Leadership transition
08/10/14 05:27
I have been blessed in my life to have excellent mentors and models. My parents taught not only by the words they said, but also by the lives they lived. My father taught me the joy of work and the joy of the outdoors. He had an attitude toward challenges and problems that I have sought to imitate when I encounter obstacles. He understood that one needs to live for others and to build the capacity to share into everything that you do.
I grew up among dedicated pastors who showed their love for the church and their unique styles of leadership in an institution that could be at the same time frustrating and inspiring.
In my school years, I had excellent teachers who demonstrated the value of careful research, thinking before speaking, and the art of writing. I was privileged to walk and work alongside dedicated scholars who were willing to tackle really big projects and invest in connecting with those who lived beyond the span of their physical lives.
Over an over again in this life - in parenting, in pastoring, in scholarship, in work, in living - I have been able to think of the models and mentors who have influenced my identity. I feel as if I have been sustained in this life by those who have gone before and generously shared their wisdom and experience with me.
But now my life is flowing into an area where I seem to have no mentors and few models. This should be the beginning of a season of transition of leadership in the church. I have reached the age where I should be dedicating a portion of my time and energy to encouraging younger leaders and creating space for them to assume responsibilities. Our church has come to a point where it is obvious that if we don’t develop a style of managing transitions of leadership the transitions will be forced upon us. None of us will live forever. The change has to come.
In this arena, as I just wrote, I am decidedly short of mentors. My father died when he was a younger man than I. Although he had made some excellent preparations for his family after his death, there were more than a few loose ends that had to be tied up. There were business properties and equipment that had to be leased and later sold. There was an unfinished project of developing a vacation property for our mother. There were details of joint projects with children that were unresolved. And there was the matter of personal property that still is being sorted through more than three decades later.
One of my most respected and honored teachers was forced out of a teaching position at the age of 74. The school never replaced him and his absence left a hole in the curriculum. The school later headed in new directions, but still hasn’t quite figured out how to balance its faculty. The professor moved on to another graduate school where he taught until a stroke forced him to finally stop. It was a less than graceful retirement, if you could call it a retirement at all. He had mentored countless pastors, but left the institutions he served without qualified teachers to replace him.
A favorite pastor friend of mine began his retirement with a heart attack that put most of his retirement plans on hold and was the beginning of a short struggle with health issues that defined the years after he retired. He was only a few years older than I am today when he died.
Another pastor friend of mine began to suffer from a degenerative memory disorder while still serving the church and after he was forced by the illness to retire his life was a maze of dementia and confusion, sprinkled with what may have been an additional major mental illness.
I once commented about Tom Brokaw’s book, “The Greatest Generation,” that with all of the greatness demonstrated by the generation, the one thing they weren’t great at was sharing power. In institution after institution, the members of our parents’ generation assumed responsibility and took the mantle of leadership and then just kept it. They didn’t turn it over to those who were the age they had been when assuming leadership. When they would grudgingly step down, they hung around and told the next genreration how to do the job. They had great life and vitality and vision and were unwilling or unable to allow the life and vitality and vision of the next generation - or perhaps the next could of generations - to shine.
I feel like I am entering into new territory as I begin to think and dream about the best ways to enable new leaders to arise in the church. Beyond that, and more alarming to me, I feel like I can’t find anyone who is willing to talk about the subject. I made an appointment with a Conference Minister to discuss transitions in leadership. I was clear about my agenda when I set up the meeting. The person arrived late to the meeting and then proceeded to dominate the conversation with discussion of other topics. It was clear that transition of leadership was not on his list of things to discuss. Then I realized that he, more than a decade my senior, is still working and doesn’t have a plan for transition of leadership in his position.
More than a year ago, I asked a committee in our congregation to make transition of leadership a priority topic for its deliberations in the year to come. A year has passed and 2014 is in its last quarter and no discussions have been held. I haven’t even been invited to any of the meetings of that committee since I made my request.
Whenever I try to speak with individual members of the congregation about transition of leadership they make comments about not wanting me to leave and the conversation turns from the needs of the church to my personal life.
There are a few good books on the topic, but if you look in the retirement planning section of a bookstore you will find books on financial management, not the dynamics of transition of leadership. I can’t help but think that the over $40 price of “The Nonprofit Leadership Transition and Development Guide” is part of the author Tom Adams’ own financial planning for retirement.
