From time to time a pastor will come to the end of his service at his church. In some cases it’s simply time for him to retire. In other cases, personal circumstances dictate when you might leave, or maybe another church has issued you a call. When this happens, churches naturally turn to their pastor, you, to ask for help in finding their next pastor. How should you handle this situation? In the end, such an event calls for wisdom, but in my personal opinion, I think it’s best not to be involved in picking your successor. Why?
There are a lot of potential pit falls in picking your successor. Sometimes churches go through stages where they need a certain type of minister given their circumstances. Think, for example, of Winston Churchill. He was the right man for the job when England was in the midst of war. After the war, England believed it was time for another type of prime minister. Deciding what type of minister the church needs can be a tricky thing to figure out. Do they need someone just like you? Or do they need someone with different gifts and emphases? You might be right that the church needs someone just like you, but then you could be wrong.
Another pitfall is, what happens if you help select the next pastor, and then once he arrives things go to pieces. Who will the church blame for the mess? Will they look to the search committee who made the recommendation? Will they hold themselves accountable for their vote in favor of calling the new pastor? Or will they look at you as the one who made the suggestion and therefore hold you accountable? Personally, I don’t want to bear such responsibility—ever. When a church looks for its next pastor, I believe it’s a time for them to seek the face of God in prayer and look to his guidance. There’s a sense in which it’s a small test to see whether they have heeded your preaching and whether they will place their trust in Christ to bring the next minister. If you step in the way, it’s likely that you can short-circuit this process. In one sense, I understand the impulse—you’ve poured your blood, sweat, and tears into your church for many years and want to ensure that the next minister takes care of your sheep. But this is where I have to remind myself—they’re not my sheep, they all belong to Christ. He will care for his sheep—he always has, and he always will.
When I faced my own departure from my beloved church, I resisted the urge to participate in the selection of my successor. Instead, I did everything possible to get the process going—I helped with the logistics (not the selection) of a pastoral search committee, put together information binders on the whole process of how to select a minister, arranged for the committee’s first meeting, briefed them on the process, gave them the information packets, and then walked out of the meeting. I handed them the baton and trusted them into Christ’s hands.
I am not saying that if you participate in the selection of your successor that you’ve made a mistake. But I am saying that you should weigh and consider such things very carefully. Beware of the pitfalls, and if you’re motivated by personal concerns, then you should probably take a step back and trust Christ and let the church pick its next pastor on its own. Remember, it’s not your church, it’s Christ’s.
