The Church Revitalization Podcast – Episode 313– Pastoral Transition Strategic Planning
Your pastor just announced his departure. The elder board is meeting to discuss next steps. Someone raises the question that’s been on everyone’s mind: Should we start looking for a new pastor first, or should we tackle that strategic planning process we’ve been putting off?
It’s a question church leaders face more often than you might expect. And after working with many churches navigating pastoral transition strategic planning, the answer has become increasingly clear: in most cases, do it now.
When to Move Forward with Strategic Planning
Before diving into the benefits, let’s address when pastoral transition strategic planning makes sense for your church. Three key factors determine readiness:
Senior leaders must be willing and capable. Your lay leadership, elders, or key staff members need to be able to steer the process. You might be surprised to discover you have more capable leaders than you initially thought. Even if they’ve never led something like this before, don’t sell yourself short. With the right guidance, many church leaders find they’re more than equipped to handle the challenge.
The church should be generally free from major conflict. Every church has some level of tension, but if your pastor is leaving due to a major scandal or crisis that has deeply wounded the congregation, you may need to extend your timeline. The answer is still yes to strategic planning, but the timing might need adjustment based on the level of trauma your church is experiencing.
Consider the circumstances of the departure. Retirement, health issues, or a called transition to another ministry are very different from situations involving serious misconduct. The healthier the transition, the sooner you can move forward with confidence.
The Job Posting Will Be Completely Different
Here’s something you can count on with absolute certainty: the job posting you write today will be dramatically different from the one you’d create after going through a pastoral transition strategic planning process.
Without strategic planning, churches typically fall into one of two traps when describing what they’re looking for in a new pastor. Either they want an exact clone of the previous pastor, or they want someone who’s the complete opposite. Neither approach is helpful because both are reactive rather than strategic.
The language you use to describe your church will change. You’ll move from vague generalities to specific, compelling descriptions of who you are and where you’re headed. Instead of posting generic pastoral qualifications and hoping for the best, you’ll be able to specify the exact skills and experiences needed to execute your strategic plan.
Think of it this way: too many churches put out job postings for a pilot in search of a destination. What you want is a pilot who knows how to fly your specific aircraft to the destination you’ve already determined. You’re not hiring someone to decide where you’re going. You’re hiring someone with the skill to navigate the waypoints, handle the weather, and manage any crisis that might arise along the journey.
This specificity attracts better candidates. You’ll get applications from pastors who are genuinely excited about your particular vision rather than those just looking for any pastoral position. And you’ll be able to narrow your list of applications more efficiently because you know exactly what you’re looking for.
Mission and Vision Alignment From Day One
One of the primary reasons pastoral tenures end prematurely is a lack of alignment between the pastor and the congregation. When a church hasn’t articulated what it wants or where it’s going, it’s not even fair to bring in a new pastor and expect him to figure it out.
The scenario plays out predictably: the new pastor starts moving in a direction, and the congregation pushes back. “That’s not what we want,” they say. “Well, what do you want?” the pastor asks. “We don’t know, but we know it’s not that.”
That’s not a recipe for success. It’s a recipe for becoming another statistic in pastoral turnover.
Pastoral transition strategic planning solves this problem by creating clarity before the new leader arrives. Vision is a shared picture of the future. It’s not just the pastor’s picture, and it’s not just the congregation’s picture. When you complete the strategic planning process first, you create that shared picture, and your new pastor steps into alignment from day one.
This dramatically reduces the likelihood of the “rebound pastor” phenomenon, where the first pastor after a long tenure becomes a sacrificial lamb, lasting only a year or two before the church has to start the search process all over again.
Your next pastor will know where the church is headed before he starts, allowing him to plan how to lead well. He can hit the ground running with established priorities rather than spending his first six months trying to figure out what direction to pursue. Clear expectations are set from day one, reducing early friction and misunderstandings.
One important caveat: don’t try to micromanage every detail of how the new pastor will help you implement the plan. Think of strategic planning as determining what dish you’re going to make, but giving the new chef freedom to add his own flavors and use his own techniques. The destination is set, but there’s still room for his personality, experiences, and ideas within that framework. Allow him to put his fingerprint on the mission and vision as you move forward together.
The congregation is already prepared for the direction, making implementation smoother for everyone involved.
Enhanced Congregational Buy-In and Unity
Bringing in a new pastor represents a significant moment in your church’s history. People naturally expect changes will happen. But when you’ve completed pastoral transition strategic planning first, the significant decisions have already been discussed and revealed.
Instead of anxiety about the unknown, you create anticipation about seeing how things will unfold. Instead of resistance to a new pastor’s agenda, you generate excitement about the future you’ve collectively defined.
The planning process itself helps build consensus among leadership and members. When people participate in setting the course, they’re far less likely to resist the changes that follow. This creates shared ownership of the vision rather than it being perceived as the new pastor’s personal agenda that he’s imposing on the church.
This unity is invaluable during a pastoral transition. Rather than the new pastor having to spend his early tenure building buy-in for his ideas, he steps into a congregation that’s already unified around a clear direction. The focus can shift immediately from debating where to go to collaborating on how to get there.
