There is no doubt that the multisite church movement has blossomed, and has a massive impact on the church today. In fact, today in North America one in six people attend a multisite church campus. That fact astonishes me! Each one of those campuses has had a group of volunteers at the core of the opening process that we’re calling a launch team. This is a group of people who have committed to be a part of starting up the new location and ensuring that it’s healthy and ready to impact its community.

Since the early 2000s, I’ve had the honor of being at the forefront of fourteen campus launches. We’ve seen around 1,500 volunteers join our launch teams. Today, over 9,000 people attend the campuses that sprung from the combined efforts of all those people. It has been a privilege to have a front row seat to this amazing approach to reaching new people with the message of Jesus. Seeing the multisite revolution from the inside has given me a perspective that is second to no other! As I reflect on what I’ve seen in all those teams, I’ve attempted to boil down some common lessons about these critically important teams, which I have discussed below.

Stop trying to find people like you.

At the core of the challenge of recruiting healthy launch teams is a sociological fact that we tend to attract people like ourselves. We need to consciously push against this reality. You don’t want to find people like you because most people leading these endeavors are innovators and early adopters, which is a minority number among people in the world. While being an innovator is great for leading the launch of campuses, they don’t make great volunteers long term because those “early adopters” tend to get bored after the initial launch phase and just want to move onto something new.

5 Categories of the Adoption Curve:

Innovators // Eager to try new ideas, products, and services, almost as an obsession.

Early Adopters // Rely more on group norms and values, as opposed to Innovators who rely on their own values.

Early Majority // Collect more information about products and services to weigh the pros and cons before they make a decision.

Late Majority // Adopt the new mainly because their friends have all adopted it and they feel the need to conform.

Laggards // Do not rely on group norms and values, just like Innovators. Their past heavily influences their current decision process.

Your approach to finding volunteers needs to tread slowly with people and ideally be built around finding “early majority” people who will take some time convincing them to get plugged in. However, when these people make a decision to be a part of the campus they will be more likely to stick and stay. It’s only when this group starts to pile in en masse that the late majority will decide to be a part of the team!

You need more. A lot more.

Stop trying to find the minimum number of volunteers needed. There is evidence across the movement that campuses with larger launch teams have better initial campus launch sizes but then also tend to reach more people over time. Figure out how many people you “need” to make the launch happen and then stretch. Push to get more people lined up on the team than you need to make things better long term.

5 Benefits of Larger Multisite Launch Teams:

* Trajectory Setting // Studies show that the first five years of a campus is when the majority of its growth happens. [ref] A larger launch team means the campus is set up to maximize its potential of reaching people because there are more social connections to people outside the campus.

* Healthier Teams // One of the paradoxes of volunteer recruitment is that the more volunteers you have the easier it is to get volunteers.

Welcome back for another episode of the unSeminary podcast. I’m excited to have Pastor Phil Taylor with us this week. He is the executive pastor at Mosaic Church in Winter Garden, Florida.

Phil is with us today to talk about the elder development process at Mosaic and how you can implement it into your own church.

* Two-year eldership development. // When Phil came to Mosaic five years ago, one of their biggest needs was leadership and eldership development and so they decided to build a two-year elder development program. Since a lot of the men who become elders are not formally trained at the seminary level, the process involves a lot of reading about theology, spiritual life, marriage, prayer, Church history and so on. The two-year process is broken into the first year being the book learning side and the second year the more practical side. During the first year the group meets every month, and the second year they meet every other month.

* First 15 Focus. // Part of the training process is called the First 15 Focus. When the group meets, the first 15 minutes will be focused on something related to the life of the church. The hospitality director may come in and talk about why they do hospitality services they way the church does it. The youth director may come in and talk about the youth activities and areas the church has. It gives the men a thorough look and understanding of the church during their training time.

* Pre-requisites before the requisites. // Phil explains that when it comes to elder selection, Mosaic does not pursue people to fill this role, but rather lets interested persons approach them. It’s important that the men who come forward feel called to serve in this role, rather than feeling pressured by a pastor to do so. Before men who come forward are even considered for the two-year development program though, there are certain pre-requisites that must be met. For example, an individual must have read the entire bible at least once in the last two years. This is an obstacle to a surprising number of people. Once all the pre-requisites are met, the two-year training begins. Not everyone makes it to the training program, and many don’t complete it. But those who do understand their responsibility as an elder and are committed to the role they are called to serve in.

