclaimers:
  1. I’m always leary when somebody labels a ten-item list as “Ten Commandments.” When a writer does that, he’s probably aware that nobody should take him literally, since there’s really only one list of “Ten Commandments” that really matter. He’s probably thinking, though, that people should take him fairly seriously.
  2. In the book NEXT, there are actually TWO ten-item lists in this chapter – one for folks (like me) who are on the threshhold of succession, and another for those who are nowhere near that age yet. In this episode, I’ll make some comments about both lists.
The “Ten Commandments” of PREPARING FOR SUCCESSION 
  1. Read this book with others. This is often a good suggestion for people in ministry. If I think a particular book has a lot of good things to say, it might be worth getting copies others and working through it together. I’ve done that in the past. With the book NEXT, though, I’m reading it and digesting it through these episodes for our leadership because there’s much in it that doesn’t apply to our situation, and I’d rather that we didn’t get lost in weeds that aren’t in our field.
  2. Set a healthy pace for the long run. The book suggests that the congregation establish a policy on sabbaticals, insists each leader take days off and the allotted vacation time, and that leaders be part of some kind of “accountability group” of people from outside the congregation. I have several observations here, based on personal experience and observation:
    1. Like many pastors of my generation in small churches, I’ve never had a “sabbatical.” However, it’s possible that younger pastors may be expecting something like a “sabbatical” periodically, so it may be a good idea for a congregation to prepare for that possibility ahead of time.
    2. Like many pastors in small churches, even taking a weekend off seems to be more trouble than it’s worth! It’s almost easier to write a sermon and a Bible study, and show up on a Sunday morning, than try to get a substitute and also make sure all the other bases are covered. So days off during the week (even a couple of overnights during the year) can make treasured memories.
    3. On the other hand, some kind of “vacation” is good every year for the pastor – and for the people! Some years ago as I was sitting with some of our youth group in another church’s worship service before the beginning of a Workcamp service project, one of our youth leaned over and said to me “I guess this is a good break for you, Pastor” – and before I had a chance to respond he added “I guess this is a good break for Christ the King people, too.”
  3. Prepare an “emergency envelope.” Some of us pastors have a file on our desk (yes, a literal, printed-on-paper manila-folder file!) with a couple of “emergency sermons” in it, and we sometimes remind the Elders where it is “just in case” the pastor has appendicitis on a Saturday night. This “commandment” suggests that a pastor might think about a whole bunch of pages of notes or instructions on every aspect of his life and ministry, “just in case he gets hit by a bus.” Pages might include emergency sermons, the shut-in list, how to turn on the lights or the furnace on a Sunday morning, and more. It would probably be a good idea to do a personal “envelope” like this, too, so that you and your spouse knows where to find your life insurance policy, your will and DNR order, and other important documents that nobody wants to think about.
  4. Develop a plan for a nonemergency but unforeseen departure. In our denominational system, pastors move from one church to another based on a “call” issued by the second church. The pastor may not have been angling for another call, and when it comes there’s a lot of emotional turmoil in the pastor, his family, and in both congregations while they’re waiting for his prayerful decision. This “commandment” suggests that the pastor and leadership develop a plan to address some of the issues that might come up, that might be in place before this turmoil happens – and if you never really need it, so much the better.
  5. Anticipate your (eventual) retirement. One of the interesting thoughts I heard from Mark Zehnder was along these lines – when thinking of retirement, most people are focused on what their finances will be, where they are going to live, and what activities they might enjoy. Mark Zehnder suggests that we ministry leaders might focus on the degree to which we’re ready to retire not only financially and geographically, but emotionally, relationally (is your spouse ready for you to retire?), vocationally (what will you do?), intellectually (how do you plan to keep sharp?), and spiritually (what church will you attend? what about Bible studies and devotions?).
  6. Annually evaluate the state of your succession plan. Whether it’s on paper or on your computer, it probably would be a good idea to set a date on your calendar to review it each year – things can change in a year’s time! Now I’ll pause here to say that these first six “commandments” have been about the pastor’s plans for transition into another phase of life, with some implications for the congregation’s leaders. The remaining four commandments are more about the congregation.
  7. Create a broad culture of leadership development. Sometimes, despite the best intentions of congregational bylaws that call for annual elections, in many congregations election to a particular board might end up to be a lifetime appointment. While some people thrive on that (and others hold on to it fiercely, for dear life), it could be good to develop others in the congregation to lead in other ways – maybe by serving on special committees, or to work on a particular project. In particular, there are these next two areas:
  8. Share the teaching. Some churches build their adult ministry around the ministry of small groups. The pastor doesn’t teach all the groups, but he does teach and supervise the leaders of the groups. Other churches may only have one or two adult Bible studies, taught by the pastor. Perhaps someome could be identified to substitute for the pastor as Bible study teacher sometimes? Perhaps someone would be willing to be a Bible study leader for a second Bible study, that the pastor wouldn’t be involved in? If you include the Sunday morning worship in this section, here might be a good place to talk together about the role of lay readers, Communion assistants, and others in the worship services.
  9. Share the leading. The pastor doesn’t have to be – and, with some hopefully rare exceptions, shouldn’t be – the chairman of the congregation. The book NEXT says “The goal would be to make sure each of the senior pastor’s responsibilities has one or more people who have participated in it enough that they could take it over. Another way to approach this is to make a list of what presently only the senior pastor knows in terms of information about the church and how it is run, and then train others by enlarging the circle of senior-level decision-making.” (p. 51)
  10. Look beyond the baton pass. This one is for the pastor himself – what do you envision your life to be like after the transition process is complete – after you’ve cleared out your office, after the retirement party is over, after all is said and done? But here’s another thing for the pastor to think about: in a relay race, when a runner passes the baton to the next person in the relay, the first runner doesn’t hold on to the baton! That only slows down the second runner and increases the chances of them both stumbling and falling. The better plan is for the first runner to hand off the baton to the second runner, then move out of the race completely and watch from the sidelnes (and cheer on the next guy).

