Next , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - William Vanderbloemen , Warren Bird

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

129 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Every church and ministry goes through changes in leadership, and the issue is far bigger than the wave of pastors from the Baby Boomer generation who are moving toward retirement. When a pastor leaves a church, ministries are disrupted and members drift away. If the church is already struggling, it can find itself suddenly in very dire straits indeed. But the outcome doesn't have to be that way.What if when a pastor moved on, the church knew exactly what to do to find a suitable replacement because a plan and a process had been in place for some time? While there is no simple, one-size-fits-all solution to the puzzle of planning for a seamless pastoral succession, Next offers church leaders and pastors a guide to asking the right questions in order to plan for the future. Vanderbloemen, founder of a leading pastoral search firm, and Bird, an award-winning writer and researcher, share insider stories of succession successes and failures in dozens of churches, including some of the nation's most influential. Through case studies, interviews, and real-time research, the authors demystify successful pastoral succession and help readers prepare for an even brighter future for their ministries.

Sujets

Christianity

Philosophie et théologie

Informations

Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	02 septembre 2014
Nombre de lectures	1
EAN13	9781441246578
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0432€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

© 2014 by William Vanderbloemen and Warren Bird
Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2014
Ebook corrections 10.16.2014, 09.30.2015, 07.31.2017
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-4657-8
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2007
Scripture quotations labeled NASB are from the New American Standard Bible®, copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
To protect the privacy of those who have shared their stories with the authors, some details and names have been changed.
This book is designed to provide general information on pastoral succession and related topics. It is not intended to provide legal, financial, or other professional advice. Readers are encouraged to seek the counsel and oversight of their local church leaders as well as competent professionals relevant to their situation.
“I pray this book sells a million copies! My dad used to tell me this too; ‘All pastors are interim pastors.’ We’re stewards, not owners. We’re only here for a blip in time, but the church goes on forever.”
— Rick Warren , founding pastor of Saddleback Church
“Every pastor will face a transition at their church, and it will be one of their best chances at leaving a legacy. Next is an invaluable tool for securing a transition that works and a legacy that lasts.”
— Bill Hybels , senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church
“Wisdom around pastoral succession is one of the great needs of the church today, so it’s about time this book showed up. I have already sent a copy to several of the elders at my church.”
—from the foreword by John Ortberg , author; former teaching pastor at Willow Creek and pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, Menlo Park, CA
“Someone said that the moment you succeed, you need to prepare for your successor to succeed. The church has too often failed in this critical mission. I believe this book to be one of the most timely and important of our day. If I could state it more urgently or enthusiastically, I would!”
— Jim Henry , former president of the Southern Baptist Convention; pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church, Orlando, FL
“This book is incredibly rich with good advice. Even a simple pastoral handoff like I experienced, from my father-in-law to me, could benefit from the wise insights and great stories my friends William Vanderbloemen and Warren Bird have inked.”
— Wilfredo “ Choco ” de Jesus , lead pastor of New Life Covenant Church, Chicago, IL
“Vanderbloemen and Bird are giving leaders permission to ask formerly forbidden questions now so that churches can thrive rather than limp through inevitable pastoral transitions.”
— Marnie Crumpler , executive pastor of Peachtree Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, GA
“In the kingdom of God, success equals succession—looking for a successor all the time. Next shows pastors how to do that for themselves, and how to model succession for their staff and volunteer leaders.”
Mark Batterson , founding pastor of National Community Church, Washington, DC
“This is a great book. It should have been written years ago.”
— Elmer Towns , cofounder of Liberty University; leading historian of “great churches” of recent centuries
“Senior pastor succession is the big elephant in the church boardroom, and it is at last coming out of the closet. We will see more senior pastors coming from campus pastors and through church mergers in the next decade. This book describes every imaginable type of succession and encourages everyone how to start preparing now .”
— Jim Tomberlin , founder of MultiSite Solutions; coauthor of Better Together
