The Succession Conversation Nobody's Having (Part 4): Preparing Your Congregation for Leadership Change

In this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, Todd Rhoades discusses the often overlooked emotional aspects of pastoral succession planning. While many churches focus on the logistics and selection of a new leader, they often neglect preparing the congregation emotionally for the transition. Todd outlines the importance of having conversations about the feelings and identity shifts that accompany such changes and emphasizes the need for emotional preparation to prevent resistance and unrest within the church community.• Churches often focus on the logistics and timeline of succession without addressing emotional preparations.• Transitions can evoke grief, fear, and identity questions among congregation members.• Churches need to start emotional conversations months ahead of the transition.• It is important to teach congregations the difference between honoring the past and being stuck in it.• Emotional preparation can help in smoothening the transition and help the congregation process the changes.• Todd offers support and advice through Chemistry Staffing for churches undergoing transition.

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Transcript

Setting The Stage For Succession

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Well today on the Healthy Church Death Podcast, we're gonna continue in our discussion about succession planning. But today we're gonna move forward a little bit. Maybe you've already done your succession planning. Maybe you've already identified your next successor or some potential candidates. And maybe you've already mapped out the timeline. But your congregation has no idea what's about to hit them emotionally. I mean, they think this is just about finding a new pastor. Now that's what we're gonna talk about today on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hi there, my name's Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over Chemistry Staffing, and your host right here every Monday through Friday on the podcast. Well, today we're gonna talk about kind of the emotional side, at least from the church's standpoint, and we'll talk maybe a little bit about the pastor's standpoint as well, but the emotional reality of this whole succession process. And a lot of times people don't even really think about this, or they don't, at least they they maybe they think about it, they but they don't prepare for it. You see, leaders of transitions don't just change the org chart, they are going to trigger in you, in your board, in your congregation, all kinds of different feels. They're gonna trigger grief and fear and all kinds of identity questions. I mean, will this new person love us in the same way? Will they be as good of a preacher? Are they gonna change everything about what we care about? Some people are gonna mourn your passing, other people are gonna celebrate. I remember when I resigned from one church, I walked past the office, and one of the board members was sitting in the office with his feet up on the table. This is no lie, this is a real life story. Feet up on the table and said, It's about time. And I knew exactly what he was talking about. He was he was not a Todd fan. Go figure. Who who isn't a Todd fan? I don't know. But anyway, people some people are gonna mourn, some people will cheer, even but some people are gonna be really sad and mourn, even if they like the idea of change. So, and here's what most churches miss absolutely entirely. We spend months on coaching the outgoing leader, we spend weeks interviewing the incoming leader, but we spend a lot of time, zero time preparing the church or the congregation's hearts. And then we act surprised when people kind of resist or withdraw. When longtime members suddenly, all of a sudden, get get kind of territorial and kind of angsty. When the new pastor's ideas hit an invisible wall of that's not how we do things around here. Now, listen, uh you care about your people, that's not the issue, but caring isn't the same as preparing. And in this succession series, I want to talk a little bit about the emotional preparation that every church and every congregation needs. You need to start having these feelings conversations months ahead of time. And I know we don't like the touchy-feely conversations, but the emotional preparation is going to pay off, believe me. It's not just logistics of a pastor moving on, it's a whole boatload of emotions that are going to come with that for everybody that's involved. You know, here's here's how those discussions, you know, some of the things that you can start kind of interweaving into your conversations from the stage in individual conversations. Things like, you know, it's it's normal to feel a little bit nervous about this change. We're all a little bit nervous. It's okay to grieve. What's ending? And sure, we're excited, but man, we're gonna miss, we're gonna miss Bob, right? You can name the losses that they can't even articulate yet because you're just thinking about this a lot more than the people in your congregation. You need to create some space for those questions that aren't about qualifications. I mean, help them process this whole identity shift before it happens. And a lot of times I will tell people that you just need to kind of I don't know how else to say it, but other than saying, you know, give them just give them language for this transition. And what I mean by that is I mean teach them the difference between honoring the past and being stuck in it. Okay? Show them how their story continues instead of restarts. Okay? Let them know that it's it's fine. It's fine, it's okay to take some time to trust again. It's new to everybody, and it's okay. When it comes right down to it, this isn't just about pastoral changes. Any major staff transition is gonna create some ripple effects. The congregation feels it even when they can't name it. So here's the bottom line you're not gonna prevent all the turbulence of leadership change, but you can help teach and prepare your people how to fly through it. So here's your challenge for today. I would love for you to have one honest conversation about the emotional side of your transition. Not the logistics, not not not the logistics, not how it's gonna happen, but how you feel about it. Ask your team, what are our people actually gonna be feeling when this happens? You know, your congregation's emotional health through transition is just as important as finding the right leader. You can have the most spiritually adept church and the most spiritually mature people, but I'm telling you, this emotional thing will bring out sides of them that you've not seen before. And side the sometimes the side that it brings out doesn't look a whole lot like a biblical side. But you know what? You've got this. If if this help is shared, if you prepare people for your transition, and I I told you we were gonna hop ahead in the transition in the succession plan today. So this this was more for people that are kind of smack dab in the middle of it, getting getting ready to make this transition. I hope this helps, but you you have to have to have to share with your congregation, not just that you're leaving, but how they're going to feel emotionally. Prepare them for that because it's gonna be it's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough. Well, we do a lot of succession work in our role at chemistry staffing. Matt does a lot, I do some as well, and we've got other team members that have been through this before. So if you need any advice, any help, any coaching, we would be happy to talk with you. Just reach out to me. You can go to my website, todd.church. There's a web form on there where you can reach out and get a hold of me. But we'd love to be able to work with your church if that's something that you need a little bit of help. And I always tell churches on on that are thinking about succession, you know, you do you you don't know what you don't know, and you need to talk with somebody that's been through it or had exposure to this before. Now it doesn't have to be me, it doesn't have to be anybody in chemistry staffing, but you need to find somebody because you're gonna be so close to the situation. And like you said, those feelings are gonna come out of nowhere. One day it's gonna be way up here, the next day it's gonna be way down there. And you really do need a trusted partner to walk through that. And if we can help, we'd be happy to. All right, thanks so much. That's it for today. We'll be back tomorrow. We're gonna round out our our succession series tomorrow. So I hope you'll join me right here on the Healthy True Podcast.