One of my strategic partners, William Vanderbloemen, the founder of Vanderbloemen Search Group caught up with me recently to talk about succession planning. William has been using corporate search techniques and his knowledge of church operations in order to connect churches with great senior leaders. I think you’ll enjoy and be challenged by this conversation.

TONY: What is succession planning?

WILLIAM: Succession planning is a simple term with a complex solution. It’s creating a plan for what happens once you need a new leader. And all organizations face that.

In the corporate world, which in my estimation is ahead of the church world on this issue, succession planning is a requirement for nearly all publicly traded companies. Facing a season where you don’t know who’s in charge is just too risky.

At our firm, probably the most frequent call we get right now is from churches that need help making a transition from a long-time Pastor to the next generation. And with the number of baby boomers that are heading toward retirement, I suspect those calls will only increase over the coming decade.

TONY: Why is it necessary for churches?

WILLIAM: The short answer is this: We are all interim pastors.

Unless we are the pastor when our church closes, or we happen to be the pastor when Jesus returns, we are all only in our churches for a temporary stay. And I believe the most critical task for a church leader is to do all he can to secure the long-term future of the church.

TONY: Doesn’t succession planning disregard God’s sovereignty and his calling on a specific pastor?

WILLIAM: I guess I would answer with a question: “Does God want us to plan and implement processes for His church or not?”

We plan when we build God’s house (our campuses). We plan how we will use God’s offerings (our budgets). Identifying the person God has anointed as your next Pastor requires all the prayer AND all the process you can muster.

TONY: What kinds of succession plans are out there?

WILLIAM: One plan everyone needs is an emergency plan. What would happen if your key leader were suddenly unable to be in their position anymore? It’s not only responsible planning, but it eases minds: from the board, to your donors, to any financial institution your church might use. And it’s relatively inexpensive to have someone help you form that plan.

The longer-term plan is a more complex matter. Some churches try to place a potential successor on staff well ahead of time, and others keep a short list of names for consideration. Every church is different. We’ve identified about eight key variables that help us craft a plan for clients. Every time one of those variables is different, the plan is different.

TONY: What can folks do to learn more about succession planning?

WILLIAM: I tell all of our clients to look at what Bob Russell and Dave Stone did at Southeast Church in Louisville. It’s one of the rare cases of smooth transition in a mega church.  Bob’s got a new book, Transition Plan, coming out later this month. It is an excellent resource for the church.

Sooner or later, the time will come to draw up your own plan. I believe an objective set of eyes is needed for the task. At our firm, we are studying under folks who have done this sort of thing for the corporate world for years, and we’re applying our experience in church work to form a process that’s tailor made for each of our clients.

Is your church in need of a succession plan? If so, email me and I’ll put you in touch with William to help you learn more about the process.

I’m not going to lie, the first time somebody told me I was the “best” pastor or that our church was the “best” church, I was pretty happy. Yes! Fist pump! In your face, Rick Warren! Take that, North Point! How ya’ like me now, Furtick?! Did you hear that? We’re the best!

You see, I grew up with a strong competitive streak. Everything was a competition. I’m not just talking about sports or Atari games (80′s shout-out), I’m talking about everything. My school was better than yours, my team was better than yours, my girlfriend was better than yours, my family was better than yours, and my church was better than yours. That’s right, I said, “my church was better than yours.” Whether it was true or not, that’s what I believed. We’re awesome; you’re not. We’re the best.

But God has been dealing with my competitive streak lately. In 2 Corinthians 10:17 Paul said, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Did you catch that? He didn’t say, “boast in your church,” he said, “boast in the Lord.”  Since when did churches start to boast, “we’re the best”? Since when did our churches begin to compete? It’s not Scriptural. It’s not even smart. Instead, it’s a common, man-made, dumb assertion.

As a matter of fact, believing that my church is the “best” is beyond dumb, it’s dangerous.

My church is not better than your church. My church is not trying to beat your church. That’s not what the Kingdom of God is about. Our churches aren’t competitors. We are partners. We are fellow soldiers. We are teammates. I want your church to succeed. I need your church to succeed. Because when you win, we win. When you make a difference, we make a difference.

So I’m learning to refocus my competitive nature. Don’t get me wrong, I still love to compete. I still hate Duke with every fiber of my being; I still take pleasure out of beating kids half my age in basketball; I still  refuse to battle my son in Pokemon because he destroys me; I still race strangers to the check-out line in Wal-Mart, but I’m just learning to keep competition in those places where it belongs. And one place competition never belongs is in our churches. [Tony's note: Please disregard Bryan's comment about Duke.]

