After 36 years pastoring Living Word Church in Vandalia, Ohio, I transitioned out of senior leadership. The next day, I thought to myself, Wow! Did I really do that?! The idea is still growing on me, to be honest. But it was the right timing. I knew it was right for several reasons, which we’ll discuss later on.
So now I’m in a new phase of life, a new season. I didn’t step out of ministry. I am someone who will always represent the Kingdom of God. My calling precedes my vocational choices. And my ability to walk in my calling is going to continue even though I am no longer responsible to lead the church. Only after death is when my call is redefined. Everything is redefined then!
As I said, everything was right, which told my wife and I that it was time for a transition. I had the honor and privilege of being able to move my son into senior leadership. Not everyone has that same opportunity, but I did. And Joel, my son, is now the Lead Pastor. He had been on staff with me for fifteen years already. This transition was not a five-year process; it was a concerted effort for five years, but it’s truly been a fifteen-year process for me.
When Joel came on staff, I handed him a lot of fundamental responsibilities early on. I allowed him to grow. I didn’t lavish him with favor. I set him up to understand what it means to trust God from the grassroots. Then, in the last five years, I knew that the Lord had us on a flight plan to progressively hand responsibility away and coach through those five years.
It was November 2024 when I heard the Lord say, “He’s ready.” Joel was ministering, and I watched him. I gave him the responsibility to preach, and I watched the way people responded to him when he was ministering. I thought, He’s thoroughly in their hearts. The responses to him were genuine and some real pastoral things were happening. After the Lord spoke to me, we sat down and developed a one-year flight plan, scheduling him to be available to the congregation and exposing him to ministry opportunities.
In our weekly executive team meetings, I would ask questions like,
“What would you do if…?”
“What would you change about the service we had?”
“How is that going to impact us in the days to come?”
Then, I would just listen to him think because I’m not so much interested in being his trainer; I’m not going to be around forever. I’m interested in his ability to listen to the Holy Spirit and download what he hears. I want him to be able to think and to listen to his heart while he’s talking. It was amazing what all came out of him, and what came out of his synergy with our team.
I wanted Joel to be himself, not a mini me. I wanted him and the team to listen to the Holy Spirit because God’s unique flow through their lives will take the church in its next direction. Joel is very different than I am, and that’s good. He doesn’t need to be the same to tap into the same grace, same anointing, and so on. And that’s what made the church really grab a hold of him.
Pastor Jim Graff says, “When we invest in our leaders, that’s when we see multiplication. We can have good services till we die, but if we don’t raise up leaders, our influence is going to die with us.”
I’ve been in my city long enough to watch churches die. Once you lose that kind of momentum, it’s hard to bounce back. You almost have to scrap it all and start over.
The lifestyle of the Holy Spirit is the best teacher for us all. I’m so proud of Joel for the leader he’s become. He can and does draw off what I did in ministry, but he’s listening to the Spirit enough to be a fresh voice to the people.
In every ministry, no matter if it’s a Sunday school class, a small group, or an outreach ministry, God always wants to breathe fresh life. Pastor John Nuzzo wrote in his new book, “New wine has to be put in a new wineskin.” Celebrating the newness of Joel’s ministry is my responsibility. The number one “amen” of the next generation has to be from the previous generation. Otherwise, we will feel shoved aside, displaced, and that is traumatic.
Me passing the ministry to the next generation is not a testament to some sort of admission of obsolescence. I personally feel like I’m in the sweet spot of what has taken years to build. Now I get the privilege of taking the strength that God has given me and passing that out. It doesn’t diminish me because I give it to the next generation. It actually testifies that the new season has come, and I’m going to be successful in helping the next generation succeed, as I was in my own success.
Stay tuned for next week’s blog, where I continue the conversation on transitioning well as leaders.
Article created using content from webinar Transitions: Preparing Your Church for What’s Next