* Shepherd the people. // Mosaic has elders for life, but not all elders work the same way. Some elders are directional elders and others are shepherding elders. The directional elders have the bigger role of coming together to work on decisions for the church such as salaries for the executive team. But for all elders of any position the primary job is to actively shepherd the people of the church.

* Let the program evolve over time. // At first, the trainees would receive all of the information at once at the very beginning—if someone said they were interested in being an elder, Phil would give them a file that contained the pre-requisite list, the application, the reading list, everything. But he found that gave the assumption that they were automatically accepted into the elder program without any additional consideration or work on their part. It works best to distribute content in parts and see how committed the men are along the way. Another important part of the process is to involve the wives. Include the wife in the interviews to help determine whether it really is the husband who wants to be an elder and not his wife pushing him into doing it. It’s very important there is vision alignment from both the husband and wife. There are also questions in the application process for the wife to answer.

* Help for backstage pastors. // Phil kept getting asked for the papers on his elder process and then asked to meet with people to go over the process in more detail. He realized that there were a lot of books on being an elder, but no one was going into a lot of detail on th...

Welcome back for another episode of the unSeminary podcast. I’m excited to have Pastor Phil Taylor with us this week. He is the executive pastor at Mosaic Church in Winter Garden, Florida.

Phil is with us today to talk about the elder development process at Mosaic and how you can implement it into your own church.

* Two-year eldership development. // When Phil came to Mosaic five years ago, one of their biggest needs was leadership and eldership development and so they decided to build a two-year elder development program. Since a lot of the men who become elders are not formally trained at the seminary level, the process involves a lot of reading about theology, spiritual life, marriage, prayer, Church history and so on. The two-year process is broken into the first year being the book learning side and the second year the more practical side. During the first year the group meets every month, and the second year they meet every other month.

* First 15 Focus. // Part of the training process is called the First 15 Focus. When the group meets, the first 15 minutes will be focused on something related to the life of the church. The hospitality director may come in and talk about why they do hospitality services they way the church does it. The youth director may come in and talk about the youth activities and areas the church has. It gives the men a thorough look and understanding of the church during their training time.

* Pre-requisites before the requisites. // Phil explains that when it comes to elder selection, Mosaic does not pursue people to fill this role, but rather lets interested persons approach them. It’s important that the men who come forward feel called to serve in this role, rather than feeling pressured by a pastor to do so. Before men who come forward are even considered for the two-year development program though, there are certain pre-requisites that must be met. For example, an individual must have read the entire bible at least once in the last two years. This is an obstacle to a surprising number of people. Once all the pre-requisites are met, the two-year training begins. Not everyone makes it to the training program, and many don’t complete it. But those who do understand their responsibility as an elder and are committed to the role they are called to serve in.

* Shepherd the people. // Mosaic has elders for life, but not all elders work the same way. Some elders are directional elders and others are shepherding elders. The directional elders have the bigger role of coming together to work on decisions for the church such as salaries for the executive team. But for all elders of any position the primary job is to actively shepherd the people of the church.

* Let the program evolve over time. // At first, the trainees would receive all of the information at once at the very beginning—if someone said they were interested in being an elder, Phil would give them a file that contained the pre-requisite list, the application, the reading list, everything. But he found that gave the assumption that they were automatically accepted into the elder program without any additional consideration or work on their part. It works best to distribute content in parts and see how committed the men are along the way. Another important part of the process is to involve the wives. Include the wife in the interviews to help determine whether it really is the husband who wants to be an elder and not his wife pushing him into doing it. It’s very important there is vision alignment from both the husband and wife. There are also questions in the application process for the wife to answer.

* Help for backstage pastors. // Phil kept getting asked for the papers on his elder process and then asked to meet with people to go over the process in more detail. He realized that there were a lot of books on being an elder, but no one was going into a lot of detail on th...

Easter is a huge deal. You know that. In fact, if you are like most church leaders, you are feeling it right now. You feel the pressure of the day coming on quickly. Easter is one of the four “big days” that your church no doubt puts extra effort into. It’s imperative because two realities are true on this day:

Your People are More Likely To Invite Their Friends // There are certain Sundays during the year that people who attend church are more likely to invite their friends and family to their church. We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to equip our people who do the inviting as it’s a change in their routine behavior.

The People they Ask Are More Likely to Attend // When your people do the inviting, their friends and family are more likely to say “yes” on these weekends. If your people have the positive experience of inviting a friend to visit their church and they come, your people will be more likely to invite people in the future!

