Photo by Leio Mclaren from Unsplash

Being on a church’s leadership team is not for the faint of heart!

As I’ve mentioned in the first 2 parts of this blog (here and here), there will come seasons that are best described as VUCA. It’s when the environment of the church is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.

A VUCA season creates immense challenges for church leadership teams. For you have to lead in the midst of disorder and chaos. Former solutions or approaches don’t work. It’s difficult to get your head and hands around the problem.

In times like this, leaders can wonder if they bring anything helpful to the table. In times like this, leaders consider stepping down. In times like this, leaders hesitate because they don’t have confidence in navigating their current situation.

When the senior pastor abruptly leaves a church, more often than not there was a moral issue. The pastor’s sin reverberates through the Body and the church leadership team ends-up facing a VUCA season.

Responding successfully to VUCA moments demands counter-intuitive choices.

As I described in my last blog, protection…control…and denial are expressions of our natural desire to “distance” ourselves from the pastor and his choices. They are also expressions of trying to deal with volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

So why do we want to put a distance between him (the former senior pastor) and the rest of us on the leadership team?

Usually, it’s because of one or more of the following 3 factors:

1. What he did was wrong, and we want the church to know that the leadership team does not condone it.
2. We don’t want to be associated with his behavior and choices, as if we had any responsibility in what he did.
3. We want to minimize the consequences that might splash on us. It’s the choice to sit farther up in the stands (distance) during the Orca show at Sea World. We do it because those in the lower rows are going to get drenched.

Keeping Our Distance

Distance: we are over here and we want to keep him over there. Distance allows us to make the  distinction that we’re not like him….we’re different….we’re better.

Now establishing distance in moral settings has biblical foundations (e.g. Numbers 16 and 2 Corinthians 6:17). But in my experience as an interim pastor with churches where the senior pastor had a moral implosion, what helps the church is not when its leadership team tries to control or manage the VUCA season from a distance, but rather to shepherd the flock with their presence.

In a VUCA season don’t shepherd from a distance, but with your presence.

Our needed presence as leaders is not only physical and relational, it’s also assuring the church that we are engaged and present in the middle of the mess. Instead of “this has nothing to do with us”, our attitude and approach is “this has everything to do with us”. We are just as hurt and perplexed as you.

Be Present in the Mess

Let me suggest that even though our natural tendency is to distance ourselves from the sin which caused our senior pastor to abruptly depart, there are still ways in which we acknowledge to the church that we are present in the mess. Here are my top 3:

1. Yes, what our pastor did was wrong, and we don’t condone it, but at the same time we recognize that we are all human and except for the grace of God each one of us on the leadership team is capable of doing the same thing, or even much worse.
2. And yes, we were not accomplices in his sin, but obviously we missed something. We are going to evaluate not only what happened, how did it get to this point, but also what do we need to do to prevent this from ever happening again?
3. Finally yes, we don’t like the consequences that have splashed on all of us, but we will face honestly any repercussions in order to see a Christ-honoring purity, health and vibrancy restored to our church.

VUCA seasons are messy, and there are no easy or simple answers. Our confidence as church leaders is that we don’t walk through this alone! He who purchased the church at the cost of His own blood (Acts 20:28) will guide us, will give us discernment, and will provide the wisdom to shepherd well.

Refuse to keep your distance but entering into the mess by your presence!

“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”  -1 Corinthians 15:58

Action point: when the senior pastor abruptly leaves, the church experiences deep grief as if there has been a death. If you’ve not read how grief impacts a church, and how its leaders can help others process their grief, then read my earlier blogs here and here.