Transitions - Do Your Job!

Prayer Journal Entry: May 22, 2012. [Please give us] Unity on Council in tonight's meeting - effective, God-honoring!

As the Executive Pastor, my role is all-encompassing.  The Senior Pastor was to lead the church and I was to run the church. He is visionary while I'm operational.  He identifies the target on the map - and I get us there.  When I arrived at the church over four years before (2007), my job description was: "If you see it, it's yours."  Which I discovered to mean later: lead everything but the vision, strategy, and the preaching.

Not satisfied with that ambiguity, I adapted a more detailed job description and sent it to the Senior Pastor soon after I arrived.  I don't remember ever discussing it in much detail - only following it as I progressed into the job.  However, the key portion of the job description in a time like this is:

[The Executive Pastor] ensures that the church's goals, systems, practices, and policies responsibly, strategically, and effectively support ministry initiatives.  In the absence of the Senior Pastor, he serves as the Senior Executive.

This mantle of leadership is a heavy one.  But, it is one that each of us, when faced with a lack of leadership or clarity in the role, must grab hold of firmly and - hold fast.

In that crucial Council meeting on May 22, I stated clearly to the Council:

It's your job to find a Senior Pastor.  It's my job to make sure this is a healthy church when he arrives.

This was not an easy statement for them to receive.  Why? Because they didn't understand that it was my job to lead a successful transition.  Not only did my job description state that I assumed the duties of the Senior Executive in the absence of a Senior Pastor, but I firmly believed that God had called me to do this job. There was a clarity to my call but the Council needed time to accept it.

This clarity took about five months before they fully agreed.  I shared my job description with them, helped them understand what I believed needed to be done, and answered their questions. Until then, there was not a little uncertainty about my motives and my capacity to do the job.  

Transition Lessons learned as "I did my job":

• If your job is to lead a transition, then lead the transition.  If there are doubts, then clarify the role. But, DO NOT STOP LEADING!
• Have a vision for the transition.  What does success look like?  To me, the church was reeling from the rapid resignation of its Senior Pastor after eighteen years of faithful service.  Quite naturally, the church loved him, missed him, and regretted his leaving. At the same time, they needed to be led.  Without a vision, even for a short-term transition, the church can wander in some unfortunate pastures.  My vision was for this church to heal. Seek God's unity. Focus on what it means to be the church. And always, always, point to Jesus and away from anyone else - including and especially former, current, and future leaders!
• As I mentioned in the last post, doing the job means communicating AND encouraging.  Let the staff and Council know what they need to know so that they can lead, too.
• As I asserted my role, I wanted to meet with the Council more often to ensure they knew what was going on within the staff.  They were concerned, quite rightly, about morale.  I requested that I meet with the four officers at a convenient time (lunch on Fridays) to discuss what was happening from each of our perspectives.  Each of us didn't want surprises and this was one way to accomplish it.
• When called to be in this role, given its importance to the Senior Pastor and the church, my job description should have been communicated to the Council and filed for their later reference.

The big two lessons, however, are the following:

• Have a succession (or transition) plan ahead of time - way ahead of time.  
• Pray for your leaders - council, elders, staff, etc. - each by name.

I hope to speak more about these two topics in other postings.