So! Get On With It. Pass it ON!
Successionhas become a more important issue for us as we move to establish the pillars and power of our covenant vision, and extend and empower a network of churches with my own personal leadership. Every church and ministry goes through changes in leadership, and the issue is far bigger now that the wave of pastors, bishops and spiritual leaders like myself, from the Baby Boomer generation,are moving toward retirement age and the reality of transition.
Ministries are getting older and the church is not thinking wisely about the next generation or how we should develop the destiny of the emerging and leave a healthy legacy for the future. While the next generation oftentimes fails to humbly position themselves to learn all they can while their leaders are with them and instead take the baton of leadership prematurely due to impatience, over thinking or thinking more highly of themselves than they oughtorjust unwillingness to wait their turn.
When a pastor leaves a church, it disrupts ministries, and members drift away. If the church is struggling, it can find itself suddenly in very dire straits indeed. Succession planning isn't something people want to talk about, but it's becoming a larger and larger crisis for our churches and organizations health and survival. Every pastor and spiritual leader, myself included,will face a transition at their church, or the organization they lead and it will be one of their best chances at leaving a legacy if they are willing to “Pass it ON!” properly.
Succession planning is a simple term with a complex solution. It’s creating a plan for what happens once you inevitablyneed a new leader that’s not you. And all organizations face that. Facing a season where you don’t know who’s in charge is just too risky and ultimately is an unhealthy approach to leadership and the future of that which you have been blessed to lead.
The reality is that we are all just “interim pastors and spiritual leaders.” Unless we are the pastor when our church closes, or responsible for it closing - which is most unhealthy -or we happen to be the pastor when Jesus returns, we are all only in our churches for a temporary stay.We are stewards of a promise, that will one day be given to another if the promise was truly given to you by the Lord. Themost critical task for a church leader is to do all one can to secure the long-term future of the church and leave a healthy inheritance.
There is a leadership challenge in today’s church. The challenge is the leadership dilemma where today’s leaders are failing to pass on the baton. Young emerging leaders are having difficulty getting past and dealing with older leaders. We are failing at mentoring; we are failing at developing future leaders. Thus, we are failing to be good stewards of the promise. The church is at the point in history where life is deciding when transition is necessary. No one is making this decision it is life itself that is in charge of the challenge for all spiritual leaders to ask the question . . . Who will succeed you?
The late Dr. Myles Munroe tragically lost his life along with his wife and other leaders of his ministry organization this past Sunday on his way to a Leadership Conference he was leading that was to deal with this issue of Leadership Succession and Transition. He failed to make it tragically!
We have been so blessed by the gifted leadership Dr. Munroe has provided to us all. Just prior to his death while speaking about the leadership of the church he said, “That the historical leadership of this journey has been fading into the sunset. Effective leaders, he said, always prepare their replacements. They mentor and create succession.”
Dr. Munroe in a dream saw a track star dead laying in his coffin clutching a baton. He realized that the dream was about leadership dying with the baton instead of passing it on. “The young person who is to lead next, he would say, has to go to that casket and pull the baton out of the dead leader’s hands just to take it to the next level.”
The challenge of leadership today is that people would rather die with the position than to pass it on. Young emerging leaders are having to fight older leaders to get leadership passed on to them. “Great leaders, Dr. Munroe said, pass it on before they die and live to see the other runner run.”
Church leaders are dropping the baton everyday. Dropping the baton of leadership succession and development is costing the church dearly. It costsyour team the race and will cause multiple levels of pain. While not all of us run relays, we do have to make transitions. We must “Pass the Baton” sooner or later. The question is will we be ready or will it be too late?
The main ingredient in any transition is our humility in the face of necessity. Likewise, our willingness to point everyone to Jesus instead of to ourselves as leaders. When we do this, transitions allow us to dare to imagine a kingdom minded church. One that focuses on Christ and not the leaders. Jesus said, “But I, when I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself” John 12:32, NIV.
An ancient Chinese Proverbs states, ““A person who does not worry about the future will shortly have worries about the present”
If a succession plan is so important, then why do so few churches and organizations have such a plan? I believe succession transition is the pillar and power of leadership responsibility. Failure to do so is why so many churches are ultimately led beyond their faithful beginnings by those from outside of it. When this happens, it distorts or diminishes the vision many times because there is no imaginative flow into the inherited future through committed development from those inside the dream as opposed to bringing into the dream an entirely new dreamer.
The thought of succession intimidates pastors and spiritual leaders of this era.They love what they do so much that the mere thought of someone taking their work beyond them can be downright depressing.
As leaders we can soon find that our leadership position has become our identity. To think about developing a shared ministry concept that intends to produce leadership succession and potential future leaders is not the path to their personal growth and prosperity but instead leads to making them at some point feel insignificant.
The question is who owns the leadership transition and planning responsibilities? Is it the leader themselves or their team? Without a succession strategy for the future of the work we serve as visionaries, are we truly faithfully serving the church or just building perverted monuments to ourselves? Ultimately are we being good stewards of the Lord’s church without a transition plan?
I have implemented a 24 month announcement of transition for the church I pastor. It is my hope and desire that by that time I will be 64 years old and we will know who the next leader of the Imani congregation is and have in place a Bridge Network succession tier of leadership with bishop’s, overseers, a general administrative board and vision for the future of our fledgling network of churches and ministries. It is our sacred responsibility and the pillar and power of our covenant together and with God.
I call the vision: “Dare to Imagine! A Kingdom Minded Ministry.”
The Objective
#1 To help us develop a new mindset for living, serving and being future leaders
#2 Taking advantage of new opportunities awaiting us in each season of our advancement in faith.
“New opportunities require new mindsets!”
