Succession by Death or Misadventure

Pastors die, get sick, have to leave town to look after infirm relatives, just as other people do. Sometimes their churches are not ready for their hasty departures.

So what does a church do when they are left without a pastor?

Perhaps these points should be made:-

1. Don’t panic. The Head of the Church, Jesus Christ has not gone anywhere.

2. Seek wise counsel from trusted church leaders and other pastors. Talk to churches who have been through this same issue: What did they learn? Would they have done anything differently?

3. Churches usually form a pulpit committee (made up of ministry leaders from within the church) to invite prospective pastors to candidate.

4. Think and pray about the kind of pastor the church needs. Not every church is the same, even if their constitutions are identical with sister churches.

5. What kind of church has the departing pastor left? Does the church want to consolidate that kind of church or is another direction required?

6. Take your time during the candidating process. Hearing someone preach for even a couple of weekends is not really enough if the candidate is a stranger to the church. Have Q&A’s sessions, have him and his family over to member’s homes for fellowship. Do all you can to get to know your possible future pastor before the call and appointment.

7. Pastoral appointments are kind of like marriages: they are meant to be for a long time. More damage is done to a church hastily appointing someone only to have it all fall apart a year or two later. This can lead to severe blood letting amongst the members. The church is damaged.

8. Avoid ‘Messiah’ complexes. Some members dream of the new pastor coming in and fixing every problem! God’s man will rescue us! Remember there is only one Messiah who is now in Heaven. He has ordained that sinful and frail, though redeemed shepherds feed his flock.

9. Allow these times of transition to let God teach your church important, and even transformational lessons about trust, patience and the sufficiency of Christ. Pray that in the meantime, the body of Christ will pitch in and step up to the plate of service. Believers will develop gifts they never thought they had during these times.

10. It may be that if there is an assistant pastor that he should be considered for the job. There are obvious advantages as he is a known quantity. Let me add however that not every assistant pastor is necessarily gifted to assume greater responsibilities.

11. An assistant pastor can be greatly used to give stability to a church during this transitional period and while the new pastor settles in. So churches need to carefully evaluate the issue of what they do with the assistant pastor at these times.

12. Remember to thank God when the new pastor is found and how He graciously led the church through those hard times.

---

When you comment, please keep these guidelines in mind. You can find an explanation of our commenting guidelines here.

1. Stay on topic.
2. Post your own material.
3. Links must be supplemental and thoroughly relevant.
4. Be concise.
5. Use your real name.

Stay connected by subscribing to our RSS or email feed! Or print this post.

Copyright © 2012 InFocus | ElegantBlue is a custom theme by Nathan Rice