The ten Long-Range Succession Planning Commandments for Younger Pastors or Leaders


Each of these “commandments” is fairly similar to one or more of the “commandments” in the first section, but that doesn’t mean they come automatically, like magic. It’s too easy for these notions to get lost in the shuffle of day-to-day and season-to-season church work, especially for a younger pastor who’s still just trying to figure out what this ministry thing is all about, or for a pastor new to a congregation who’s still trying to figure out what’s expected of him in this place. Each of these “ten commandments” below might be a good conversation-starter for ten months’ worth of Elders or Board meetings. In fact, each of these also requires some thought, some prayer, some focused conversations, and some writing and rewriting before all is said and done – but the outcome will be worth it.
  1. Write yourself a letter.
  2. Make sure an orderly process is clearly mapped out.
  3. Forecast the church’s leadership needs three to five years ahead.
  4. Develop a list of internal candidates to cultivate.
  5. Develop criteria for external candidates.
  6. Do necessary financial planning.
  7. Solidify a seasoned leadership team.
  8. Define “success” three years after the succession.
  9. Anticipate communication issues.
  10. Interview other churches.

​RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
  1. Zach Zehnder is author and program leader of the Red Letter Challenge at https://redletterchallenge.com/; along with Chris Johnson, Zach cohosts the Red Letter Disciple podcast at https://redletterchallenge.com/red-letter-disciple-podcast/
  2. Mark Zehnder recently retired as the senior pastor of King of Kings Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska, and currently ministers at https://www.alwaysforwardministries.com/ to pastors, boards, staffs, and churches as they work through periods of leadership transition.
  3. The book “NEXT: Pastoral Succession that Works” by William Vanerbloemen and Warren Bird is available at Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Next-Pastoral-Succession-That-Works/dp/080100571X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=SF9EGP9KPD3&keywords=next+vanderbloemen+bird&qid=1681756932&sprefix=next+Vand%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-1
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NEXT Chapter 1, April 2023

4/25/2023

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​Hi everyone!