One word of caution: while unity and alignment are crucial, don’t place unrealistic expectations on your new pastor. Change management is ultimately about people, and even with a shared vision, the new leader will need time to get acclimated. He needs to understand where all the ingredients are, what tools are available, and how the equipment works before he can move at full speed.
Be patient. Progress that seems slower than you’d like isn’t necessarily a reflection of the pastor’s commitment to your shared direction. It’s simply the reality of learning a new context. And for new pastors: don’t rush too fast. Take time to truly understand the people and culture before enacting significant changes, even when those changes align with the established plan.
A Better Decision-Making Framework
Every new pastor faces an avalanche of decisions in his early months. What can he say yes to? What should he say no to? Without pastoral transition strategic planning, these decisions become fraught with risk. Change something too quickly, and you create unnecessary conflict. Move too slowly, and you frustrate the congregation that wanted forward progress.
Strategic planning provides a decision-making framework that helps everyone navigate these questions with confidence. Many of the tough decisions are already made through the planning process, particularly around what ministries to prioritize, what the discipleship pathway looks like, and which activities serve the mission and which don’t.
This framework benefits the new pastor tremendously. Rather than having to rely solely on his instincts in an unfamiliar context, he has clear criteria for evaluating ministry opportunities and resource allocation. The planning process establishes priorities, so when competing demands arise, there’s an agreed-upon way to determine what takes precedence.
Depending on the timing of your pastoral search, your new leader might arrive at varying stages of implementation. Ideally, the pastor comes in during the early stages of implementation or right before it begins. But regardless of timing, the existence of a strategic plan provides crucial guidance.
Even in areas where the new pastor might have made different choices, the planning process has already defined which areas need to change. This gives him support from the leadership team and, hopefully, the broader congregation. It allows him to lead through implementation without risking unnecessary pushback or creating fires that didn’t need to exist.
The decision matrix that emerges from pastoral transition strategic planning addresses primary and secondary ministries, creating clarity about what the church will focus on and what it will phase out. For a new pastor stepping into this environment, having these decisions already made provides both direction and protection during a vulnerable season of leadership.
But Shouldn’t the New Pastor Have Input?
The most common pushback to this approach goes something like this: Wouldn’t it be better to have the new pastor on staff first? Shouldn’t he speak into the direction as a way of getting him integrated? Aren’t we cutting him out of something important?
These are fair questions, but consider the alternative scenario. You hire a pastor without having gone through the planning process. You don’t really know who you are as a church or where you’re headed. Then you embark on strategic planning together.
What if you discover conflicting views of the future? Will there be different interpretations of your congregation’s data or assessment results? What if the pastor’s vision for the church doesn’t align with what the leadership and congregation actually want? Now you’re uncovering conflict in an early relationship, which puts both the pastor and the church in an extremely difficult position.
Moreover, imagine you hire a new pastor and tell him you’re starting a strategic planning process in his second month. What is he really able to contribute? He doesn’t know anyone yet. He has minimal history with the church. While his experience and calling certainly have value, a wise pastor would likely observe more than contribute anyway, given his lack of context.
Have you really gained anything by waiting? Probably not. But you’ve definitely lost the benefit of having clarity during the hiring process itself.
Remember, strategic planning should be a habit, not just a moment. By completing a comprehensive process before hiring your next pastor, you’re identifying the big rock items like identity and direction. But this doesn’t mean you’re cutting the pastor out of strategic planning forever.
Next year, you’ll still engage in strategic conversations about what projects to take on, what decisions to make, and how to serve your established vision. Those tactical and operational decisions absolutely require his input. You get the best of both worlds: the benefits of clarity during the hiring process and ongoing pastoral leadership in the strategic decisions that follow.
Making the Decision for Your Church
If you’re facing a pastoral transition, experience strongly supports moving forward with strategic planning sooner rather than later. The improved job posting, mission and vision alignment, enhanced congregational unity, and better decision-making framework all combine to give your church and your next pastor the best possible foundation for a fruitful, long-term ministry relationship.
The question isn’t really whether to do pastoral transition strategic planning. It’s a matter of timing based on your specific circumstances. In most cases, that timing is now, with perhaps a brief pause of a few months if the transition involves unusual circumstances.
Your church’s future is too important to leave to chance. Your next pastor deserves to step into clarity rather than confusion. And your congregation needs the unity that comes from a shared, well-defined vision.
Don’t wait for the perfect pastor to determine your destination. Determine your destination first, then find the leader equipped to help you get there.
Also check out:
The Importance of Strategic Planning
New Pastor Onboarding Part 1: Church Prep For A New Pastor
New Pastor Onboarding Part 2: Pastor Prep For A New Church
Watch this episode on YouTube!
A.J. Mathieu is the President of the Malphurs Group. He is passionate about helping churches thrive and travels internationally to teach and train pastors to lead healthy disciple-making churches. A.J. lives in the Ft. Worth, Texas area, enjoys the outdoors, and loves spending time with his wife and two sons. Click here to email A.J.