Here at unSeminary our motto is ALWAYS HELPING CHURCH LEADERS and so today we’ve pulled together a small collection of ready-to-use resources to help you get through these last few days before this “big day.”

3 PDFs to Use as Conversation Starters with Your Team

Even though it’s one of the busiest Sundays of the year, you still need to leverage this as a training opportunity for your team. In fact, because it’s one of the busiest Sundays of the year, you should probably do some training with your team. Here are three PDFs that you could send to your team to help stir discussion with your volunteers and staff about what to anticipate on Easter weekend:

4 STAGES OF ENGAGEMENT WITH FIRST-TIME GUESTS AT YOUR CHURCH

This PDF talks through how someone goes from not knowing your church at all to getting connected to the church. This would be a helpful resource to send out to core leaders and remind them that before we can see people get fully connected to the church, they need to know about the church and show some interest. Easter is a great weekend to help your community get to know about your church!

5 SIMPLE CHANGES TO MAKE YOUR CHURCH MORE UNCHURCHED FRIENDLY

We know that Easter Sunday is one of those days where a lot of first-time guests will be at your church. This resource could be sent to your entire team and then used as a discussion starter about tweaks that could be made this year to make your church even more friendly to guests who don’t usually attend church.

3 WAYS DISNEY IS IMPROVING THAT YOUR CHURCH CAN LEARN FROM

Looking for something that isn’t as focused on the “big day”? Use this resource to spur a fun conversation with your team about some “big ideas” that they could implement in the coming months and years.

12-Point Checklist of Small Things to Improve Easter at Your Church

Do you have a sinking feeling that you are forgetting something? We’ve pulled together a simple checklist of small items that will give your Easter services just a little bit of an extra sizzle this year.

Do you have an overly eager volunteer who wants to help with prep for Easter but you just aren’t sure what to pass along to t...

Easter is a huge deal. You know that. In fact, if you are like most church leaders, you are feeling it right now. You feel the pressure of the day coming on quickly. Easter is one of the four “big days” that your church no doubt puts extra effort into. It’s imperative because two realities are true on this day:

Your People are More Likely To Invite Their Friends // There are certain Sundays during the year that people who attend church are more likely to invite their friends and family to their church. We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to equip our people who do the inviting as it’s a change in their routine behavior.

The People they Ask Are More Likely to Attend // When your people do the inviting, their friends and family are more likely to say “yes” on these weekends. If your people have the positive experience of inviting a friend to visit their church and they come, your people will be more likely to invite people in the future!

Here at unSeminary our motto is ALWAYS HELPING CHURCH LEADERS and so today we’ve pulled together a small collection of ready-to-use resources to help you get through these last few days before this “big day.”

3 PDFs to Use as Conversation Starters with Your Team

Even though it’s one of the busiest Sundays of the year, you still need to leverage this as a training opportunity for your team. In fact, because it’s one of the busiest Sundays of the year, you should probably do some training with your team. Here are three PDFs that you could send to your team to help stir discussion with your volunteers and staff about what to anticipate on Easter weekend:

4 STAGES OF ENGAGEMENT WITH FIRST-TIME GUESTS AT YOUR CHURCH

This PDF talks through how someone goes from not knowing your church at all to getting connected to the church. This would be a helpful resource to send out to core leaders and remind them that before we can see people get fully connected to the church, they need to know about the church and show some interest. Easter is a great weekend to help your community get to know about your church!

5 SIMPLE CHANGES TO MAKE YOUR CHURCH MORE UNCHURCHED FRIENDLY

We know that Easter Sunday is one of those days where a lot of first-time guests will be at your church. This resource could be sent to your entire team and then used as a discussion starter about tweaks that could be made this year to make your church even more friendly to guests who don’t usually attend church.

3 WAYS DISNEY IS IMPROVING THAT YOUR CHURCH CAN LEARN FROM

Looking for something that isn’t as focused on the “big day”? Use this resource to spur a fun conversation with your team about some “big ideas” that they could implement in the coming months and years.

12-Point Checklist of Small Things to Improve Easter at Your Church

Do you have a sinking feeling that you are forgetting something? We’ve pulled together a simple checklist of small items that will give your Easter services just a little bit of an extra sizzle this year.

Do you have an overly eager volunteer who wants to help with prep for Easter but you just aren’t sure what to pass along to them?

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. This week we’re joined by Erin Kerr, the discipleship pastor from Mariners Church in California. Mariners started out as a very small church, but now has a few different campuses with about 20,000 people attending.