I recently asked members of our Church Council to listen to an episode of my "Basin and Towel Podcast," and begin a series of conversations over the next couple of years about how we can work together as Pastor and Congregation to transition into a new phase of our ministry here.  At our Council meeting on April 23 we had the first of those conversations.  In this post you can read the transcript of the podcast episode (or listen to it HERE>>), and then read about the questions and concerns that were raised by our Council members that day (my responses are in red).


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When I (Pastor Cahill) turned 65 years old, quite a few of the folks at Christ the King asked me “So, Pastor, you’re not planning to retire yet, are you?” I smilled and said, no, not for a while yet. But I also started telling people here and there “If we made a ten-year plan for Christ the King today, you have to realize that it’s likely I won’t be here by the end of those ten years.’

Now it’s five years later - my wife and I both turned 70 years old in January - and I’m realizing that it’s time for me to say “I might not be here five years from now!” And it’s time for us to have some serious conversations about what that might mean for the congregation of Christ the King. This episode is the starter for the first of those conversations; and I’m Pastor Chris Cahill.

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I’ve watched from the sidelines over the last few years as several pastors I’ve known began a time of transition from active ministry into retirement. A couple of them who were at larger churches stepped aside from the role of senior pastor into associate roles. A couple of them retired outright, even though it would take a while for the next pastor to come in. For some of their congregations, the transition was smooth and seamless; for others, it was rough and rocky. Then the year 2022 came. It was a tough year for my wife and me, marked by the losses of family members and dear friends, including a couple of wonderful pastors who were dearly loved by their congregations. Despite the fact that those pastors had already retired from active ministry, many people in the congregations that loved them were deeply saddened by their losses.

Meanwhile my wife Bev and I started looking at what might be possible for our future together. I’ll get into some of those details in future episodes, but for today let me say that we’ve been talking to advisors, reading books, and listening to webinars to try to navigate the personal voyage ahead. Among those were my friend Zach Zehnder and his dad Mark, who recently hosted a webinar on this whole area. They recommended a book titled “NEXT: Pastoral Succession that Works", that forms the outline for these conversations. (By the way, in the shownotes I’ve included links for the book as well as for the ministries of both Zach and Mark Zehnder). In today’s episode, I just want to focus on the first chapter, “Why Every Leader Needs this Book” and to summarize the Key Lessons from that chapter:
 