My church is great. It really is. The people are wonderful. The music is passionate. The growth is exciting. The vision is contagious. It’s a hot place to be each weekend. But it’s not better than your church. It can’t be. I won’t let it be. Your church is great, too. And it’s when we are together – and only when we are together - that we are all truly at our best.

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This is a guest post from Bryan Roberts, Lead Pastor of Church Relevant in Bern, North Carolina. Here are the details if you’d like to contribute an article as well.

Over the last year or so, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a number of great churches throughout the country. I’ve had the chance to provide training to staff teams and consulting on a variety of topics including staffing, structure, volunteer strategy, discipleship strategy, weekend service environments and more.

Along the way, I’ve connected with many great leaders. It’s given me the opportunity to hear some great stories of how God is working in churches across the country. Here’s a sample of the churches I’ve been at:

• 12Stone Church (Lawrenceville, Georgia)
• Avalon Church (McDonough, Georgia)
• Christ Fellowship Miami (Miami, Florida)
• Cornerstone Church (Auburn, Alabama)
• Harvest Church (Byron, Georgia)
• HighTide Church (Dagsboro, Deleware)
• LifePoint Church (Reisterstown, Maryland)
• LifePoint Church (Tampa, Florida)
• Marathon Church (Greenville, South Carolina)
• New Vintage Church (Santa Rosa, California)
• Oak Leaf Church (Cartersville, Georgia)
• Shore Fellowship Church (Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey)
• Sonrise Church (Fort Wayne, Indiana)
• The Gathering (Sevierville, Tennessee)
• The River (Semmes, Alabama)
• The Rock Church (Monroe, Washington)
• Thomas Road Baptist Church (Lynchburg, Virginia)
• VantagePoint Church (Corona, California)

I share this, first of all, to give you some new churches to check out that may not be on your radar. They’re doing great ministry to impact communities across the country.

Secondly, I just wanted to let you know that I have a few openings left in my speaking and consulting schedule for this fall. I’d love to serve you and your team.

Email me if you’d like to talk more about scheduling a staff training or a consulting visit with your team.

I always love spending time with my family, but July 23-25 is going to be really special. Emily, the kids and I are going to be part of Community Makeover. The Makeover is a weekend for Christ-followers to reach out to their neighbors through acts of service. Projects will be happening all over the Metro Atlanta area. Our home church, West Ridge, is canceling Sunday services to encourage more people to get involved. Through the organization Engage Atlanta, 80 other churches in and around Atlanta will also participate.

To finish off the weekend, everyone is invited to come together for a special worship service Sunday night at 7:00 pm. My friend, Carlos Whittaker, will be helping to lead worship. It’s going to be a time to celebrate what God has done and is doing in Metro Atlanta.

If you live in the Atlanta area, consider taking part in the Makeover. Just go to their website for a list of projects happening where you live. Get together with some friends or your small group and pick a project that will impact the people around you.

Recalling the our conversation from yesterday about declining churches, here’s a great way to address one of those five attributes to become more outward-focused.

I’m really excited to share this opportunity with you today. I’ve been working with the this team over the last couple of months, and this is going to be a great position for the right person.

LifePoint Church in Tampa, FL is looking for someone to fill the role of Executive Pastor. LifePoint was established ten years ago by Senior Pastor Brad White. Currently, LifePoint is running about 2,300 in weekly attendance, and they are anticipating huge growth in the next ten years.

LifePoint’s mission is to reach the unchurched population in Tampa. Due to their rapid growth, they are considering moving to a larger venue or going multi-site.  The executive pastor will be the point person for continuing to implement the vision of reaching the unchurched. If you’re interested, send your resume here.

By the way, I partner with The Vanderbloemen Search Group, a retained executive search firm, to help churches find their key staff. I’m frequently helping large, fast-growing churches with a focus on reaching the unchurched. If your church needs assistance in this sort of search, feel free to contact me.

About four months ago, we set out to find a leader to become the executive director or “chief launch officer” of a new church planting network that West Ridge and several other great churches are launching. We talked with a number of folks about the role, but we ended up finding the person who we believe has been perfectly shaped for this position.

I’m very excited to introduce Mac Lake as the Chief Launch Officer of “The Launch Network”. You’ll eventually be able to read more about the organization at LaunchingChurches.com, but, honestly, Mac’s first job is to help us launch the network that will ultimately launch hundreds of churches across the world.

For those of you unfamiliar with Mac’s story, he’s currently the Development Pastor at Seacoast Church, a multi-campus church based in Charleston, South Carolina. Mac oversees leadership development with the Seacoast team. Prior to that, he was a church planter. He actually launched Carolina Forest Community Church on the exact same day that Brian started West Ridge. You can read more about Mac on his website, but, needless to say, we are excited that Mac comes with the perfect mix of church planting and leadership development experience needed for this new role.