Erin’s focus at Mariners is how to disciple people outside of the weekend experience, and he’s here to talk with us about Mariners’ Rooted program and how it might work in your own church too.

* Connect in circles. // It’s well known in churches that while people get inspired in rows, they get connected in circles. Erin explains that he recently had a woman come to him who said she didn’t feel a sense of community in the church, which is difficult in a group of thousands of people. He explained to her that her next step is to get plugged in beyond the weekend experience. At Mariners that happens through the Rooted program, which is 10 weeks of going through biblical content in community. Here everyone gets into groups of 10-15 people and learns about who God is, what the church is about and what their purpose is by digging into scripture. Rooted is all about learning what it means to know and follow Jesus within community. The weekend is not the primary vehicle to dig deeper into knowing God and others, it’s these smaller groups where you can really be known and pull apart the Word with one another.

* Take the next step. // At Mariners the leaders clearly communicate the idea of Rooted all the time, and let newcomers know that it is the next step for anyone who has not already gone through it. Rooted is offered three times a year and is essentially a catalyst for life change. Each Rooted group has a facilitator rather than a leader or teacher, and while they still receive guidance and weekly leadership training, they primarily are facilitating discussion within their group. Rooted also has required homework, so the Mariners staff is very up-front about this expectation. Encouraging this “study time” for each person participating in Rooted helps them to be an active participant and take a level of ownership over the discipleship process.

* Learning to hear God’s voice. // Each week of Rooted focuses on a different topic, with the third week being all about prayer and hearing God’s voice. God can speak to us in a variety of ways and many people are nervous about what to expect during the prayer experience week. During this week, each group is encouraged to go to a park, or another quiet space, pray together, read scripture and talk about what to expect in the time ahead. Then they break apart and spend time alone. They put away their phones and spend time alone with God and their thoughts, journaling, praying and listening. Finally the group meets back together to go out to eat and debrief. The response has been tremendous – Erin shares, “We’ve had people from all different walks of life, spiritually, come in, and by the time they experience week three with the prayer experience something happens – you just start to experience God in a new and profound way.”

* Serve together. // Another week is a serve experience that is meant to create relationships within the Rooted group. It allows the people to do something they may have never done before and be challenged together. The Rooted group then talks about what they learned and experienced, hopefully understanding that this shouldn’t be a one time event, but that Jesus calls his disciples to work, serve and grow in community.

* Create relationships. // It’s not required, but after the 10 weeks, Rooted groups have the option to transition to a life group. The people may start out not really liking each other, but by week 6 or 7 they may find out that they really know and care about each other. There is a 90% ratio of Rooted groups going on to become life groups within Mariners Church.

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. This week we’re joined by Erin Kerr, the discipleship pastor from Mariners Church in California. Mariners started out as a very small church, but now has a few different campuses with about 20,000 people attending.

Erin’s focus at Mariners is how to disciple people outside of the weekend experience, and he’s here to talk with us about Mariners’ Rooted program and how it might work in your own church too.

* Connect in circles. // It’s well known in churches that while people get inspired in rows, they get connected in circles. Erin explains that he recently had a woman come to him who said she didn’t feel a sense of community in the church, which is difficult in a group of thousands of people. He explained to her that her next step is to get plugged in beyond the weekend experience. At Mariners that happens through the Rooted program, which is 10 weeks of going through biblical content in community. Here everyone gets into groups of 10-15 people and learns about who God is, what the church is about and what their purpose is by digging into scripture. Rooted is all about learning what it means to know and follow Jesus within community. The weekend is not the primary vehicle to dig deeper into knowing God and others, it’s these smaller groups where you can really be known and pull apart the Word with one another.

* Take the next step. // At Mariners the leaders clearly communicate the idea of Rooted all the time, and let newcomers know that it is the next step for anyone who has not already gone through it. Rooted is offered three times a year and is essentially a catalyst for life change. Each Rooted group has a facilitator rather than a leader or teacher, and while they still receive guidance and weekly leadership training, they primarily are facilitating discussion within their group. Rooted also has required homework, so the Mariners staff is very up-front about this expectation. Encouraging this “study time” for each person participating in Rooted helps them to be an active participant and take a level of ownership over the discipleship process.

* Learning to hear God’s voice. // Each week of Rooted focuses on a different topic, with the third week being all about prayer and hearing God’s voice. God can speak to us in a variety of ways and many people are nervous about what to expect during the prayer experience week. During this week, each group is encouraged to go to a park, or another quiet space, pray together, read scripture and talk about what to expect in the time ahead. Then they break apart and spend time alone. They put away their phones and spend time alone with God and their thoughts, journaling, praying and listening. Finally the group meets back together to go out to eat and debrief. The response has been tremendous – Erin shares, “We’ve had people from all different walks of life, spiritually, come in, and by the time they experience week three with the prayer experience something happens – you just start to experience God in a new and profound way.”

