{"id":31843,"date":"2022-09-10T15:46:12","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/how-can-churches-successfully-navigate-leadership-transitions\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:46:12","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:46:12","slug":"how-can-churches-successfully-navigate-leadership-transitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/how-can-churches-successfully-navigate-leadership-transitions\/","title":{"rendered":"How Can Churches Successfully Navigate Leadership Transitions?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Cytonn Photography photo – Unsplash <\/p>\n

By Aaron Earls<\/em><\/p>\n

Congregations often enter a chaotic season when a pastor leaves, but new research finds planning and communication can make the transition smoother.<\/p>\n

Planning helpful, but rare<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Among practicing Christians who had experienced a senior pastor transition within the last five years, only 17% say the move was planned by the congregation and outgoing pastor, according to Barna.<\/p>\n

Most (62%) were initiated by the outgoing-pastor. Few (13%) were forced transitions brought about by sickness, death, or crisis.<\/p>\n

When leaving the senior pastor role, most (56%) leave the congregation entirely. Fewer take on a different staff role (15%) or remain at the church as a member or lay leader (20%).<\/p>\n

In those instances where the senior pastor moves into another leadership role within the church, those in the pews believe the move had a positive outcome.<\/p>\n

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Two-thirds of practicing Christians (67%) say a transition from senior pastor to associate pastor ended well. Around half say the senior pastor entering into a co-pastor arrangement (52%) or taking on a lay leadership position (51%) was a positive move.<\/p>\n

Fewer (42%) say it was positive for the pastor to step down but continue to attend as a member of the church.<\/p>\n

A quarter of Christians (25%) believe the pastor leaving the congregation completely had a positive outcome, with 71% saying it went negatively.<\/p>\n

In most cases of a leadership transition, the senior pastor leaves the church entirely. During forced transitions, 69% of pastors leave the church. The same is true of 61% of pastor-initiated moves.<\/p>\n

Among, planned transitions, however, 40% of pastors leave. Around half (52%) stay on in some capacity.<\/p>\n

Barna\u2019s research found that planned transitions are often completely in a shorter time, which appears to be a factor in positive outcomes.<\/p>\n

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See also  5 Steps for Leading Your Church Through Change<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cSuccessful leadership requires careful planning,\u201d said David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group. \u201cPlanned departures go more smoothly, while forced or unplanned transitions are worse on multiple outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

More communication needed<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In addition to planning, churchgoers believe the transition process would go better if church leaders communicated more.<\/p>\n

According to Barna\u2019s report, \u201cregardless of the type of leadership transition and other factors surrounding it, communication emerged as a key to success for all parties involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet only half of churchgoers (50%) strongly agree their church communicated clearly on a plan and process for succession.<\/p>\n

Fewer than one-third of churchgoers (31%) say they felt the congregation had a high degree of input in the succession process.<\/p>\n

Churchgoers who feel their church communicated about the transition and the eventual replacement were more likely to say the process went smoothly and more likely to say there was a positive outcome.<\/p>\n

According to Kinnaman, churches should focus on long-term planning with regular, effective communication to their churchgoers to help times of transition go well and end well.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrong communication can cover a multitude of successions sins,\u201d said Kinnaman, \u201cbut a \u2018make-it-up-as-we-go\u2019 approach simply has less of a chance of going smoothly, and often fails to find time and intention for other steps that improve a transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

AARON EARLS (@WardrobeDoor)<\/strong> is online editor of<\/em> Facts & Trends.<\/p>\n

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Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n
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Empowering Leadership: How a Leadership Development Culture Builds Better Leaders Faster<\/h2>\n

Aubrey Malphurs<\/p>\n

FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Cytonn Photography photo – Unsplash By Aaron Earls Congregations often enter a chaotic season when a pastor leaves, but new research finds planning and communication can make the transition smoother. Planning helpful, but rare Among practicing Christians who had experienced a senior pastor transition within the last five years, only 17% say the move was … Continue reading “How Can Churches Successfully Navigate Leadership Transitions?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31843\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}