We must arm ourselves with the awareness to maximize new opportunities. So we must have discernment. We need discernment to cause us to think the way God wants us to think about the next opportunity. If we don’t think about it the way that God wants us to think about it, then we will pervert it!
If we pervert it, then it will pervert us! Before you know it what was supposed to be a God promoted opportunity, has become a curse, because we didn’t handle it the way God instructed it to be handled.
This is an exciting time in the life of the Church. As our local congregations continue to grow and our corporate vision unfolds and bridges our purpose, we are eternally grateful to God for expanding the borders of our promises in Christ. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10 KJV
This challenge will only be accomplished through shared teamwork. Teamwork makes the dream work. There is no limitation when it comes to our imagination. We must dare to imagine ourselves leaving a healthy inheritance of this vision to the emerging leaders of our future or without it they just become heirs to the perverted dream of gatekeepers of the past.
For many spiritual leaders, your next ministry opportunity for God has its bases upon this change, this shift, this switch or transition responsibility. Because who you are to minister to is not coming to where you are, they are coming to where God is transitioning you. So God says I’m transitioning you and all you are responsible for to where they are so you can minister to them through the open door I provide. But you must first “Dare to Imagine” passing on a healthy inheritance from the Kingdom of God and not the secular world around you.
The truth of the matter is that 100% of our churches will eventually lose their pastors, spiritual leaders, even bishops. Smart churches and spiritual organizations prepare well before that change occurs. Change can be a hard subject for the church. We like to offer that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. But that doesn’t mean we don’t change. Change is a part of life and succession is a necessity for healthy leadership.
So as a healthy discussion of our future as a church and Bridge Network I bring to all of your imaginations the offer to share with me this responsibility of transition. To my emerging leaders, Step up! Share this vision and this faithful opportunity to give glory to God with me. Then faithfully become a part of the transition plan to take the reins of the vision when I pass the baton. Like Elisha, be close enough to be prepared for the mantle to appropriately fall on you.
The first phase of the transition has been our initiation of the Dare to Imagine initiative. Can we begin to see and accept the concepts of our call, the realities of responsibilities and even the painful inevitability of my transition and the need for preparing emerging leaders as we pass the baton rather than hold on till it is too late.
The next phase is discovering leaders for every aspect of our vision. From a future Presiding Prelate to a Senior Pastor of Imani, to bishops for our emerging dioceses to overseers and senior leaders. This is not easy for me to face and even harder to face without those who will commit to dare to imagine a healthy inheritance of our future with me.
We need time for these individuals and the church and network to become comfortable with them hopefully while I am still with them to help their transition to the next level. So that I may assist in their gradual increase of responsibility as I decrease mine. I amtrusting God to guide our hearts and minds through this phase of the journey as he has helped us to this point to master the game of life, ministry and leadership. I know that God desires for us to be as steadfast in our resolve to prepare for a healthy future as it has been to bring us to this moment by grace.
Due to the lack of discussion and preparation on the churches part on issues like this we are in a leadership dilemma and a season of confusion, division and shallowness has become the uncomfortable reality in today’s church.
Confusion because authority has fallen into the hands of the privileged or popular instead of the spiritually mature. Division because those not called by God to rule (deacons, church boards, search committees, etc. ) become the hire and fire executives over those called by God to lead (Elders, Bishop’s Overseers, etc.) when there is no bible evidence of this at all. Shallowness because if revival breaks out and there is an influx of new believers, the next issue regarding (Pastors, Deacons, building, etc…) will be determined by immature new comers instead of spiritually mature leadership.
Then could you imagine the Church of Ephesus voting on whether they wanted to keep the Apostle Paul or Timothy as a leader? Or the Church at Jerusalem deciding to dismiss Peter and John from leadership? Yet, this practice of democratic vote is what many churches do in regards to spiritual leadership.These and other issues have perverted the church and caused a leadership dilemma and a season of confusion, division and shallowness.
Succession or the transition of leadership involves preparation, vision, protection and involvement at all levels. Our work as pastoral leaders according to scripture is “great work” which is wanted, worthwhile and honorable. Succession planning viewed biblically is in Titus 1:5 when Paul says to Titus, “I left you in charge in Crete so you could complete what I left half done.”
A ministry of servanthood and sacrificial succession is unnatural. They stand in sharp contrast to the dynastic and corporate successions commonly observed as succession norms today in many churches and ministries. Sacrificial Succession however is the genuine outworking of servant leadership through the sacrificial handover of leadership by incumbents for successor success.What is uncommon are incumbents, a) handing over of leadership in a timely manner, b) personally preparing successors, c) sacrificing leadership for successors and d) advocating for successors post succession.
Within the leadership of Jesus we see all four of the principles mentioned above occurring intentionally. The example of succession that Christ teaches is clearly brought to bear in Matthew 20:1-28.
The Old Testament makes it very clear that when leadership development and succession planning were performed poorly or neglected the Israelites suffered through a succession of leaders who lost sight of the mission, oppressed God’s people and reverted to idol-worship. The worse curse, which occasionally came to pass, is uttered in Isaiah 3:4, “I will make boys their officials, mere children will govern them.” It would be tragic if this prophecy came true for the church in the next generation.
Many leaders serve sacrificially yet we are failing to hand over leadership. Jesus said in Matthew 20:28, which is my episcopal mantra, “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ransom for many.” The first clause of Matt 20:28 often applies(to serve) whilst the second is often neglected (humbly give our life’s work over to another). Leadership is not be properly understood outside of the context of sacrificial succession, which is the faithful application of Christ-centered servant leadership.
So! Let’s Get On With It . . . it is time for all church leaders to have a plan and be prepared to “Pass it ON!
Rest in Peace, Dr. Munroe.
J. Faraja Kafela
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