* Serve together. // Another week is a serve experience that is meant to create relationships within the Rooted group. It allows the people to do something they may have never done before and be challenged together. The Rooted group then talks about what they learned and experienced, hopefully understanding that this shouldn’t be a one time event, but that Jesus calls his disciples to work, serve and grow in community.

* Create relationships. // It’s not required, but after the 10 weeks, Rooted groups have the option to transition to a life group. The people may start out not really liking each other, but by week 6 or 7 they may find out that they really know and care about each other. There is a 90% ratio of Rooted groups going on to become life groups within Mariners Church.

How you think about what you do in ministry is very important. The mindset you bring in to your ministry can be a make or break factor in your church’s ability to impact your community. Over the last few years, I’ve had the honor of talking to hundreds and hundreds of church leaders for my podcast or my latest book on church growth. Through my interaction with these leaders, I’ve started to sense that there are some common traits or mindsets among them. I see some common approaches to life and their ministries as I’ve interacted with them. Here is a collection of what I have observed and continue to pick up as I talk with these leaders. How do you resonate with these mindsets in your own leadership and ministry?

Time is Short

“Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.” – Psalm 90:12 (NLT)

One of the most striking similarities of church leaders who are leading thriving ministries is that they realize the fact that they have a limited amount of time to do what God has called them to do; in fact, they take this point very seriously. There is an urgency in their actions that ripples through everything they do. This drive is more intense than just an “entrepreneurial drive”; it is deeply rooted in a sense of the frailty of the human condition and their own limitations as leaders.

5 Signs That a Church Leader Knows Time is Short

Maximize Their Effort // They are constantly asking if they are leveraging their time and energy with greatest efficiency to reach people with the message of Jesus. They know that time that is lost doesn’t come back; hence, they are working passionately to maximize the time they do have.

Looking for Return on Kingdom Investment // These leaders invest the resources they’ve been given to steward in a manner that helps them get optimal returns in changed lives. They don’t spend resources (time, finances, people) in a haphazard manner, but are constantly focusing and refocusing on making new efforts.

Multiplication Focused // These leaders are constantly seeking ways to multiply their efforts through leadership development and expansion of ministries. They are keenly aware that their ministry might be stymied with a bottleneck going forward and are therefore, looking to multiply their influence through lifting others up.

Next Generation Obsessed // A sure sign that leaders are keenly aware of the brevity of life is that they are focused on passing the ministry onto the next generation. They know that because their own time is limited, they need to consistently invest into those that are coming behind them.

Open to Innovation // These leaders are constantly seeking better ways to “do” ministry. They find themselves attempting new approaches despite the underlying risks. They’re proactively involved in innovative approaches not for innovation sake, but for a deeper desire to reach more people for Jesus.

Come & See plus Go & Serve plus Stick & Stay

Leading churches are a curious mix of attracting people to their services while simultaneously sending people into the community to make a tangible difference, all while working hard to get people deeply plugged into community within the church. This tension of being both a deep and wide church is common among churches which are making a difference today. Church leaders from growing churches see themselves trying to balance out these tensions in perfect harmony. Here are some common elements of these aspects of ministry that we come across in many churches today:

Common Come & See Elements

Invites to weekend series. // Churches will often develop compelling tools (physical & digital) that their people can use to i...

How you think about what you do in ministry is very important. The mindset you bring in to your ministry can be a make or break factor in your church’s ability to impact your community. Over the last few years, I’ve had the honor of talking to hundreds and hundreds of church leaders for my podcast or my latest book on church growth. Through my interaction with these leaders, I’ve started to sense that there are some common traits or mindsets among them. I see some common approaches to life and their ministries as I’ve interacted with them. Here is a collection of what I have observed and continue to pick up as I talk with these leaders. How do you resonate with these mindsets in your own leadership and ministry?

Time is Short

“Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.” – Psalm 90:12 (NLT)

One of the most striking similarities of church leaders who are leading thriving ministries is that they realize the fact that they have a limited amount of time to do what God has called them to do; in fact, they take this point very seriously. There is an urgency in their actions that ripples through everything they do. This drive is more intense than just an “entrepreneurial drive”; it is deeply rooted in a sense of the frailty of the human condition and their own limitations as leaders.

