The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
What If Your Legacy Isn’t a Church… But the Leaders You Leave Behind
The true measure of a pastor's success isn't the church they build but the leaders they leave behind who can continue the work after they're gone. Jesus himself modeled this approach by focusing not on buildings but on developing 11 disciples who would carry on his mission.
• Leadership multiplication is a neglected yet powerful way to impact the kingdom long-term
• Too many churches are "one charismatic leader away from collapse"
• Raising leaders is slow, messy, and risky work, but multiplication is better than addition
• Leaders will make mistakes and do things differently than you would
• Three practical ways to start building your leadership legacy: call out potential in others, share the stage, and open your circle
• You don't need to be famous to be faithful—you just need someone ready when you step away
Reach out to us at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com if you'd like to start a conversation about succession planning for your church. At Chemistry Staffing, we've worked with many churches on succession planning and can help you set up the right practices and guardrails to ensure a smooth transition.
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Most pastors aim to grow a great church, but what if the real measure of success is the people you leave behind, not the programs that you build? In today's episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, we're going to be talking about a different kind of legacy, one that outlasts your leadership, outlasts your sermons, even outlasts your name on the church side. We're going to explore why leadership multiplication is perhaps one of the most neglected yet powerful ways to impact the kingdom long term, and how you could even start building a pipeline of leaders that will carry the torch far beyond your tenure. So glad you joined me today. My name is Todd Rhodes. I'm your host here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm also one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom.
Speaker 1:So what if your legacy isn't the church you led but the leaders you left behind? You can grow a tenants and build buildings, with God's help. Of course, you can preach your heart out, but still, sometimes nothing seems to last. And because if the next generation of leaders isn't ready when you leave, your ministry might leave with you. We're going to talk about that today and we're going to start here. How do you rethink legacy? Okay, it's not just brick and mortar, most pastors, when you mention the word legacy and what their legacy means. I'm not even sure I like that. As a matter of fact, I think I probably don't. But when you talk about the word legacy, most pastors think about leaving behind a healthy church. Right, you want people to speak well of you after you're gone and you want the ministry that you poured your life into to continue. But here's the thing the healthiest churches aren't the ones with the biggest attendance. They're not the ones that have all the bells and whistles after you leave. They're the ones that you helped raise the money for. Healthy churches are the ones that keep thriving after the founding leader is gone. Think about it. Would your church tomorrow if you disappeared tomorrow on? Think about it. Would your church tomorrow if you disappeared tomorrow? Would your leaders know what to do?
Speaker 1:So legacy isn't measured in square footage. It's measured in people, and as an example of this, I don't have to look any farther than Jesus. Jesus didn't build a church, he built leaders. When Jesus left, he didn't hand off a building project. He handed off his mission to 11 ragtag disciples. That was his plan, right? If Jesus focused his final years not on crowds but on cultivating a handful of leaders. Maybe we should be doing the same right. The real question isn't what am I building? It's who am I building?
Speaker 1:And this is a silent epidemic in the church today, because there are some leadership bottlenecks in churches and too many churches are one charismatic leader away from collapse. We've seen that happen with even some really large, prominent churches. We've got churches where no one else preaches and nobody else leads and nobody else gets developed. Why? Because the senior pastor never let anybody else do it, never let anybody else grow. And that's not excellence, that's insecurity disguised as discipleship. The harder, better road is really multiplication. Matter of fact, multiplication is always better than addition.
Speaker 1:Raising leaders is slow and that's one of the reasons why people don't do it. It's slow, it's messy and it's risky. Because here's the deal in this and maybe this is why you're hesitant because it's hard. It's hard, slow, messy, risky work. Here's the deal they're going to make mistakes. If you try to raise up leaders, they're going to make mistakes. Some of them will go off the rails, some of them will disappoint you. And here, maybe, is the kicker they're going to do it differently than you would and that might drive you crazy. But if we want generational impact, we must choose multiplication over perfection. You can grow a great crowd or you can grow great people, but you rarely get both by accident.
Speaker 1:Okay, last thing today I want to share Three ways to begin leaving a legacy. Okay, this is where it's going to get practical. Okay, first way, call it out. Who is it on your team? You probably know this, you probably have a name in your head right now. Who is it on your team that needs to hear that? Dave Ferguson calls it the ICNU, the letters ICNU. It also means ICNU. Who on your team needs to have that ICNU conversation? The IC leadership in you. Do you have somebody Say it this week? Call them aside and say hey, I see something in you, let's see where we can take that.
Speaker 1:So that's step one, idea one. Idea two share the stage. If you're the only one preaching, or if you're preaching 95% of the time, you got to give up some of that control and you need to do it now or else it'll hurt when you leave, it'll hurt the church. So share the stage and not just preaching Sure, preaching, but other things leading meetings, running point on initiatives, delegate major things. Maybe start small, but delegate major things. Allow people to take some risks and support them, even if they don't do it exactly the way you would. Okay, idea three Open your circle. Invite them into your thought process. Okay, don't just say, hey, chat, come here. Hey, would you take over this major initiative? Open up your circle, mentor them, lead them, guide them, invite them into your thought process. Don't just delegate, don't just tell them what to do. Let them see how you think and give them input Doesn't mean they have to do it exactly like you would do it, but it does mean that you kind of share. Hey, this is how I would think about this. Transferring the intelligence in your mind as you delegate is huge, okay, so, as I leave you today, here's a final question. Okay, think about this If your legacy isn't a church, could it be the leaders you leave behind?
Speaker 1:That's what we've been talking about today. You don't need to be famous. You think, todd, this doesn't apply to me. I'm not some hot dog, mega church pastor. You don't have to be famous to be faithful. You just, todd, this doesn't apply to me. I'm not some hot dog, mega church pastor. You don't have to be famous to be faithful. You just need to make sure that someone is ready when you step off the stage. Okay, that's a challenging thing If you're and we're talking this a lot these days at Chemistry Staffing we're having tons of leaders, tons of churches come and say, hey, can you help us come up with our succession plan?
Speaker 1:Because the leader comes to us and says, hey, I'm getting ready to retire in a year or two years or five years, but I want to leave. Man, that's smart leadership and reach out to us. Reach out to me podcast at chemistrystaffingcom If you'd like to start a conversation like that, either with me or somebody on our team. Here at Chemistry, we're doing a lot of that work. We've worked with a lot of churches and we've seen a thing or two and we can tell you great practices on how to do a great succession plan. But we can also say, all right, here are some guardrails that you need to set up because if you don't, things could go awry, and we've all heard stories about succession plans that go wrong.
Speaker 1:And we've all heard stories about succession plans that go wrong. Matter of fact, that's one of the reasons why many leaders in many churches are hesitant to do a succession plan, because they've seen them go badly. They don't need to go badly. Reach out to me podcast at chemistrystaffingcom if you'd like to have a conversation about this or any kind of church health issue. I'm here to serve your church, so reach out to me podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. All right, that's it for today's podcast. Thanks so much for listening If you're watching. Thanks for watching and we'll be right back here. We're here every weekday, monday through Friday, right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We'll see you next time you.
