Category Archives: Crisis leadership

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When You’ve Lost Your Pastor, Finding One is Not the Priority

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When He Leaves, Don’t Start a Search!

Photo by Christian Efert on Unsplash

Is finding a new pastor the answer when your former one has moved on? Especially when the previous pastor’s departure was painfully abrupt, is quickly getting a new one on-board the priority?

Most church leadership teams blindly ignore the reality that it’s not if your church will face a pastoral transition but when. So, when the inevitable happens it often creates chaos at the highest level. Wise thinking and objectivity can appear to disappear under the pressure of the moment.

What exactly is the pressure everyone is sensing? It’s called the leadership vacuum. The person who led, and whose vision and values set the tone and direction, is now gone. A hole…a vacuum is created that they once filled. The pressure is to fill the void and fill it swiftly.

“Nature abhors a vacuum.” -Aristotle

This pressure is particularly acute when the pastor’s departure was an abrupt one. Why? Without a leader people start to drift, confusion and frustration set-in over decision-making, competing claims for authority break-out in fights for control.

In addition, some well-meaning members can exert pressure on the leadership team because they believe a church without a pastor is like a ship without a captain. “And we certainly don’t want to run aground!”

Under this kind of internal and external pressure, the church’s leadership team can easily make finding a new pastor their number one priority. After all, filling the leadership vacuum with a new leader will reduce the pressure points.

But is that strategy the wisest approach? Or, could there be other dynamics in play that need to be addressed first?

I would suggest that there are two enormous issues that need prior attention. If they are disregarded, it can significantly endanger the spiritual health of the body for quite some time.

Why should finding a new pastor drop to at least 3rd on the list of priorities?

1. The church is not ready to receive a new pastor.

Even when a church implements a successful succession plan and celebrates the pastor’s transition, it still needs time to let go of their former pastor in order to be able to embrace the new one.

When a pastor, by the grace of God, is able to have a faithful tenure, the church gets used to things being done in a certain way. The body can assume that the former pastor’s personality, style of ministry, and unique gifts are the way, if not the right way. This sets up the next pastor for unfair comparison and critique.

On the other hand, when the pastor’s departure is traumatic because of its abruptness, the church will not be ready to receive a new leader until it works through two issues: grieving the loss and repairing broken trust.

Wisely, many churches bring in an interim pastor to help the church through its pastoral transition. The right interim pastor, with his gifts and specialized training, allows the church to see that a different leader with a different approach can actually be a great blessing.

When critical comparisons evaporate, the deep work of grief is done, and broken trust is restored, the church will be in a position to embrace a new pastor.

2. The church doesn’t know who they should be looking for.

One of the dangers, when a church starts its search process too quickly, is they’ll go to one of two extremes.

Either they’ll look for someone who was just like the former pastor or on the other hand, they’ll try to find someone who is a total opposite. So, get a clone or clear the deck…magnify the former pastor’s strengths or magnify his weaknesses.

Too avoid these extremes, a wise approach is to use the transition season after the former pastor has left to pause, take a deep breath, then carefully and thoughtfully evaluate the church. This is a time to ask profound, provocative, and redemptive questions.

  • Who are we (current internal demographics)?
  • Do we know the community around the church (current external demographics)?
  • Where are we going (clear mission and goals)?
  • How effective are we at sharing the gospel (who has come to Christ recently)?
  • How effective are we at growing disciples (is there progressive maturity taking place)?
  • Therefore, what kind of pastor would ‘fit’ our unique setting and help us be a Great Commandment and Great Commission church?

As with the other high priority I’ve mentioned, an interim pastor can be of significant help in the transition season to help a church wrestle with the specifics of who they should be looking for as the next permanent pastor.

Do not underestimate the internal and external pressure that comes from the leadership vacuum. Get your priorities in the right order so that your church is prepared to enter a new season of Christ-honoring ministry with its new pastor.

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The leadership team of a church faces more pressure than just the leadership vacuum. Especially when the former pastor left abruptly, there are other unique disruptive factors at work that need to be addressed.

Click here to purchase my workbook “Aftermath: Leading the Church After Abrupt Pastoral Transition”. It’s 47 pages will guide a church’s leadership team in those first critical 90-days to lead and shepherd their church well.

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Redemptive Questions for Painful Times

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When asking instead of declaring is the right approach



The importance of asking the right questions.
Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

When a senior or lead pastor abruptly leaves, shock waves of change reverberate throughout the church.

One of the temptations the leadership team must guard against will be to simply hunker-down in a defensive posture in order to endure this painful season. The mind-set can easily be, “The church body has experienced so much change recently, they can’t, or shouldn’t have to handle more.”

