Tag Archives: leading in pastoral transition

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How to Respond to Climate Change in Your Church

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One of the most difficult aspects of adjusting to an abrupt pastoral transition in a church is the immediate climate change which occurs. Everyone senses, almost overnight, a chill in the air.

It’s as if a cold front has blown through in the form of an unexpected blizzard which dropped the temperature, froze the ground, and left a thick blanket of snow over everything.

It’s puzzling and disturbing to have the former warm climate of joy, enthusiasm, and expectancy be so quickly replaced by the icy conditions of suspicion, doubt, and sadness.

The question everyone is asking, “We know what happened to our pastor, but what in the world has happened among us?”

Responding to a Church’s Climate Change

Some assume a bad storm has hit, but things will soon clear up. Others fear an ice age has started and nothing will ever be the same. The reality is between the two.

When the senior or lead pastor of a church abruptly leaves, the church enters a new season that is as real as the literal change of seasons –only more sudden. The new season is going to act and feel much like a literal winter.

So how should the church respond to this kind of abrupt climate change?

In the northern hemisphere when we shift to winter, typically the temperature drops, trees and foliage lose their leaves, and the ground gets covered in a blanket of snow. It appears that nature has shut down and nothing is going on. Yet despite appearances, God is at work below the surface where we can’t see!

Our God is accomplishing 4 major things:

  • The soil’s pH factor (the balance between acidic and alkaline) is restored.  For if the soil is too acidic a plant can’t absorb essential nutrients, and if the soil is too alkaline then certain nutrients in the soil become toxic to the plant.
  • The soil is revitalized and rejuvenated by rain and cold weather, for the soil needs a break (rest).
  • Cold weather and dormancy help guard both soil and plants against insects, nematodes and diseases.
  • For permanent plants, their root system is being strengthened and readied for a new season of growth.

If God, who cares for His creation, has this in mind for the ground and plants, how much more does He have good in mind when a church goes through a winter season.

Pray for winter to do its work. -Rick Foster

So back to my question, how do we respond? Pray that winter would do its work!

Specifically, pray that the Lord would do in His church what He intends winter to do for creation.

1. Pray that the Lord would restore the church.

Restore any balance we need in our corporate and our personal lives. Bring us back from any extremes towards which we have drifted.

2. Pray that the Lord would revitalize the church.

We want a joy, passion and enthusiasm for what Christ has done for us, and what He wants to do in our community. May in unity we pursuit Your agenda with all we have.

3. Pray that the Lord would protect the church.

We recognize we are in a spiritual battle and the lives of people are at stake. Guard your flock against temptation, deceptions, lies, and accusations of the evil one.

4. Pray that the Lord would ready the church.

The day will come when a new pastor becomes part of our church family. Prepare us by helping us release the past so we can embrace the new thing You have in mind.

Don’t ignore or resist the climate change that’s occurring in your church because of an abrupt pastoral transition. Instead, embrace it and pray for winter to do its work!

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If your church is experiencing the winter season because your lead or senior pastor has abruptly left, TRM has a number of resources that will benefit the leadership team. These materials will not only provide a common vocabulary for discussing the needs of your church, but they will also help you discern the issues to be addressed in a timely manner.

“Aftermath” is a practical workbook for the leadership team to read which will help them shepherd the church during a season few were prepared for.

“The First 90 Days” outlines how the leadership team approaches the first months in order to position the church to recover from their pastor’s quick exit.

Both resources are immensely practical and give solid biblical guidance on shepherding the church well. Go to the TRM Store to purchase a copy for each leadership team member.

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Why Leaders Need to Go Play in the Rain

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Photo by Neonbrand on Unsplash

When a church experiences an abrupt departure by their senior pastor all sorts of chaos and confusion is unleashed.

One of the critical skills that is often damaged or lost is the ability to tell time. Really? How?

Whether we use a smart phone, watch, or an “old school” calendar/planner on paper, we are always conscious of the ever-flowing passing of time.

The scriptures encourage us to take into account how time is a resource to invest and not squander.

“…making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” (Eph. 5:16)

“And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.”  (Romans 13:11)

“Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.” (Col. 4:5)

So how do we address and steward the passing of time in a way that makes the best use of it? We have various measurements of time to structure our lives, to plan, to evaluate, and make our efforts more efficient.

