What will your legacy season look like with your church?

940 words – just under 4 minutes

This is a modified excerpt from my short booklet, the Pastor Legacy Life Plan. If you are US based and want a copy, just hit me back with a comment.

This excerpt talks about the legacy season with your church and congregation.

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:48

Half the leaders I consult are the current leader in a long line of pastors. The others are founders. In this assignment, they want to serve their leadership years with God's help.

Admittedly there are some traditions and denominations where pastors serve under a different principle. They expect their denominational overseers to move them into new seasons of life to bring their strengths to a different congregation over time. Their expectations, as well as the congregational leaders, are often different than the previous examples.

When I was the CEO at Leadership Network, we did some surveys over time across larger churches. Seeing a church grow significantly after a pastor hit 60 years old was very rare. Multisite congregations have changed that thinking, with many sites having live teaching from younger pastors.

For many of these pastors, leading in ways other than the prime leader and moving to a new season is very workable and fulfilling.

Other concerns, including health and family, begin to weigh more.

When I engage with a church in a succession process, we often have to plan for a series of mini sabbaticals to finish the season of active ministry leadership with strength.

Part of the process in these mini sabbaticals is for the church to begin to envision ministry life beyond the current senior pastor. Many staff and governing boards have not known that season for many years. The mini-seasons get them adjusted to some of the ideas and practices.

The other part of the process in those mini sabbaticals is to drain the leadership adrenaline from the current church assignment to either leading something else or taking on a smaller project in the church.

Most pastors in all the described contexts have left meaningful legacies already on deposit in the people’s hearts through their care, teaching, preaching, nurturing, and individual work with families.

For a long-term pastor who has served a congregation well, their core identity is shaped by the ministry in that church. The shift from being that congregation's lead or primary pastor profoundly impacts many pastors. The leadership adrenaline and body chemistry are geared towards certain regular decisions and actions. It is quite a challenge for many not to bore into specific decisions and behaviors.

The Pastor Smart Succession Process helps pastors and congregations envision what some of that future roles could look like from the primary perspective of the church first and the pastor second.

We also have to work on how this change will impact the pastor’s personal identity.

Pastors often fail to see how they can continue a meaningful legacy at a congregation, even when they are not the primary pastor or even a part of the formal church staff team.

In many cases, a long-serving senior pastor can remain a part of the church and community for many years to extend their legacy without being over-involved or over-invested in the church to cause it harm as it moves forward in its unique journey.?

These designs and seasons need very clear understandings and a plan to ensure that obstacles can be cleared.

Most couples that serve as long-term senior pastors at one church have concentric circles of family, friends, and other relationships that encourage them to continue to reside in the same area and participate in the congregation in new ways.

Others see an opportunity to move “back home” or to be closer to other family members. Creatively thinking of the multiple ways they can continue to serve God in ministry-related ways helps leverage their past experiences to serve future endeavors. These can be explored during the last decade of ministry at a longstanding church to refine a plan to build upon their ministry legacy.

Others will enter new fields given over to writing, teaching, or business endeavors. These other potential paths should also be explored in the sage development season.

The mistake pastors tend to make in this domain is driven by a lack of preparation and planning. This must start ten years before the shift into the legacy season to realize full-life investment returns that lead to meaningful engagement and relevance. Too many pastors assume that a situation will present itself and can quickly jump into the legacy season.

Most often is a great disappointment when the reality falls far short of their intended dreams in this area.

It is like some professional athletes. In reality, their playing careers are brief. An injury or slight decrease in performance brings rapid ends to their pro careers. If they give little thought to "life after football," they can drift and stumble into unhealthy activities.

How do you get started in this area?

What do you want the following seasons to look like in this area? We have some excellent examples that can help you crafty and envision the possibilities in the Smart Succession Process, but it begins with questions like these:

• Who do you want in your life in a meaningful way then? A part of ministry meaningfulness is whom we share it with.
• How will you develop those relationships to strengthen and abide in that future season?
• Who can help you achieve those ends?
• Who will be your "running mates" in this part of the race?

Many of you will work through these yourself.?But a coach never hurts.

Hit me up and we can talk about the possibilities. Just email me directly at [email protected].

And if you want a free copy of the booklet, we can send it to any US address. Drop an email or comment below to ask.

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Dave Travis?has advised large church pastors, boards, and staff for over 30 years.?Almost 25 years were with Leadership Network, where he led the large church area and then retired as CEO in 2018.?

Since then, he has worked with dozens of churches and their leaders, helping guide them to solve wicked, sticky challenges through his role as Director of Strategic Counsel to Pastors and Church Boards at Generis.?

He has created multiple processes in that role, including the Pastor Smart Succession Process, Storycrafting for Church Strategy, and Building Better Boards. His latest is the Pastor Legacy Life Plan, a coaching process to help mid-career pastors for their future legacy seasons.?

He has mangled the English language to embarrass his English teacher mother and assemble 11 books, booklets, and e-books. Dozens sold, half dozens read.