5 Signs That a Church Leader Knows Time is Short

Maximize Their Effort // They are constantly asking if they are leveraging their time and energy with greatest efficiency to reach people with the message of Jesus. They know that time that is lost doesn’t come back; hence, they are working passionately to maximize the time they do have.

Looking for Return on Kingdom Investment // These leaders invest the resources they’ve been given to steward in a manner that helps them get optimal returns in changed lives. They don’t spend resources (time, finances, people) in a haphazard manner, but are constantly focusing and refocusing on making new efforts.

Multiplication Focused // These leaders are constantly seeking ways to multiply their efforts through leadership development and expansion of ministries. They are keenly aware that their ministry might be stymied with a bottleneck going forward and are therefore, looking to multiply their influence through lifting others up.

Next Generation Obsessed // A sure sign that leaders are keenly aware of the brevity of life is that they are focused on passing the ministry onto the next generation. They know that because their own time is limited, they need to consistently invest into those that are coming behind them.

Open to Innovation // These leaders are constantly seeking better ways to “do” ministry. They find themselves attempting new approaches despite the underlying risks. They’re proactively involved in innovative approaches not for innovation sake, but for a deeper desire to reach more people for Jesus.

Come & See plus Go & Serve plus Stick & Stay

Leading churches are a curious mix of attracting people to their services while simultaneously sending people into the community to make a tangible difference, all while working hard to get people deeply plugged into community within the church. This tension of being both a deep and wide church is common among churches which are making a difference today. Church leaders from growing churches see themselves trying to balance out these tensions in perfect harmony. Here are some common elements of these aspects of ministry that we come across in many churches today:

Common Come & See Elements

Invites to weekend series. // Churches will often develop compelling tools (physical & digital) that their people can use to i...

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. I’m excited to have Dennis Gingerich with us today. Dennis is the founding pastor of Cape Christian Church in Florida.

One way or another, every church is going to lose its pastor. Yet very few congregations are preparing for that. Would your church survive if your lead pastor suddenly had to step back from leading? Today Dennis is here to speak with us about what that succession process looked like for him at Cape Christian.

* Start thinking about succession now. // For many lead pastors, nurturing, shepherding and growing their church has been their life’s work. The last thing they want is to see the baton passed poorly and their church lose sight of God’s vision for it. Dennis was faced with exactly this question when he was about 50, and he knew he needed to begin an intentional plan toward pastoral succession now. In speaking about Cape Christian Dennis says, “I wanted it to be thriving and going up and to the right in every way five years after I’m out of the lead seat.” Don’t wait to start having conversations about succession. When lead pastors are in their 40s, they should already be thinking about the succession process and who else they can be training up for the future of the church.

* Gradual transition. // Succession is a hard adjustment for some people, especially those who have been in the church for a long time and have grown along with it from the beginning. One way to prepare the congregation for the switch is to start doing team teaching. This will expose the community to a variety of voices from the stage. Slowly transition from the previous lead pastor doing most of the teaching to the upcoming lead pastor doing most of the teaching. Do half and half sermon duties a year or months before the full-time switch, then gradually increase the amount of time that the new pastor preaches until he has the full-time duties.

* Step back for the good of the church. // If the previous lead pastor will continue to be involved at the church, how do you manage their role while letting someone else take over? It’s important that communication stay open during the transition process so that the new pastor can express whether he needs more or less input from the previous pastor. In all things consider what is best for the church. True leadership comes with being willing to step back for the sake of the organization. Let God work on the parts that may be hard to adjust to at first.

* Develop a timeline. // Create a timeline on what tasks will be transitioned to the new pastor and when the transition will take place. Let the new pastor share his ideas and plans multiple times with the rest of the staff through meetings before the formal succession. Over-communicate, both with the staff and your congregation, about all aspects of the transition so that there aren’t any surprises. The goal is to help people understand again and again what can be expected in the days and months ahead. This will help everyone to feel secure about the transition.

* Be open from the beginning. // In the interviews, ask the potential pastor if he or she will be able to get along with the former pastor. Will they feel that the previous pastor will be watching over their shoulder, or will they be uncomfortable having that leader so close? Be open ahead of time about the fact that the previous pastor will still be involved so that the new pastor won’t be surprised. Keeping everything open from the beginning will help make the transition as smooth as possible.

You can learn more about Cape Christian at their website www.capechristian.com. And you can visit Dennis’s website on church succession at www.successfulsuccessions.com.