Depending on the situation we might need to account for nano-seconds, seconds, minutes, or hours. We also think in terms of days, weeks, months, and years. On rare occasions we might even give thought to decades, generations, a life-time, or even a century.

But did you notice I left out one measurement of time? It’s a key biblical measurement that we acknowledge exists, but often is missing from our planning and evaluations. It’s the timeframe of a season.

When there has been an abrupt pastoral transition, we need to keep the time-frame of seasons in mind!

In some parts of our world there are four very distinct seasons each year. Other latitudes have but two (wet and dry). Regardless of the number, how often do we view, evaluate, and make plans through the lens of a season?

This missing perspective puts a church experiencing pastoral transition in a very real position of weakness, and even danger. For when the senior, or lead pastor exits, the church enters a new season, and winter is the best analogy for what it looks and feels like.

Leadership teams who have worked well together during a “summer” season in their church often struggle when “winter” comes. Either they don’t recognize what has changed, or they don’t adapt to the new season. They don’t want to go out and play in the rain!

Consider 5 basic elements about seasons that the Bible mentions….

1. God gave us the seasons.

  • “You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter.” –Psalm 74:17
  • “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” –Genesis 8:22

Seasons are part of the divine created order. God has designed that change will be an intimate part of the flow of life. We should expect it, whether they are literal seasons or more figurative. When there is pastoral transition, a new season has begun that is God-ordained.

2. Each season has its own characteristics (rain, sun, heat, cold, effect on plants, etc).

  • “I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” –Leviticus 26:4
  • “…he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.” –Deuteronomy 11:14

Our tendency is to struggle with change because we compare the current season we are in with a past season which we prefer. Karl Vaters has made the observation, “Because we can’t stop seasons from happening, we have to stop kicking against them.” Wise is the person, or team, who works with the transition season, knowing that the unique features of that season sets-up the coming season to be what it should.

3. The cycle of seasons is intended to bless man.

  • “The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands.” –Deuteronomy 28:12
  • “And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing.” –Ezekiel 34:26

Seasonal change is a blessing, not a curse! We may not see it or realize it, but each season has its own purpose…even the transition season after losing the lead pastor. Whether it’s a literal season or a season in the life of a church, God wants to enrich our lives through it. In each season God is at work. We may not always understand His reasons or purposes, but we can trust His loving hand.

4. There is an appropriate activity for man in each season.

  •  “He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.” –Proverbs 10:5
  •  “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.” –Ecclesiastes 3:1+2

Just as it’s appropriate to wear the right clothing to match a season, so there are appropriate expectations and behaviors for each season. Farmers don’t plant in winter, nor do they run their combines through the fields expecting to reap in spring. Even a transition season has its own activities to perform, and its own share of opportunities to grab.

5. Like the seasons of the year, there are seasons in a church.

  • “…preach the word; be ready in season and out of season…” -2 Timothy 4:2
  • “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time (season), because the days are evil.” –Ephesians 5:15+16

We may always want our church to be in a continual season of growth, expansion, and harvest. But when there is a change of leadership, especially senior pastoral leadership, the church typically enters a season where rest, renewal, and recovery are the dominate themes (winter). Wise is the leadership team that embraces this new season, and leads by example so the church will embrace it as well.

Next time it rains, go out and play in it!

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For more insights and practical help on how a church leadership team can adapt to the transition season after losing their senior pastor, purchase a copy of my recently published workbook: “Aftermath”.

You can order it at www.interimpastor.org/store. If you sign-up for my email list I will send you a 20% discount code to use on either a digital or printed copy.

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Finding Confidence to Lead in VUCA Moments -Part 3

Shepherding not from a distance, but with your presence

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Photo by Leio Mclaren from Unsplash

Being on a church’s leadership team is not for the faint of heart!

As I’ve mentioned in the first 2 parts of this blog (here and here), there will come seasons that are best described as VUCA. It’s when the environment of the church is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.

A VUCA season creates immense challenges for church leadership teams. For you have to lead in the midst of disorder and chaos. Former solutions or approaches don’t work. It’s difficult to get your head and hands around the problem.

In times like this, leaders can wonder if they bring anything helpful to the table. In times like this, leaders consider stepping down. In times like this, leaders hesitate because they don’t have confidence in navigating their current situation.

