The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Why So Many Churches Are Dreading the Retirement Party
Many churches fail to plan for pastoral succession until it's too late, creating a leadership crisis when retirement arrives. When churches center everything around a single leader and don't develop a leadership bench, they make healthy transition nearly impossible.
• Succession planning should be a 5-10 year process, not a 6-month sprint
• The myth of the indispensable pastor creates vulnerability in churches
• Reactive succession leads to leadership vacuums, power struggles, and congregational decline
• Proactive churches invest in emerging leaders and normalize team teaching
• Start building your bench today whether retirement is 6 months or 20 years away
• Succession is spiritual formation—preparing people to lead after you're gone
If you need help moving from reactive to proactive succession planning, reach out to us at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com.
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What happens when your pastor retires and there's nobody ready to take the mic? Many churches assume that they'll just cross that bridge when they come to it, but when they finally get there, they realize that the bridge isn't built and the water's rising. Stay with me, because if you want your church to have a future, this is optional. It's urgent and we're going to talk about it right here today on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders of GilbertChemistryStaffingcom and you're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
Speaker 1:A lot of times you hear when churches call us, they say something like we thought we had more time. A lot of churches aren't planning to fail at succession, they're just failing to plan, and most pastors just don't talk openly about retirement until it's right around the corner. And that's partly out of fear, it's partly out of loyalty and it's partly because ministry doesn't always come with a clear finish line right. But here's the problem Succession planning isn't a six-month sprint. It really should be. In order for it to be a healthy succession plan. It really should be a five to 10-year marathon, and many churches are just now realizing that the clock ran out.
Speaker 1:There's a myth that I want to talk about here and it's the myth of the indispensable pastor. The pastor is a brand, the pastor is a visionary, the pastor as institution. We've built whole ecosystems around one person in a lot of churches, large churches and small churches alike and, honestly, most of the time that works until it doesn't. And when churches center everything around a single leader, they unintentionally make succession impossible. And when the time comes, the result it's panic, it's personal vacuums, it's congregational drift. If no one else has preached or led or made a decision in years, honestly, you don't have a bench. You've got an audience and, if we're really honest about it, getting ready to do a book here, a copy of here, getting ready to release a book called Silent Alarm, where I talk a lot about these types of issues and about raising a bench. But if we're honest, we didn't raise up a bench because it felt inefficient. We had the starters, they got stuff done, but bench building isn't about efficiency. Matter of fact, sometimes it feels really inefficient when you start to build out your bench. Building a bench is about future readiness and training up younger staff, sharing the pulpit, delegating the vision and responsibility. These aren't just extras, they're essentials if you're going to plan for the future and if you wait until retirement to start mentoring, I'm telling you it's already too late.
Speaker 1:I've seen it happen in way too many churches. So what happens when there's no succession plan, when succession is reactive rather than proactive and we work with a lot of churches through succession when succession is reactive rather than proactive, here's what we see in a lot of churches. The result is months or even years without clear leadership because there wasn't a plan. We see internal power struggles or elder board deadlock. We see that a lot because there wasn't a plan and you're waiting until the end and forcing it. We see staff departures due to uncertainty because they just don't know what's going to happen. When this leader that's been here and is the heart and soul of the church leaves, they don't know what the future is. We see a lot of times congregational decline because you're going through a transition and you don't know what the end game is. An eventual hire that feels like a Band-Aid but not a baton pass. We see this all the time and a lot of times if there's not a really good succession plan, that person that follows the long-term pastor oh boy, they can be a sacrificial lamb. You've seen that in many cases, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:So what I'm talking about here isn't just a theory. Okay, we've actually, at our work with chemistry staffing, we've actually walked with churches who didn't plan ahead. Some recover and some just don't because it's just so difficult. So what are the options? All right, you got to start now, wherever you are. If you're 20 years away from retirement, you should start building your bench. If you're 20 years away from retirement, you should start building your bench. If you're six months away from retirement, in a lot of aspects it's too late, but you got to do what you got to do and the best time to start, the only time to start is right now. So here's some of the things that we've seen proactive churches do differently than those churches that look at succession from a reactive way.
Speaker 1:Okay, so here are some things that you can start. You can start today. First of all, they invest in emerging leaders and they give real responsibility and coaching to younger generations. They start early, they start young and they, little by little, bit by bit, they start to build in and give responsibility and coach younger people in the congregation. They normalize team teaching so no one voice becomes too central. So if you're preaching 50 weeks a year, or even 45 weeks a year, or even maybe even 40 weeks a year. Share the pulpit, allow some people to. Maybe they won't be home runs, but you need to start normalizing team teaching so that you aren't the focus, that you aren't the one that holds everything together. And number three, you need to communicate the long game, not just when but how that succession will happen. And maybe you're not even sure, but you need to start that conversation today and you need to build in that decision making depth so that leadership doesn't grind to a halt when you step away.
Speaker 1:Okay, evaluate regularly who's growing, who's stuck, who's ready for more, and build into those people that are ready for more, because succession isn't about finding the next you. It's about preparing the church for whoever it is that they need after you. So bottom line for today whether you're a 65-year-old pastor, whether you're a 35-year-old staff member, it starts now. The clock is ticking now. Succession is spiritual formation and it's about preparing people to lead well after you're gone, well beyond your tenure.
Speaker 1:If this hits a nerve and you're like Todd, I've been honestly more reactive, totally reactive, in my succession plan rather than proactive. Help me get from being reactive to proactive. That's one of the things that we do. We love to do and walk with you and your church through succession planning. Reach out to me.
Speaker 1:Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. It is so vitally important that you start today, that you start early, and it will make a difference. It will not only give you peace of mind for whenever it is time for you to step away to know, just the peace of mind of knowing that, hey, I did what God wanted me to do and I left well and I set the church up for future success. If you need any help podcast at chemistrystaffingcom I'd love to hop on a Zoom call with you or your board and just walk through some of that and maybe some ways that we can walk together through your succession planning. All right, I hope this has been helpful. If you listen to this on a Friday, I hope you have a great, great weekend and actually, if you're listening, it is the 4th of July, so I hope that you're on your way to a parade or something, the lake or something fun. Okay, and join us again right here on Monday, right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. You.