“Just a few sunrises ago, the church was in someone else’s hands. In just a few sunsets, another generation will lead. May we be gracious, skillful, and intentional toward a very good handoff. This outstanding book will help you do just that.”
— John Stumbo , former pastor; president of The Christian & Missionary Alliance
“Too many churches are in crisis—or headed toward it—because we have not learned to think long range. The need is nothing short of a paradigm shift in leadership development. This excellent book rightly helps move these discussions to the front burner.”
— Edmund Chan , leading Singapore pastor and ministry coach
“This book is an absolute necessity. Far too little has been written on the process of pastoral transitions.”
— Scott Thumma , professor, Hartford Seminary; lead researcher, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford, CT
“Change is always hard, especially when you are at the center of it. That’s probably one of the reasons that so few pastors think about how they will transition the leadership of their church to the next generation. Next will kick-start your thinking and give you some practical steps on how to transition well.”
— Greg Surratt , senior pastor of Seacoast Church; author of Ir - Rev - Rend
“Every church leader needs to read Next . It is a must-read—whether pastor or board member—because every church will need to face this pressing issue. This tremendous work is a ‘Who’s Who’ of the church world, full of real-life facts and lessons learned.”
— David Fletcher , founder of XPastor.org; executive pastor of EvFree Fullerton, CA
Contents
Cover 1
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
Endorsements 5
Foreword by John Ortberg 7
Preface 9
Part 1 Why Succession Planning Can’t Wait
1. Why Every Pastor Needs This Book 19
Top Reasons You and Your Church Should Start Planning for Succession Right Now
2. The “Ten Commandments” of Succession Planning 32
Practical Actions Whatever Your Age or Tenure
3. Three Essential Questions 40
What Is Succession Success? What Captures My Passion? How Are My Finances?
4. Deciding When It’s Time to Leave 48
Finding Space and Permission to Explore the Options
5. Resigning “Young” to Start Another Ministry Chapter 59
And Does the Outgoing Pastor Always Need to Leave Town?
6. Four Church Cultures, Four Succession Styles 71
Plus One Cardinal Rule of Pastoral Succession
7. Founder’s Syndrome 78
What It Is and Why It Matters
Part 2 Be the Exception
8. Wisdom from Unlikely Sources 89
Transitions That Shouldn’t Have Worked but Did
9. What Happened at the Crystal Cathedral and First Baptist Dallas 98
A Close Look at Two Failed Successions
10. The Term Limit Factor 111
What Might Prevent Your Church from a Multi-Generation Run
11. Messy and Unexpected Endings 121
When Succession Follows Adultery, Nasty Church Splits, or Other Challenges
12. Unintentional Interim 130
How to Avoid Being the “Sacrifice Pastor”
13. Forced Farewell 139
What to Do If the Pastor Needs to Go but Doesn’t
Part 3 Transition Well, Finish Strong
14. Where to Find a Successor 147
Staff, Multisites, Former Interns, and Recommendations from Friends
15. The Money Question 157
What It Really Costs to Finance a Pastoral Succession
16. Preparing for the Next Pastor 169
Setting Up Your Successor’s First One Hundred Days for Success
17. Thinking Long Term 178
There Is No Success without Succession
What Our Organizations Can Do for You 182
Acknowledgments 183
Appendix 1 185
Succession Ages for Prominent Large Church Pastors
Appendix 2 192
Current Pastor Ages in Large US Churches
Appendix 3 202
A Successful Pastorate Doesn’t Always Guarantee Good Pastoral Succession
Appendix 4 205
Research for This Book
For Further Reading 207
Notes 210
Index 219
Back Cover 225
Foreword
Wisdom around pastoral succession is one of the great needs of the church today.
This is partly because the stress, challenge, and importance of leadership in churches has never been higher (they have become more complex and ever-changing places to lead, in increasingly more challenging contexts). It is also because churches often have fewer resources to help them. In the old days, churches could just call up the denominational pastor store and order a selection of fresh candidates to choose from. Now the pools in which to fish for a pastor have become smaller and harder to find. Should a church look inside its ranks or outside? For someone similar or different than the predecessor?
Churches and pastors often struggle with the issue of “Who comes next?” A spiritual aura can sometimes make open conversation more awkward for a church than for a corporation or a football team.
Sometimes pastors don’t choose transition; it chooses them: a forced resignation, a health problem or family crisis, or even death. I have noticed, over the years, that you can pretty accurately diagnose a pastor’s personality type by the metaphor he or she uses to describe an untimely death. I know of one pastor who would speak, with a steely courageous glint in his eye, of what might happen “if the plane went down.” I know of another who would talk about what the church might do “if I get run over by the ice-cream truck.” The ice-cream truck guy had a very different personality type (and body type, for that matter) than the “if the plane goes down” guy.
One of the great leaders and board members I have known, former