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Leading Outside Your Comfort Zone

When your pastor leaves and you’re above your pay-grade

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When the senior pastor abruptly leaves his church, each member of the leadership team is shoved-out of their comfort zone. Who was prepared or trained to lead through this kind of chaotic transition? Most church leaders feel this is definitely out of their pay-grade!

Why is that our reaction? Why do we feel so awkward to lead in situations like this?

Let me ask, when was the last time you flew on an airplane? Remember the emergency exit instructions printed on that card in the seat-back pocket in front of you? The diagram describes what you do and where you go in case of an emergency (which you hope never happens). But what it doesn’t tell you is how it will feel to experience an emergency and how others will react!

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The Missing Key to Leading in Pastoral Transition

-How to shepherd well when your pastor abruptly exits

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Photo by Nikko Macaspac on UnSplash

High-level church leaders are smart, resourceful, godly, experienced, and most importantly they want what’s best for their body of believers. But when their senior pastor abruptly leaves, they are rudely shoved into a transition season they not only didn’t expect but weren’t trained to handle. It is so easy to miss the key element to leading in painful times of pastoral transition!

What is that key factor that church leadership teams can’t afford to miss? Let’s start with the obvious, and then drill-down to the ambiguous.

The hasty exit of a senior pastor is a sure signal something has gone terribly wrong.  It’s tragic when an accident or illness suddenly takes his life. It’s heartbreaking when he takes his own life, or when there is the moral implosion of an affair or his hand is caught in the financial cookie jar. And how sad when a pastor announces he is moving on to another ministry, and within days is gone.

What do all these potential scenarios of an abrupt departure have in common?

  • First, the church suddenly has a leadership vacuum: something has changed –he is gone.
  • Second, the fact that the pastor is physically gone embodies what is now missing.
  • And third, if something is missing (and won’t be coming back), then there has been a loss.

Pretty obvious stuff, right?

But it’s understanding and responding to what happens next that is often missed. The loss to the church is not just a loss of function (the bases he used to cover), but it’s a loss that is felt. And here is the often-missed key: when the church experiences loss, the church begins to grieve!

Effective leaders are mindful (both on a corporate and individual level) that change is seen as loss, and our hearts respond to loss by grief.

The church body is going to enter a season of grieving the loss of their pastor. Even if there was no sin involved, but especially if there was, grief will be the common experience. It is this corporate experience of grief which many church leaders underestimate. Its depth will be different for everyone, but its extent will cover most everyone.

To effectively lead in pastoral transition, the leadership team needs to take into account the impact grief will have on the church as a whole. To miss this is to inadvertently hinder the church from recovering from the tragedy.

How do church leaders lovingly address the impact of grief in their church? There are 4 realities about grief which leaders need to embrace. Each of these will help the church over time recover well:

1. Grief is not a problem to fix, but a wound to heal.

A grieving person is not broken. A person’s mourning is a time of recovery.

2. There is no one “right way” to grieve.

Personality, spiritual maturity, and how close they were to the epicenter of loss, all impacts the way in which a person grieves.

3. Everyone works through grief in their own timetable.

Though the stages of grief can be identified, each person will travel through the stages in their own time.

4. One’s current experience with grief has a way of reaching back into our past and bringing into the present all unresolved grief.

When grief isn’t effectively resolved, it compounds upon itself.

When the church leadership team recognizes, embraces, and communicates publicly these 4 truths about grief, it will start to normalize the grief process, and help a church work through it well. This is part of how a leader lovingly shepherds at a painful time!

By the way, if you’re not aware of the damage that is done in a church when it’s senior pastor leaves due to an affair, then sign-up to receive my email newsletter, and I’ll send you my free eBook that outlines the 28 ways a church is hurt.

And if what I’ve described above has unfortunately just happened in your church, and if your team could use someone coming alongside to walk with you as you start this pastoral transition, contact me at rick@interimpastor.org for resources that can be custom fit for your situation.

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Cultivate the Right Mindset

The first response of church leaders to their pastor's affair

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You remember the moment all too well. Maybe it was a phone call, or a meeting face-to-face, but it left you shocked…shaken…and unnerved. You heard what you hoped you would never have to hear. Your senior pastor had an affair.

The decisions and choices the leadership team of a church makes in the first 60 to 90 days after the pastor’s affair determine how well the church recovers. But those who make up the leadership team, typically, have not been prepared or trained for this possibility. They honestly don’t know what to do next.

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