KEY LESSONS 
  1. The Bible teaches and models succession planning. You might remember that God called Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and to the promised land; but Moses also mentored young Joshua for years until God called Joshua to be the actual leader of the people into the promised land. King David was ably succeeded by his son Solomon, who made the kingdom of Israel even more glorious than it had been under David. And, of course, Jesus called twelve men to walk with Him in His ministry so that they could learn from Him during His life, and carry the Gospel into all the world after His ascension.
  2. Conversations are starting.  I remember pastors (and maybe so do you) who served their congregations faithfully for decades, but rarely if ever gave thought to their own retirement, much less to the pastor who would follow them. They were good and faithful pastors in the ministry, but often the congregations they had served faced a long, rough, and rocky transition period when they retired as the congregation tried to make the adjustment to life without that pastor. Some of those pastors thought they should just not even talk about retiring until about three to six months before the actual retirement; these days, research is showing that the more we can communicate about the transition, even if it’s a couple of years away, the better the transition is for everyone (or at least, there are maybe fewer surprises).
  1. Every pastor is an interim pastor.  What this means is, that every pastor should have in mind that there will be another pastor after them, and realize that what they’re teaching their church explicitly or by example will have an impact on that next guy whether positively or negatively. For instance, in the first church I served, the pastor who had been there for almost four decades had routinely refused salary raises when the Council offered them, always saying “the church can’t afford to give me a raise this year.” As a result, the congregation inappropriately learned that it was acceptable to pay the pastor well below the scale recommended by the District.
  1. Constant succession planning builds long-term health. I confess that I haven’t been constantly planning on how I’ll leave Christ the King, nor who the next pastor will be, for the 34 years I’ve been here. But I do realize that when we talk about an idea frequently (if not constantly), the idea is often shaped, developed, and even embraced as time goes on as opposed to when we remember to think of it only occasionally.
  1. Early planning produces higher-quality planning. You know what happens when you come up suddenly to an important event or occasion and realize you haven’t done any (or very little) planning for it? You want to find a nice Christmas present for somebody - and end up giving them a gift card. You hope to celebrate a friend’s milestone birthday - and end up taking them out for lunch to Bob Evans. Those of you who’ve retired may also have experienced this: without good planning you may have been unprepared for something about retirement - maybe not the financial part, but maybe you were unprepared for all the free time you suddenly had? maybe you were unprepared to have your spouse underfoot all the time? You see what I mean? The more time you give yourself to plan, the more you’ll be satisfied with the final result.
  1. Succession clarity requires time to develop. Here is why this one is important: As I sit here and write out the wording of this episode, I wonder what questions will you have when you hear it? What feelings will be going through your minds and hearts? Is there anything here that I haven’t explained clearly enough for you? What concerns will you have about the future, or even about the next couple of years? That’s why I not only want to share these thoughts with you, but talk about them when we meet. Developing clarity together will give all of us a sense of relief and peace in the days and months to come.
  1. The earlier you plan, the more likely you are to succeed. I’ve mentioned this several times here, but just let me conclude with this thought - This process, these conversations, will probably take us a couple of years to get through. I have this notion that somewhere along the line things will start to gel and solidify in my mind - or in your minds - or in our minds together - and specific ideas, plans, and even a timeline will become clear to us all.
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QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS RAISED at Christ the King Council April 23, 2023 (my responses in red)
  • “Pastors should consider themselves an interim pastor”
    • “Interim pastor” is the guy between two pastors - how does he hold the ministry together between these two guys
  • What about a vicar / someone to come along beside you? Is that feasible for Christ the King?
    • Not enough people at CTK to easily identify someone to become the next pastor
    • Our route might be to get somebody from the seminary (as pastor or vicar); but those options are limited because there aren’t currently enough seminary students to meet the needs
    • When a pastor comes from outside the congregation, it takes him and the congregation 3-5 years to become accustomed to each other
    • The best we can do is to examine ourselves like we did with Jacob (and with District self-evaluation tools) so that we can say to ourselves, the District, and potential pastors, “this is who we are and who we need”
  • What about an associate pastor to come along side for a couple years, then be the senior pastor?
    • CTK has limited office space; an associate pastor and CTC would be tripping over each other
    • A better plan would be for CTC to get out of the way completely
    • We’ll be talking more about this later (where could the next guy come from?)
  • We’re financially able to support a pastor of 40 years of experience with a doctorate; we should be able to financially support a younger pastor with less experience
  • Should the council members plan to read the book NEXT?
    • I don’t think it’s necessary or advisable - it contains a bunch of stuff about pastoral transitions in huge congregations that just don’t apply to CTK’s situation; please trust that CTC has plowed through these weeds to dig out the parts that do apply
  • Is it reasonable to think that a church this small could get another pastor?
    • Whether a pastor would accept a call to CTK is always somewhat unpredictable and unknown, but it’s reasonable to try
  • What about sharing a pastor with a neighboring congregation?
  • How long is the average call process? Do we have that luxury of time?
    • Interim ministry specialists say that when a pastor leaves it’s not a period of grieving to be rushed through (even though there is grieving) but rather an incubation period until the congregation is ready for the new ministry to begin
  • It’s great that we’re starting to discuss this early and take our time to go through the process step by step
    • Part of this process may be that CTK begins a process of self-study; the District is the HR department, and needs to know as much about CTK and its ministry as possible in order to search for good candidates for the next pastor
    • Part of the self-study is the work we did with Jacob Hoyer; may do more with him, but who knows
    • We’ll get to other self-study items later, or as we go along in this process
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