And yet, those who have studied and led groups through even painful leadership transitions tell us that this unique season is actually a strategic time to take intentional initiative.

The leadership partners at Praxis suggest that in the disruptive season of leadership transition there are 3 redemptive questions to ask.

Instead of putting the church at further risk, the answers to these questions will “demonstrate love, the bearing of burdens, and keeping of trust”. Some might think these questions will pull the church apart, when actually asking these questions will pull everyone together.

Admittedly, the pursuit of answers to these 3 questions will feel counter-intuitive at a time when everyone in your church is still reeling from the abrupt departure of your senior pastor. But wise leaders will gently, yet firmly, push the envelope and ask the following:

Question 1

Where do we have newly-unlocked freedom to be creative?

To think about being creative and trying new things, right after the senior pastor has left, requires facing the issue of loyalty. It can feel disloyal to consider alternative approaches and ideas when the former pastor had his way and his methods.

Yet no one way is perfect. William Bridges in his book Managing Transitions argues that the season right after the exodus of top leadership is a creative time. “People who are sure they have the answers stop asking questions. And people who stop asking questions never challenge the status quo. Without such challenges, an organization can drift slowly into deep trouble…”

Give permission to those who are your committed stake holders to be innovative and think outside the box. How can we do it better (efficiency)? How can we reach more (effectiveness)?

Question 2

Where are there newly-possible opportunities to restore broken norms, flawed assumptions, hurting people, and inefficient channels.

The abrupt departure of the lead pastor can actually bring clarity. If his quick exit is due to a major moral implosion in his life, then typically his hidden sin was also causing a blindness to other broken matters.

Avoid demonizing him or trying to preserve the memory that he was a saint. The reality is like every pastor, he had his own set of weaknesses and strengths. It’s not unusual for the former pastor’s weaknesses to have been overlooked or endured, but with his leaving, now is the time for objective evaluation.

Gather the leadership team and have an honest conversation that probes with questions like these:

  • Is our church’s mission (the way we do church) biblically balanced so that our efforts bring glory to God? How does our church’s ministry measure-up to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission?
  • Has our ministry accepted worldly strategies, standards, or outcomes? What role does marketing, spreadsheets, and organizational structure play in our measure of success?
  • Have we marginalized or ignored certain people groups within our church? Who is hurting at this time that we know about, and are we oblivious to the pain of others?
  • Are we financing and staffing our ministry in the most efficient way possible? What values are behind our resource allocation choices?
  • Has there been a consistent theme of dissent or criticism that we never seriously heard? Are we authentically open to listening and considering the perspectives of others?

Question 3

Where can we as leaders take risks, even sacrificial ones, for the sake of others?

It will take a great deal of humility, but does the leadership team need to confess and ask forgiveness from the church about their choices, insensitivity, or blindness?

Has the abrupt departure of the lead pastor revealed any systemic dysfunction in the church which needs immediate attention?

Does the leadership team need to take extra time to make themselves available to listen? Are there individuals or groups within the church who haven’t sensed they had a “voice” and their concerns or needs were really heard?

Are there ministries within the church that need to end? Are there newly opened windows of opportunity for ministry that need to be grasped?

These 3 redemptive questions are part of a unique mindset leaders can bring to the season of leadership transition which will keep the church from just thinking of surviving but rather thriving.

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For a more in-depth evaluation of the leadership transition season and what specific steps need to be taken to shepherd the church well, go to the TRM Store to purchase a copy of the practical workbook “Aftermath: Leading the Church After Abrupt Pastoral Transition”.

If the trauma of pastoral transition in your church needs a more personal touch, consider the consulting options found in the TRM Store. I bring the experience of helping a variety of churches after their senior pastor had a moral implosion.

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The Elephant in the Quarantine Room

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The uneasy reality we’re reluctant to acknowledge

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic there are a multitude of questions running through our minds. “How long will this last? How can I and my family stay safe? Will things ever return to normal? How will we make it financially?

We have serious questions and we would like to have reliable answers.

Yet there’s one question that most of us are prone to avoid asking, because we’re not sure we want to face the answer. The question: “What is this crisis revealing about me?”

As much as we don’t like to admit it, a crisis is a revealer.

A Crisis Reveals

Think this through with me. First, a crisis or disaster of almost any type has two painful prongs.

On the one hand, a crisis brings into our lives that which we didn’t want to have. Suddenly we have the unwanted guests of pain, inconvenience, trouble, suffering and anguish. Every morning they greet us when we wake up, and walk beside us as constant companions throughout the day.

