The Theology of Plan B

Every leader who expects to survive needs a Theology of Plan B. It goes something like this: “Sorry, I was wrong. We need to find Plan B.” It may be simple, but it’s one of the hardest things to learn in leadership.

Pastors have a particularly hard time admitting they were wrong about a strategic initiative in the church. For some, it is hard because they are just mule-headed. But more often the problem is that the pastor really did seek the guidance of God before standing front of the congregation to advocate a particular concept. To then stand again in front of the church and say that the idea is a bad one implies that you have a hard time listening to God. And that’s a tough admission for a pastor.

At times it is hard to listen to God because he is not speaking. In those times we are expected to keep leading, which means we have to keep making choices. Only time will tell if those were good or bad choices. This is actually one of God’s favorite ways of speaking to us.

The Bible is filled with people who had to go to Plan B. Abraham’s Plan A was to have a child with Hagar. Maybe he and Sarah even prayed about this strategy for helping God fulfill his promises. Moses’ Plan A was to kill the Egyptian taskmaster, and that didn’t work out so well either. John the Baptist’s Plan A was to prepare the people for judgment. Peter’s Plan A was to prevent Jesus from going to a cross. Paul’s Plan A was to preach to the Jews. All of them had to go to Plan B, which we can now see was clearly God’s plan all along.

Some of us may be up to Plan X, Y, or Z by now. That’s okay. Go to double letters if you have to, but you have to get off the hook of being right all of the time. That is hubris, and it’s one of the deadlier sins.

In the past, when I realized I was leading the church in the wrong direction, I knocked myself out to justify the mistake as not really being a mistake but a necessary step to the better plan. Maybe. Or maybe it was just a mistake that wasted a lot of time. These days I just say, “I was wrong, and I am sorry. Let’s not do this anymore.”

The first time you try this is scariest. But usually the congregation has figured out that the idea isn’t working, long before you do, and they are just so relieved that you are not determined to drive the church into a ditch that they will praise your leadership. They will also respect your humility. Churches don’t need inerrant pastors. But they need leaders who love God and the congregation more than their own ideas.

I vividly remember the tremble in my hands when I stood before the congregation one Sunday morning to say that I was wrong to press too hard for a building program. Those in the pews were at first stunned. Then after a few moments of silence, they broke out in applause. Looking back on it, I would now say that was the day I really became the pastor of that church. It wasn’t long after my public confession that a tremendous creative energy developed in the congregation to launch lots of Plan B ministries.

Surrender is always the turning point in a pastor’s relationship with the congregation. This is particularly true when pastors are beginning their work in a church. In the first year, we knock ourselves out to prove to the congregation, and the anxious search committee, that they didn’t make a mistake in calling us. But that resolve only blinds us to the new thing God alone is initiating.

The real mark of leadership is not having the right ideas, but knowing how to recognize what the Holy Spirit is doing. And what the Spirit is not doing. Usually, we discover the second thing first. But the greatest failure in leadership is, after discerning that you have been wrong about a particular idea, giving up. The failure of Plan A is always, and only, an invitation to look for the Spirit in the next idea.

Editor at large Craig Barnes is pastor of Shadyside Presbyterian Church and professor of leadership and ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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