TRANSITIONS: Facing the Facts of Transition

By Darrel Rowland

If there”s one organization that should realize this life doesn”t last forever, it ought to be the church, says Russell Crabtree.

But you wouldn”t know it from churches” lack of planning, especially for leadership transitions.

“We live in absolute denial of the fact that the tenure of our leaders is going to come to an end,” said Crabtree, co-author of The Elephant in the Boardroom: Speaking the Unspoken About Pastoral Transitions.

“We really don”t have the structures that encourage this kind of thinking. We have a mind-set about the clergy that they are like parental figures. Well, if you”re family you don”t sit around and say how are we going to get a new dad when this one is gone.”

Crabtree, who grew up in a Disciples of Christ church, runs Holy Cow Consulting in Columbus, Ohio. The company conducts diagnostics of church health and helps prepare succession plans.

He said as baby boomers age, many religious groups are facing the loss of longtime leaders. For example, 30 percent of Episcopalian priests are slated to retire in the next five years.

In perhaps a sobering observation for independent churches, he says highly structured, ritualistic groups are best equipped to handle a change in leadership. Catholics, for instance, have grown accustomed to seeing longtime priests replaced quickly.

In contrast, churches with looser structures and no succession plan often experience devastating consequences when a longtime preacher leaves.

“So much is built around that leader that when they go it”s like a death, and people need a year to get over it.”

Crabtree cautioned that transition plans are not “one-size-fits-all.” But he also rejected the notion that such planning is somehow unspiritual.

In fact the Spirit”s role is critically important when believers gather to prayerfully seek God”s will for their church”s future and what kind of leader they need to best impact the world, Crabtree said.

“I think overall we”re going to be better off as a church if we deal with this in a straightforward manner rather than in a crisis mode.”