As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“How do you shepherd a flock to healthier pastures when the sheep aren’t yet convinced that the grass is greener on the other side? Some answers are obvious: we must walk faithfully with the Lord and patiently love the flock. Okay, but what else?” - 9 Marks
“When you become the lightning rod with every change effort…. When you give up on innovation and find deep comfort in the status quo of the past…. When apathy or anger dominates your feelings.” - Sam Rainer
“When instincts differ among elders on the same team, what can we do? How can we preserve plurality, honor divergent views, and shepherd in harmony with fellow elders?” - Desiring God
“What is Moses to do? What would you do? How should this dilemma be handled? Consider logic? Go on past decisions? ‘Phone a friend’?” - P&D
“even if they don’t misbehave…if we become more associated with them than we are with the gospel, we dilute, if not destroy, our witness” - Michael Brown
“You always shake your fist when you preach. You blame everything on actors and politicians. You rant on social media about, well, everything. You assume I’m writing this to someone else.” - The Baptist Paper
Read Part 1.
It’s one thing to put some verses together and present a pastoral succession plan. It’s another thing to carry out this plan. The following distills many authors’ advice on pastoral succession, addressed here to key individuals and groups.
1. Commit yourself to training pastors. This commitment takes focus and time. Your ministry can have continuity when you train a pastor and have him take your place.
Every pastor is an interim pastor. Every pastor eventually resigns, retires, or dies. What is your church’s plan to find your next pastor?
Scripture lays the foundation for an ideal pastoral succession plan: the outgoing pastor trains men for ministry, prepares his church for his departure, and, with the church’s approval, appoints one of these men as his successor. If a pastor does not prepare his church for his departure, the church will likely struggle after he leaves. The Bible suggests a better way.
“Citing data collected for their Resilient Pastor research from 2015 to 2022… showed pastors suffered significant declines in all areas of well-being when asked to rank how they felt as excellent, good, average, below average, poor or don’t know.” - CPost
“For starters, don’t take love for granted. That’s easy to do when fear dominates us. Therefore, remind your members that loving God and loving our neighbor should animate everything we say and do this month.” - 9 Marks
Discussion