Seminary Viewpoints

A Biblical Principle: Pastoral Succession Is a Pastoral Responsibility

This Viewpoint blog post is a companion to the June 16 episodes of the Theologically Speaking podcast hosted by BJU Seminary Professor Ken Casillas and  featuring recent Seminary DMin graduate Dr. David Cortés Plata discussing his dissertation entitled “When My Church Is Without Me: A Manual for Pastoral Transitions for Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches in Mexico.”

Takeaways:

1. While every church will face the challenge of pastoral succession and transition, many see it as a taboo topic due to denial or fear of being seen as disloyal or jockeying for position.
2. Unfortunately, it’s been observed that the Golden Rule regarding pastoral successions is that there is no Golden Rule as the culture and leadership of each church is unique, and few models for pastoral succession have been forwarded.
3. One principle is clear from Scripture, however: pastoral succession is a pastoral responsibility. We find in the New Testament the persistent model of pastors, or at least pastoral figures, both preparing and appointing pastors. Pastors today must be prepared to build up and empower leaders to take over ministry and to put in place a process for that assumption of leadership to occur.

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Every church, whether in my home country of Mexico or the United States, will at some point face the challenge of pastoral succession and transition. It’s a challenge that’s personal for me. My father has been the senior pastor of our church for 44 years, and I have served first as his assistant and then assistant pastor for 16 years. For some time, he has reflected on and prayed about the timing to step down from the pastoral position to focus on writing, speaking, and helping other pastors and churches. He naturally views me as a potential successor. But my fear and concern is that even if that is the Lord’s leading, our church could perceive a father-to-son handoff as manipulative.

Part of the problem: like most Independent Fundamental Baptist churches in Mexico—and likely most churches overall—we don’t have an established pastoral succession process that would provide assurance that the decision was impartial, transparent, and most of all, thoroughly biblical. In fact, pastoral succession is often a taboo topic. Church leaders often prefer to remain in a state of denial that their pastor, especially long-serving ones, will ever pass from the scene. And for a church leader, and especially a potential successor, to attempt to advance a succession plan could be perceived as a lack of loyalty to the current pastor or jockeying for position.

So, encouraged by wise faculty members at BJU Seminary to choose a Doctor of Ministry dissertation topic that addresses a personal or broader church need that could provide a resource to other pastors, I set out to investigate a transferable and biblical model. I expected to be able to ask well-regarded, well-run American fundamental churches how they handle pastoral transitions, and/or to find two or three books on process and methodology. But as church organization and leadership expert William Vanderbloemen and co-author Warren Bird have underscored in their recently updated book on the subject, the Golden Rule on pastoral transitions is that there is no Golden Rule: no model will work for every congregation.

There are, however, principles to carefully consider the culture and leadership of the church and design a transition that is well communicated, is open and clear for the congregation, and demonstrates how the congregation is following the Lord’s leading in identifying His man.

Most of all, in my research I came across a core biblical principle too often overlooked when dealing with this topic—pastoral succession is a pastoral responsibility. Too often, the pattern in the American church is a “hands-off” approach by the departing pastor. The pastor decides to retire or to move on to another ministry or pursuit, and either chooses or is expected to distance himself from the process, which is entrusted to a pulpit committee.

There may seem to be some wisdom in that familiar process—it does protect against the perception that the pastor is unilaterally deciding his successor or otherwise has too much of a personal influence. Yet, the church is left to figure out not only how they will find their next pastor, but also how they will function while without an under-shepherd.

Scripture gives more than sufficient direction to reject this approach. The Bible orders pastors to feed, protect, and train up or equip the flock. The church should be well fed throughout a pastoral succession—preferably through a smooth and direct transition in the pulpit from the departing to the succeeding pastor. Otherwise, the danger arises of a leadership vacuum that can be filled by wolves—false teachers who try to take the church in a wrong direction.

Pastors are also called overseers, in essence, administrators of the church. This requires them to further protect the body by ensuring continued smooth and impeccably honest and transparent operation during the changeover. Ephesians 4 also tells us that Christ has given pastors and teachers for the edification, perfection, and equipping of saints—which, based on my research, includes the training up of future leaders of the church.

Hence, we find in the New Testament not the order but the persistent model of pastors, or at least pastoral figures, both preparing and appointing pastors:

• Paul and Barnabas at the close of their first missionary journey in Acts 14 return to the churches of Galatia to appoint pastors.
• It seems clear from Paul’s charge to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 that he has established them, and later the Apostle encourages Timothy with the reminder that he and those elders had appointed the young pastor to lead that church.
• Paul specifically reminds Titus that he had left him behind in Crete to appoint pastors “in every town,” along with detailed instructions as to qualifications.
• The apostle sent Timothy to the church at Corinth (1 Cor. 4:17) to take up the pastoral duty of reminding them of Paul’s “ways in Christ” and dispatched his disciple in a pastoral role to Philippi as well (Philippians 2:19ff).
• While the installation of the seven deacons in Acts 6 is not on directly addressing the establishment of pastors, the words associated with pastoral appointments passages appear to link back to that event.

Meanwhile, it should suffice to underscore that the Scriptures provide clear indications that pastors are indeed responsible to train not just helpers in ministry, but to build up and empower leaders to take over ministry, and to put in place a process for that assumption of leadership to occur. We’ll explore a step-by-step methodology in the next podcast and Viewpoint.

Resources:

1. William Vanderbloemen and Warren Bird, Next: Pastoral Succession That Works 
2. The Barna Group, Leadership Transitions: How Churches Navigate Pastoral Change—And Stay Healthy