How church leaders can handle seismic upheaval in their church

When the senior, or lead, pastor abruptly departs, it generates serious disruption in the church. It can look and feel like the church’s environment or tone has drastically changed overnight.

Those on church leadership teams have described the rapid shift they experienced like this:

• “It felt as if we were hit by the combination of an earthquake and a tsunami.”
• “A dense fog settled on the team, obscuring our choices and direction.”
• “It was surprising to see in the church body the sudden expressions of strong emotions and diverse opinions.”
• “How quickly relational unity was threatened as people took sides over what happened.”
• “I’m astounded at how friends now viewed me and treated me as an antagonist.”
• “The choices to make and direction to take were mired in VUCA-like conditions (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity).”

Sound familiar? Everyone is caught off-guard by the suddenness of a pastor’s quick exit. Most everyone is shocked by what he did (when no one thought he would ever do that!). Everyone experiences the perplexity of relational turmoil which has been unleashed. 

What happened to us?

The leadership team, which is left to deal with the messy aftermath, often looks at each other with incredulity, “What just happened to us?” What happened is the church got ‘rupted’.

Rupt is the word root or stem which means to burst or break. From that root a number of English words are built with a prefix, or as part of a compound word. Each of those words describe an aspect of what has happened in your church.

The church got ‘rupted

Consider how ‘rupt’ typically operates in the story of a church when the lead pastor unexpectedly and quickly departs because of a moral implosion….

1. It all began with no warning, as he abruptly confessed what he had done, or had been doing (i.e. it came to light suddenly and surprisingly).

2. His admission was like an eruption, bursting forth, and spraying everyone with its damage.

3. His moral failure came from a corruption which had occurred. Something broke at his core, at a heart level.

4. Often his sinful choices were the outward expression of a bankrupt inner condition. His spiritual resources were exhausted or depleted.

5. His moral choices caused within him a rupture, as their consequences burst out of his life at the point of his brokenness.

6. His confession or admission interrupted the church’s focus on fulfilling its vision and mission.

7. His moral implosion also severely disrupted the life of the church as it broke the unity of the church as people took sides…as it broke what people believed and trusted…and as it broke the forward momentum of the ministry.

8. As a result, for a season, there is a spiritual rout as the pastor’s choices have burst upon the church and caused disorder and confusion. Some aspects of the church’s ministry can’t, or won’t, function as before. The ministry was moving forward, but now it appears to be in retreat.

What do we do now?

If a church body has been ‘rupted’, how does the leadership team handle the aftermath? Start by remembering the root concept: something has both burst and is broken. These two terms describe the consequences the church is facing, and they give direction on how the leadership team can respond.

Some of the consequences the church is struggling with are best described as a bursting out or forth. In other words, you’re dealing with a mess, with collateral damage. In these cases, approach the issue as a clean-up.

• Potential clean up items: Truth needs to be told. Sin needs to be confessed and repented of. Appropriate consequences are applied to the offenders with grace and justice.

“You don’t get anything clean without getting something else dirty.”

Cecil Baxter

But in some cases of bursting, what is required is a work-around: creating new structures or arrangements which will replace what was, because the landscape has forever been changed.

• Potential work-around items: There may need to be some resignations. Someone takes on new responsibilities, and some have responsibilities removed from their oversight. Former ministries are eliminated or replaced with a new approach.

So, how can leaders tell when their approach to a bursting-forth should be a clean-up and when is it a work-around? When an oil pipeline bursts, the environmental damage can be significant. But a quick and thorough clean-up response can minimize the consequences to plants and animals.

But when a volcano bursts with a lava flow, a clean-up is not possible for as the lava hardens it changes the landscape permanently. In this case the need is for work-arounds: life does go on, but it has been changed as roads, utilities, homes, etc. need to be rerouted or moved. 

The Lord will give wisdom to those who ask (James 1:5), in order that we might be discerning and appropriate in responding to the bursting-forth consequences.

On the other hand, instead of bursting, some of the consequences the church faces are best described as a break. In those situations, the first response by the leadership is to repair what broke or was damaged.

• Potential repair items: Counseling is required for continued employment or to receive a severance package. Loving accountability is used as a part of repairing broken trust. Experts are brought in to give corrective or healing teaching and training. Special shepherding initiatives are taken to help with loss, grief, and broken trust.

Or, in those cases where matters can’t be repaired then the need is to replace.

• Potential replacement items: Bring new people onto the leadership team who weren’t associated with the past. Use the services of an interim pastor during the transition. Change the church’s org chart of responsibilities and accountability.

Moving forward in the aftermath

Now, your church situation is totally unique, so there is no one “right way” for how all leadership teams should respond to the bursting and brokenness of their pastor’s moral implosion. But the above suggestions will give you a pathway to consider.

The danger in most churches, when the senior pastor has exited quickly, is for the leadership team to minimize the impact he has caused. Here’s the reality: the more ‘rupts’ involved in the pastor’s exit, the more ‘rupts’ will exist in the church. Count on it, the more abrupt the lead pastor’s departure, the more disruptive it will be for the church.

Wise are the church leaders who see it, and then lovingly, patiently, and thoroughly seek to deal with the bursts and breaks.