West Ridge has helped plant over 50 churches through the years. We’re grateful for those stories, but we’re confident that if we can partner with some other great ministries like Oak Leaf Church, Lifepoint Church, The Summit Church, Freedom Church, Mosaic Church, Hillside Christian Church and other churches including possibly yours, we might be able to impact people’s lives across the country and the world. What would it be like to plant 1,000 new churches in the next 10 years?

Do I have your attention? Then consider partnering with us to launch a movement. Like I said, we don’t have a fancy website yet, but we’d still like to hear from you. Please fill out this brief form if you’re interested in learning more about The Launch Network. If you’re a church that wants to network with other leaders and help us plant 1,000 new churches, let us know. If you think you may be called to plant a church sometime in the future, then contact us.

In the mean time, welcome Mac to this new adventure. He’s ready to launch something big!

Earlier today, Jason Gerdes was introduced as the new senior pastor of Revolution Church in Canton, Georgia. I’m particularly excited about this announcement because William and our team at FaithSearch Partners worked with the crew at Revolution to select Jason for this role.

Jason is one of the top young leaders in the Church today, and I’m looking forward to seeing how God uses him to reach people in the Canton region and beyond. Since you may not be familiar with his story, I caught up with him a few days ago for an interview:

TONY: Congratulations on your new role with Revolution Church. Tell us what most excites you about this opportunity.

JASON: Thanks Tony.  The thing that most excites me about this opportunity with Revolution is the great foundation that has already been set for reaching people far from God.  I always thought that I would start a church, but when this came along God really showed me how this is for me. It is literally taking over a church plant that is already stable.  I am walking into a great situation with great people so we can build faster then if I started a church in the area.

TONY: For those that don’t know you, will you share a little bit of your background?

JASON: I did not grow up going to church or knowing anything about Jesus.  When I was a teenager my friends invited me to church and I gave my life to Him.  After I accepted Christ, it was really tough getting my other friends to come to church so it became my passion to create a church that my friends would come to.  I went on staff at Green Acres Baptist Church in college as an intern and worked my way up to Associate student pastor.  In seminary, I met Bil Cornelius at a church planting conference and then 6 months later went on staff at Bay Area Fellowship as the student pastor with the intention of starting a church one day with Bay Area.

TONY: I’ve been a big fan of your previous boss, Bil Cornelius, at Bay Area Fellowship. How has he influenced your leadership?

JASON: Bil Cornelius has influenced my leadership in profound ways.  The first being Bil has taught me is what it means to be a man of prayer and how your leadership publicly with never grow above your prayer life privately.  Bil is a man of prayer that really loves Jesus and that has influenced me tremendously.  The second thing Bil has taught me is how to think like a church planter.  In my first year as the student pastor I was unlearning everything that I had learned in an established church and Bil re-taught me how to lead the students like I was planting a church.  With that insight, it has enabled us to structure the ministry as a church plant and grow rapidly through multiple services and multiple locations.

TONY: How did you know you were called to pastor a church like Revolution?

JASON: As I have thought through the type of church I would start it matches up a lot with who Revolution is and what it does.  However, the main way I knew I was called to Revolution was what God showed me through our adoption journey.  My wife and have just recently adopted a baby girl and as I was praying though this God clearly said, “Jason, just like how your daughter is not from you but you are adopting her I want you to adopt Revolution even though she is not from you.”  I immediately went into our nursery, got on my knees and starting praying/crying out to God.  He spoke so clearly to me that, just like with the adoption, there will be issues since I didn’t birth Revolution, but that she is worth leading and adopting into my life.  Now if I ever struggle with the call God has placed on my life, all I have to do is look at my daughter and know that it was worth it.

TONY: What’s something folks may not know about you that says a lot about your personality?

JASON: I would have to say that since I am the youngest of three kids my natural personality is to entertain and be goofy.  I spent my life growing up in a family that did not have a lot of joy so I would do whatever it took to make my family laugh and have a good time.  But as I have gotten older, I have become much more of a learner and reader that loves to study theology and leadership.  So, I am a weird mix of a people-person that draws energy from crowds but then also loves to be alone and read.  I am not sure if that makes me well-rounded or a psychological case study, and I guess only time will tell.

Please join me in continuing to pray for Jason and Revolution Church that God will continue to multiply their impact in their community.

I’ve had the opportunity over the last month to visit some great churches throughout the region. I’m guessing some of these may not be on your radar, so here’s a quick recap of my journey.

