Most high-level church leaders are not prepared, or trained, to handle the abrupt departure of their senior pastor due to an affair. At the very moment, when feelings of inadequacy are overwhelming, the church they serve needs wise, loving, and godly proactive leadership. Yet who is competent for “such a time as this”?

My desire is to come alongside church leaders and staff who are in this situation. I want to support those who are trying to navigate the uncertain waters of senior pastor transition, to lead with confidence, so they, and their church can do more than survive but thrive during the coming interim season.

My platform is designed specifically to provide proven resources for those who were never equipped ahead of time, to handle the change and transition that is occurring in their church. I can speak to the issues, and recommend these resources, because I’m a practitioner. I’m in the battle myself, as an intentional interim pastor, serving local churches across the country.

“The decisions church leaders make in the first 60 to 90 days…are absolutely critical to how their church recovers.”

Most of the churches I’ve served have experienced an abrupt, and unnerving pastoral transition because their senior pastor resigned, confessing to an affair. Coming in, after the fact, I have seen churches disoriented and struggling. And what I’ve come to realize is that the decisions church leaders make in the first 60 to 90 days after the affair becomes known, are absolutely critical to how their church recovers.

But most of those in leadership don’t really know what those critical decisions are. The obvious decisions are not necessarily the critical ones. Then, even if they do know, they hesitate, for many of wisest choices appear to be counter-intuitive. And all this decision making is being done within a leadership vacuum that brings an intense sense of urgency to act and move on.

“What are the critical choices to make for the church when the senior pastor resigns due to an affair?”

So, starting with this new year, the focus at Transition Resource Ministry has sharpened to address how to lead your church in those early days after your senior pastor has resigned due to an affair.

• What decisions are most important for the leadership to make? And which ones need to be postponed, purposefully?
• What does the church body need in those first weeks and months after the pastor leaves?
• What is really going on in the church body when there has been an abrupt resignation due to an affair (or any other moral issue)?
• What issues are the leadership team apt to miss, or easily overlook?
• And maybe most important, how do leaders, who themselves are struggling with grief over the loss of their pastor, care for others who are struggling?

My blogs and the free resources posted on my site will help those in the church who have been thrust into the position of having to lead without a leader!