Innovative Ministry
Pastoral Transition: Why Change When You Don’t Have To?
It’s not how we act when things stay the same that tests our strength and character, it’s how we act when things change.

Yesterday, I was back in my home church after being gone for a month doing conferences and taking some vacation time with my wife, Shelley.

We’ve taken time away before, of course, but this time it was different. Because when I came back yesterday, for the first Sunday in over 25 years, I wasn’t the lead pastor any more.

I didn’t oversee yesterday’s service. I wasn’t responsible for coordinating the staff and volunteers. I don’t even have an office. But I got to participate in the celebration of installing my former youth pastor as our new lead pastor.

It felt different. And welcoming. And awkward. And wonderful.

Why Change Now?

In the past couple months since announcing and writing about our pastoral transition (click here to read other posts in this ongoing series), I’ve been asked a lot of questions, but most of them start with the same word.

Why?

Why would you step aside from leading a church you love? Why would you hand it over to someone else? Why are you staying on staff as teaching pastor instead of leaving to pastor another church?

If pastoral transitions are risky (and they are), it’s better to do them when we’re strong and prepared than when we’re broken and vulnerable.

Pastoral transitions are the most dangerous times for churches. Why would anyone, or any church, go through that if you don’t have to?

Because you know it’s the right time to do so.

If pastoral transitions are risky (and they are), it’s better to do them when we’re strong and prepared than when we’re broken and vulnerable.

Change Defines Us

It’s not how we act when things stay the same that tests our strength and character, it’s how we act when things change.

For instance, last week my wife and I flew home from London. It was an 10½ hour flight to Los Angeles. I have never taken a single flying lesson, but I probably could have sat in the pilot’s seat for the 9 hours in the middle of the flight and everyone would have been fine. Just a little coaching from an air traffic controller, and not one passenger would have known the difference.

But the 45 minutes on each end? That’s a different story.

Pilots don’t spend hundreds of hours training and flying so they can manage the middle of a flight. They do the bulk of that training so they can take off and land safely.

The transitions are where the risk is.

That’s what all the training and practice is for.

In church, as in the rest of life, transitions are the greatest test of our ability and character.

Good Transitions Are About Timing

If transitions are such a high risk, why do them? Especially when no one is forcing you to do them?

Because that’s where the excitement is. Where the life is. Where the learning is. Where the hope is.

Where the future is.

Our church has chosen to make this transition now, not because I’m done with ministry at our church. I’m not.

Not because I’m being asked to step down. I’m not.

Not because I have a better church to go to. There isn’t one.

Cornerstone is making a pastoral transition because now is the right time for the church to do it.

And because we’ve chosen to see and follow God’s timing ourselves, instead of having it forced upon us by external circumstances, we’ve been able to take the time to train for it, pray over it, work together on it, and celebrate it.

Together.

With no departures. No hurt feelings. No loss of momentum.

Equip Them, Then Turn Them Loose

Pastors, we need to equip the saints to do the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12). Then, when they’re equipped and ready, we need to trust them and turn them loose.

Even if we have to step aside to let it happen.

When we make the first move to give up our position, our status and our ego some wonderful things can happen.

When we make the first move to give up our position, our status and our ego some wonderful things can happen.

For most of us, that won’t mean giving up our pastoral position. But it may mean holding to the pulpit a little less rigidly. Or trusting someone else to lead in an area we’re not so gifted in.

It may mean letting a church member lead a ministry before they’re totally ready. Watching as they make mistakes. Then picking them up and helping them do it again.

Letting go is hard. Letting go is risky.

But it’s only when we let go that we really get to see God do something greater than we could ever do on our own.

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March 26, 2018 at 2:00 AM

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