• Church @ the Springs (Ocala, FL) – The senior pastor at The Springs, Ron Sylvia, has been a good friend of mine for several years. We’re leading a LifeWay team coaching network together. And, among other things, I’m helping The Springs with a volunteer team building strategy to prepare for their new facility opening around Christmas.
• Revolution Church (Canton, GA) – I had the chance to hang out with the staff team recently to talk about where they’ve been and where they’re heading as a church. It was part of the process of helping them identify a new senior pastor.
• 12Stone Church (Lawrenceville, GA) – 12Stone has multiple campuses in the northeast Atlanta metro area. Dan Reiland, 12Stone’s executive pastor, gave me a tour of their brand new campus in Lawrenceville. The facility is amazing!
• The River (Semmes, AL) – I spent the weekend with senior pastor Chris Farley and his team. In addition to helping their team revisit their volunteer strategy, Chris treated me to the biggest piece of fish I’ve ever had.
• Avalon Church (McDonough, GA) – Avalon is in the southeast Atlanta area. It’s a good-sized church at nearly 1,300 people, but what was more amazing to me was the number of volunteers they have serving and the quality of the creative arts/service experience. I’m going to share more of Avalon’s story in the in the coming days through an interview with Ritchie Miller, their senior pastor.

I love the stories that I’m getting to hear by visiting churches across the country. This week I’m at home, but my next stop is San Fransisco!

Today we’re heading home after being on the road for three weeks. We’ve had a great family vacation, and it’s also offered a fun opportunity for me to connect with several hundred church leaders across the country.

I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank the six churches that so graciously hosted the events over the last few weeks. They include:

• West Ridge Church in Dallas, Georgia – Brian Bloye planted the church in 1997. Since then, the church has grown to over 4,000 in weekend attendance, and they’ve helped plant nearly 40 churches throughout the country.
• Springcreek Church in Garland, Texas – Keith Stewart is the senior pastor. He planted the church in 1990. They moved into a brand new auditorium last summer. Check out Keith’s confession: “We were wrong.”
• Harvester Christian Church in St. Charles, Missouri – Harvester has some big news. They’ve recently hired a new senior pastor. Brian Jobe will take the role after serving 11 years at Savannah Christian Church.
• The Orchard in Aurora, Illinois – The Orchard is led by one of my favorite bloggers, Scott Hodge. Scott is one of those rare leaders who has successfully led his church through quite a transition in recent years.
• Grace Church in Powell, Ohio – Rick Nuzum is the senior pastor at Grace. Part of Rick’s story is that he’s a former football All-American and NFL player with the Los Angeles Rams and the Green Bay Packers.
• Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee – Pete Wilson is the senior pastor at Cross Point. The church launced six years ago. They have a very unique arrangement in that their original campus is actually in the facilities of an older church that still meets on the same property.

I really appreciate the willingness of these churches to open their doors to other church leaders. Their staff and volunteer leaders helped make each of these gatherings possible.

By the way, if you weren’t able to join us at one of the tour stops, Jenni Catron, the executive director at Cross Point, took some great notes for both sessions.

And, for those of you who attended one of the stops and asked about purchasing the book, here’s where you can get Killing Cockroaches.

My good friend Lee McFarland leads one of my favorite churches in the country out in Phoenix. Radiant Church is not your normal church, and Lee is not your normal pastor. They embrace a bizarre mix of wanting to reach as many people for Jesus and willingness to try just about anything. With that, Radiant recently launched a Saturday night service incorporating hip hop elements.

Here are some highlights of what they’re doing:

• The music is done by their “Garage Band”–it’s basically the student ministry band.
• footklan.com (a local dance group) participated in the service on the debut weekend.
• Travis, one of the other staff pastors, is teaching at this service.  He’s doing a series on the book of Acts. It’s very different teaching than what’s happening in the other three services.
• They “renovated” their smallest service (Saturday 6:15) by replacing it with the new hip hop format and instantly more than doubled their attendance.  That’s helping them create more space on Sunday mornings.
• The whole ambiance of the room is changed for the service. The lighting is much darker. Small blue floor lights are placed under aisle chairs. They’ve added colorful canned lights on stage. Everyone sits in front half of the worship center. They’ve created a really intimate, connected feeling.
• The worship is much more intense than the other services.  It lasts longer, and it starts back up at the end of the service. That’s very different than Radiant’s other services.

It’s hard to say what’s really helping Radiant reach more people on Saturday nights. Is it because they’ve added hip hop elements? Or, is it simply because they’re doing something different? In my experience, different creates buzz. And, when there’s buzz, more people are talking about it and inviting their friends.

That makes me curious to know what you’ve recently done that’s different. What did you do, and what was the response?