A Text that (Almost) Annihilated Any Optimism about The State of Pastoral Succession

And Why We Need to Re-Think a Senior Pastor's Job Description

I received a text the other day from an unknown number. The person who reached out to me wrote the following:

“Hi Dr. Beavis, I'm reaching out from Walla Walla, WA regarding our church's pastoral search. Our pastor of 40 years is retiring. As a member of the search committee, I'm finding our candidate pool quite limited. Would you be open to discussing this opportunity?”

I am one month into my first lead pastor job.

The individual who reached out was very kind. But I let him know that I had only just put my hand to the pastoral plow of my current context. Eugene Peterson, my go-to voice on pastoral life and work in America, once wrote, “the norm for pastoral work is stability. Twenty, thirty, and forty-year-long pastorates should be typical among us (as they once were) and not exceptional.”¹ I think I need to keep my hand on the plow a little longer than a month.

Truthfully, this text disturbed me. If impulse control was a little bit lower, I would’ve responded with something like this:

“He’s had 40 years to prepare for succession. This needed to be thought about a long time ago.”

I admire this pastor’s faithfulness to his congregation. Forty years is commendable (even by Peterson’s standards).

And yet, there’s a pastoral task that he overlooked over the forty years. In my experience and observation, this, unfortunately, is quite common. And it is a contributing factor to the limited candidate pool of the next generation of pastors. There is a pinch in the pastoral development pipeline. And, if unaddressed, the candidate pool will go from limited to nonexistent.

The Crisis

A few years ago, I read a book titled Wicked Problems by Dr. Joseph Bentley and Dr. Michael Toth. They argue that the world we are now in is a world of wicked problems. By wicked, they don’t mean “evil,” but rather are “complex, messy and unpredictable.”²

These wicked problems are challenges humans face that do not have a quick-fix solution. These problems include wars in the Middle East, the mental health crisis among teens, climate change, and immigration. They write,

Thus, wicked problems present us with real predicaments. They are confusing, dynamic, ill-structured, and ambiguous; they are complex, many-faceted, intricate, and bewildering. They have no final solutions, only temporary arrangements. Yet most of the important problems we face in our lives are wicked rather than tame. As parents, leaders, managers, colleagues, spouses, and friends, we have no real choice except to face up to them and do our best.³

I would argue that the pastoral succession crisis the American Church is facing is a wicked problem - meaning, it is a crisis that does not have a quick-fix solution. It is complex, ambiguous, and ever-changing.

In my doctoral work, I argued that the challenge of raising up the next generation of pastors in America is a convergence of wicked problems. These problems include (but are not limited to):

• The mismatch of the impossibly high cost of higher education and the (more often than not) low wage of a pastor

• Aging pastors who are unwilling to pass the baton to the next generation (due to lack of retirement savings, an identity enmeshed with their role, or vastly divergent values with younger leaders)

• Overlooking quality candidates because they do not fit the normative mold

• A generation of young people who are uninterested in pastoring an archaic institution like the church in a cultural climate of high suspicion with institutions

• Future pastors preferring to pastor in thriving, young, growing churches located in desirable areas, and are far less inclined to pastor aging, stuck congregations in rural areas (yet, there are far more of these latter churches that denominations are struggling to place young pastors in)

I could go on. The reality is that this is a complex crisis of converging wicked problems. There is no quick-fix solution.

Whose Problem is it to Solve?

A few years ago, I had lunch with a denominational leader. I asked him, “Whose responsible for developing the future pastors of this denomination?” He responded with, “It should be the local church. They are the best places for training in ministry. But that’s not happening.”

Additionally, this denomination has a university that began with the purpose of training missionaries and pastors. A pastor once asked the head of this school, “Why aren’t we getting any pastors from you?”

Pastors are wondering where they can get young pastors who are ready for leading churches. They are looking to the school. The school is not providing the solution.

The denomination, the university, and the local churches are looking at one another, wondering, “Who do we look to for our developing and sending the next generation of pastors? It can’t be on us!”

This is clearly not working. There needs to be a collective ownership of this problem. The limited candidate pool is a wicked problem that deserves better attention than, “This problem should be addressed by the [church/denomination/university]. Not me.” This is an eleventh hour situation that requires serious attention.

The first step is a change in mindset.

Two Mindset Shifts

There are two mindset shifts in church leadership that need to happen if we have any hope in seeing the pastoral candidate pool expand rather than shrink into non-existance.

1. An Ecosystem of Development

Instead of the solution coming from one source - the local church, the denomination, or educational institution - we need an ecosystem mindset. What this means is that instead of isolating a future pastor’s development to one source, there needs to be multiple sources of investment in the young leader. The pastor in training ought to receive a solid education in tandem with hands-on experience with a local church while receiving mentorship (life-on-life) and coaching (specific skill guidance). We all have a part to play in raising up the next pastors to lead the Church.

2. Beginning with the End in Mind

Thinking about pastoral succession cannot be limited to the final year or two of one’s pastoral career. We must include passing the baton in our pastoral imagination right from the start. Yes, pastors tend to have never-ending to-do lists and competing demands. Nevertheless, I am convinced that a pastors job description is incomplete without developing future potential successors.

The text I received re-iterated the leadership crisis the American Church is facing. This is a wicked problem. It is not for just one institution or entity to solve. An ownership mentality ecosystem of pastoral development is essential.

For more of what I’ve written on this, check out the following:

1. Mindset Shifts for Aspiring Pastors

2. Four Ways to Sabotage the Development of Future Pastors

3. The Pastoral Training Crisis

4. Phrases We Must Stop Saying to Future Church Leaders

5. My Doctoral Project

1. Eugene H. Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness (Grand Rapids, Mich. : Leominster, England: WBEerdmans ; Gracewing, 1992), 28.

2. Joseph Bentley and Michael Toth, Exploring Wicked Problems: What They Are and Why They Are Important (Bloomington, IN: Archway Publishing, 2020), xiv.

3. Ibid., 24.