Like many other areas of my life, the next decade may be a season of muddling. Sometimes you just get through the challenge with as much grace and dignity as you can muster, looking and feeling awkward, but continuing to move forward.
If anyone has wisdom or insights, I’m really ready to listen.
I grew up among dedicated pastors who showed their love for the church and their unique styles of leadership in an institution that could be at the same time frustrating and inspiring.
In my school years, I had excellent teachers who demonstrated the value of careful research, thinking before speaking, and the art of writing. I was privileged to walk and work alongside dedicated scholars who were willing to tackle really big projects and invest in connecting with those who lived beyond the span of their physical lives.
Over an over again in this life - in parenting, in pastoring, in scholarship, in work, in living - I have been able to think of the models and mentors who have influenced my identity. I feel as if I have been sustained in this life by those who have gone before and generously shared their wisdom and experience with me.
But now my life is flowing into an area where I seem to have no mentors and few models. This should be the beginning of a season of transition of leadership in the church. I have reached the age where I should be dedicating a portion of my time and energy to encouraging younger leaders and creating space for them to assume responsibilities. Our church has come to a point where it is obvious that if we don’t develop a style of managing transitions of leadership the transitions will be forced upon us. None of us will live forever. The change has to come.
In this arena, as I just wrote, I am decidedly short of mentors. My father died when he was a younger man than I. Although he had made some excellent preparations for his family after his death, there were more than a few loose ends that had to be tied up. There were business properties and equipment that had to be leased and later sold. There was an unfinished project of developing a vacation property for our mother. There were details of joint projects with children that were unresolved. And there was the matter of personal property that still is being sorted through more than three decades later.
One of my most respected and honored teachers was forced out of a teaching position at the age of 74. The school never replaced him and his absence left a hole in the curriculum. The school later headed in new directions, but still hasn’t quite figured out how to balance its faculty. The professor moved on to another graduate school where he taught until a stroke forced him to finally stop. It was a less than graceful retirement, if you could call it a retirement at all. He had mentored countless pastors, but left the institutions he served without qualified teachers to replace him.
A favorite pastor friend of mine began his retirement with a heart attack that put most of his retirement plans on hold and was the beginning of a short struggle with health issues that defined the years after he retired. He was only a few years older than I am today when he died.
Another pastor friend of mine began to suffer from a degenerative memory disorder while still serving the church and after he was forced by the illness to retire his life was a maze of dementia and confusion, sprinkled with what may have been an additional major mental illness.
I once commented about Tom Brokaw’s book, “The Greatest Generation,” that with all of the greatness demonstrated by the generation, the one thing they weren’t great at was sharing power. In institution after institution, the members of our parents’ generation assumed responsibility and took the mantle of leadership and then just kept it. They didn’t turn it over to those who were the age they had been when assuming leadership. When they would grudgingly step down, they hung around and told the next genreration how to do the job. They had great life and vitality and vision and were unwilling or unable to allow the life and vitality and vision of the next generation - or perhaps the next could of generations - to shine.
I feel like I am entering into new territory as I begin to think and dream about the best ways to enable new leaders to arise in the church. Beyond that, and more alarming to me, I feel like I can’t find anyone who is willing to talk about the subject. I made an appointment with a Conference Minister to discuss transitions in leadership. I was clear about my agenda when I set up the meeting. The person arrived late to the meeting and then proceeded to dominate the conversation with discussion of other topics. It was clear that transition of leadership was not on his list of things to discuss. Then I realized that he, more than a decade my senior, is still working and doesn’t have a plan for transition of leadership in his position.
More than a year ago, I asked a committee in our congregation to make transition of leadership a priority topic for its deliberations in the year to come. A year has passed and 2014 is in its last quarter and no discussions have been held. I haven’t even been invited to any of the meetings of that committee since I made my request.
Whenever I try to speak with individual members of the congregation about transition of leadership they make comments about not wanting me to leave and the conversation turns from the needs of the church to my personal life.
There are a few good books on the topic, but if you look in the retirement planning section of a bookstore you will find books on financial management, not the dynamics of transition of leadership. I can’t help but think that the over $40 price of “The Nonprofit Leadership Transition and Development Guide” is part of the author Tom Adams’ own financial planning for retirement.
Like many other areas of my life, the next decade may be a season of muddling. Sometimes you just get through the challenge with as much grace and dignity as you can muster, looking and feeling awkward, but continuing to move forward.
If anyone has wisdom or insights, I’m really ready to listen.