On the other hand, a crisis also takes from our lives that which we didn’t want to lose. Something or someone precious and treasured is gone…vanished. It could be the loss of a relationship, our comfortable routines, distractions (i.e. sports, entertainment, eating out), conveniences we enjoy, or the control we think we have.

Second, this dual action of unwanted inserting and stripping radically changes our world. As these prongs pierce our lives, they reveal our heart. Consider the observation of Moses in Deuteronomy 8:2,

“….remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart….”

Most of us, at this moment, are living a quarantined lifestyle that feels like a wilderness. It’s both disruptive and disturbing. Are you facing the elephant? What is this crisis revealing about you?

What is Being Revealed

What’s being revealed at the heart-level because you’ve been furloughed, fired, or restricted to working from home? What is being revealed because you can’t self-medicate via sports on TV, your entertainment options are limited, and you can’t eat out or get out?

The Lord wants us to honestly face what the two-prongs of our crisis is revealing in our hearts about:

  • Our values.
  • Our agendas.
  • Our quality of relationships with spouse, family, and our church.
  • The level of intimacy we have in our relationship with the Lord.
  • Our habits.
  • Where our hope and trust actually resides.

Might I suggest that the very place where your emotions are most raw or explosive is right where you will find the elephant.

A bit further in Deuteronomy 8 Moses adds an additional comment in v.16 about Israel’s time in the wilderness,

“…that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.”

Whether the crisis is COVID-19, the abrupt departure of the lead pastor from a church, or a personal tragedy, much is revealed during these seasons we experience. Yet the inserting and stripping prongs of a crisis are being used by our loving heavenly Father for our good.

Invite him in to speak to the heart issues that are being revealed.

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If your church is facing the crisis of an abrupt departure by your senior pastor, what your leadership does in the first 90-days after his exit determines how well you will recover.

Click here to go to the TRM Store to purchase the workbook “Aftermath: Leading the Church After Abrupt Pastoral Transition”. It will lead your team through the practical aspects of shepherding your Body during this unique season.

In the TRM Store there are also options for consulting with your leadership team for those who desire or need a more personal touch.

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Critical Questions in the midst of a Crisis

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Whether it’s facing the challenging impact of the Coronavirus, or the challenge of your church facing the abrupt departure of your lead pastor….others are looking to you for leadership in the midst of the crisis.

They may not verbalize it, but when it’s crisis time, people want answers to 4 critical questions:

1. Can I trust you?

In the midst of a crisis (or even mild change), trust is the most valuable currency you can possess. Without it, people won’t follow your leadership. With it, even if you can’t “fix” things immediately, they will willingly follow.

Proverbs 20:6 says, “Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, but who can find a trustworthy man?” Trust is not given nor earned by words alone. In a crisis, leaders can’t simply demand to be trusted.

Trust is a multi-faceted character issue. People trust when they have seen over time that what you say, you do. And they are convinced of your good intentions toward them. As Brennan Manning describes in his book Ruthless Trust, we only trust to the extent we know we are loved.

2. Where are we going?

Vision casting is important, even in the midst of a crisis. People want to know where you’re leading them. They want someone to explain the big-picture. When people see the big picture, they then understand the decisions that are made with the daily details.

When people are given a vision it creates unity as it rallies diversity. It is the fuel for enthusiastic commitment. It creates a template for decision making. 


3. Can you get us there?

Answering this question is a bit tricky. For people need to have confidence in you, but only as they see your desperate confidence in the Lord. Your skills, training, and experience as a leader are important assets. But a humble heart that admits God needs to show up is vital.

When a crisis envelops a church, like the abrupt departure of the lead pastor, the sheep want confidence in going with you on the journey that lies ahead. You may at this point not be able to answer all their questions, but do they know you have an unwavering trust in a big God? 


4. What is my role?

This question is based on the positive answers to the first 3 questions. People want to know what is expected of them. How can they contribute? How can they invest that makes a difference?

This question is not only being asked by the staff, it’s also being asked by each person who calls your church home. They want to know if they matter?

If you are in a leadership position and the current crisis has revealed a disconnect between you and others, review these 4 questions. Are you answering them or ignoring them? Ask those around you what answers they are hearing from you.

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When a church experiences an abrupt departure of their lead pastor, what the leadership team does in the first 90-days is critical to the body recovering.

“Aftermath” is a workbook for such a time. It gives wise biblical guidance for shepherding the church through those early weeks. Click here to go to the TRM Store to get a copy for yourself, or one for each member of your leadership team.