Tackling Tough Transitions

Churches are in transition all over the country. Many churches have their identities tied to their lead pastor. When this happens over many years of successful ministry, then the name of the church and the name of the pastor essentially become the same. It is common to hear someone refer to a church and follow up by saying, "You know, Pastor (fill in the blanks)'s church.

That would be fine if pastors never died, never failed, and never left to take another position. Experience, however, tells us that pastors commonly die, fail, and leave. As a result, local congregations all over the country from every denomination plunge into extended periods of turmoil, loss and despair. We call it by the nicer name "transition".

A shortcoming of the congregational or "sovereign" church model is that there are no resources which automatically come to bear to come alongside the local congregation during this time. The church is counseled to fill the pastor position as quickly as possible. As a result, congregations find a pastor without taking the time to acknowledge the feelings of abandonment, loss, betrayal, anger or sadness which will always be present when someone who is as important as the pastor is leaves their lives suddenly and unexpectedly.

If the pastor is promoted to a more responsible position, the church may be proud that their friend and pastor has been acknowledged as being worthy of promotion, but he will not be the same friend and pastor as he was. They fear that the new pastor won't be as close to them and anything that the new pastor does will be compared to how the previous one did it. The passage of time will erase the memories of the faults of the previous pastor and only the wonderful memories will remain. The new pastor has to live up to an unrealistic reputation.

The situation is a little different when the pastor dies, except the memories will exalt his reputation as a pastor even higher. Nothing helps someone's legacy like dying while he is on top of his game. This presents a special challenge to the incoming pastor. Although everyone acknowledges that the old pastor can't return, the new pastor's hands can be tied by traditions. Anything that he changes will bring the comment that "Pastor ***** started doing that back in 1983 and we always loved doing it that way."

When a pastor fails morally or ethically and is forced to leave, there are a myriad of issues to be dealt with. Those who aren't privy to the details will demand more information. In reality, leadership is probably constrained from giving the whole story. The demand for information, even if satisfied, won't make anyone feel any better, but it will open the floodgates of gossip. It takes extraordinary wisdom to know what information is public and what is private, and many will not agree with where that line is drawn. Some of those closest to the pastor may think he was treated ungraciously, and begin to mistrust the leadership team responsible for the removal. Many will be shocked, because they had no idea of any problem until the announced resignation or removal. They will want to know what happened. Some will know more than others, and the gossip begins. Others will darkly speak of suspicions they had years ago. Everyone will suffer a loss of respect for the office of pastor, because their trust has been broken. The pastor who steps into this situation will face people who will display open distrust of both his word and motive because of their hurt.

This same feeling of betrayal is common in the situation where the pastor leaves to go to another church. The feelings are similar to a spouse who has been left for someone younger, more attractive, richer, etc. They will think back to conversations of recent weeks and realize that the pastor was talking to the other church even while he was talking to them, and they knew nothing about it. Few churches see themselves as "stepping stone" churches, but many pastors do. The church who is left may develop the attitude that "Our people stay, but pastors leave. Pastors should just do what we want done." A pastor stepping into this situation will have difficulty casting vision or implementing progressive changes.

I have been very closely involved in a church transition at my local church, and I know from experience that "hurt people" hurt people. I know that the incoming pastor receives the brunt all of the emotions of hurt, betrayal, loss and mistrust. Many pastors don't survive the transition. When they don't, it is bad for them because if they left a successful pastorate somewhere else because they felt called to the new church, they naturally begin to question many things. Did I hear the call correctly? Did I miss God? These and many other questions flood his mind as he and his family attempt to pick up the pieces of what they felt was a calling and attempt to find a new ministry (and livelihood) somewhere else beyond the reach of this dark spot on his resume.

The church, still reeling from the feelings of loss from the previous pastor now have those feelings solidified in the rapid departure of the new guy. They begin to look to themselves for their answers and many times keep the cycle going through pastor after pastor. Once they have "tasted blood" it becomes easier and easier to get rid of a pastor if they disagree with him. Then they become what districts call problem churches and pastors call pastor killers.

In many cases, if the emotions and attitudes of the congregants had been addressed and given time to come to the surface and be dealt with, the church could be healed and be vibrant once again. The problem is that there are few resources available to churches to identify and validate their emotions. Unless the pastor search team finds resources on their own, they will most naturally just go through the process of finding another pastor without addressing the emotions of the congregation. The new pastor will find these emotions coming at him and they will seem totally out of proportion to the issues that bring them on. The pastor will identify these people as trouble when maybe they are just hurting. Many congregations split or scatter with all of the blame being placed on the new pastor, when the hurts from the previous pastor's departure are the real culprit.

We need people who are gifted in transition to make themselves available to step in for a season to help churches through this time. If churches knew that these resources were available, they could invite these resources for a few weeks to several months to help speak to the issues the congregation is dealing with. They could help the church find out who they think they are, who they think God thinks they are, and ultimately find out who God thinks they are. Once they know who God thinks they are, and where He wants them to go, they can recognize when they find the undershepherd who God has selected to lead them there. When congregations have a clear understanding of God's direction and God's choice, it is easier to rebuild the trust and love in spiritual leadership they once had. Then they can go forward to make disciples of all nations.