Whether it’s in a family, organization, ministry or team, transitions affect all of us. While our culture views endings and transitions as a sign of failure or something to avoid, God views them as maturing discipleship moments to receive His new beginnings. Pete Scazzero, author of “The Emotionally Healthy Leader” outlines keys to understanding how to manage transitions as a church leader that will result in new beginnings and new life.
Death is a necessary prelude to Resurrection
Embracing transitions is one of the critical leadership skills every leader must learn if we are to do God’s work, God’s way, and in God’s timing. Pete Scazzero observes:
“Sadly, endings and transitions are often poorly handled in our families, ministries, organizations, and teams. When this happens, we miss God’s new beginnings—both personally and in the ministries or organizations we lead.”
Transitions trigger us and touch core family of origin issues which can take some time to process so we can identify unhealthy ways of processing grief and loss. To bear fruit for Jesus there are things that must die so that something new can blossom.
“If we don’t get this we will tend to dread endings and transitions and end up seeing them as failures rather than doors.”
Learning to effectively process grief and loss
Pete discusses one case study of a new pastor Jean who is leading a church of declining attendance. Jean is struggling to discern if the church should discontinue or whether God wants the people to make it through the next transition to a new beginning. As the numbers are so diminished, Jean has made cutbacks in activities and programs so it’s more manageable and is spending more time in prayer for direction.
Like other churches that are weathering the effects of the pandemic, Jean is asking the questions:
“How do you discern if you are leading a flock through an ending or a beginning? How do I discern healthy limits?”
Pete responds by noting that the wrong way to handle this church transition would be to look at this from a worldly point of view and make a quick decision. Pete notes it’s important that everything is held with a loose hand and are not trying to cling and try to demand something to happen. He notes:
“It takes years, decades to master the art of allowing the losses of life to enter into us and mature us, deepen us so that we can offer it as a gift to the world.”
He points to the teaching of St Ignatius which warns that if you don’t come to the discernment process open to what God wants, then your discernment is tainted because you already have an agenda. Pete’s encouragement to Jean and other church leaders facing a season of grief and loss is that the disorientation being felt can become a season where God is birthing something new. Pete says great encouragement can be afforded by examining the lives of figures in the Bible who grappled with great discouragement and loss such as Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Job. Pete points out:
“Job went with such losses but he came out of that with such a great revelation of God.”
Letting the old birth a new beginning
There can be many reasons that a church needs to transition into a new season. Often a church transitional season can be triggered by new leadership. In the second case study, Pete outlines the church environment faced by Fred, a senior pastor of a large church of over 1000 people, who took over the leadership from a highly charismatic, dynamic founder who had to step down for moral failure.
As so often is the case, church cultures can be formed by a charismatic, dynamic one person leader. Fred’s desire has been to shift that culture so that it is less hierarchical and is more conducive to a collaborative working environment but it has been a very painful shift. He has faced a few people who are not on board with the new vision for the church. Like any leader that faces a backlash from others in the congregation when introducing new ways of doing things, Pete cautions to lead, being comfortable with your own vision and values. He states:
“You want to get clear without getting reactive. Listen to God and get discernment.”
Pete says that as you go through a transition as a church leader you need to value how God has uniquely made you to lead this community of people. He points to King David in the Bible who can be viewed as a break-through leader but was very different to Saul and to Moses in his leadership style. David has had a way of worship, a way of leading which reflected David as a poet and a writer. David’s style of leadership would have been very foreign to Israel at the time and not everyone was on board with the change. Pete advises Fred that he will need to accept that he may lose people as he implements a new vision for the church- this is to be expected.
All leaders face the challenge of first leading themselves through a transition and this requires more time to reflect on what you need to personally let go of for the old to birth something new. Pete points to a wonderful quote on transitions provided by author and educator, Parker Palmer:
“On the spiritual journey…each time a door closes, the rest of the world opens up. All we need to do is to stop pounding on the door just closed, turn around—which puts the door behind us—and welcome the largeness of life that now lies open to our souls.”
To listen more to Pete Scazzero, download the podcast here.
Pete Scazzero
Pete Scazzero is the Founder and Senior Pastor of the New Life Fellowship Church in Queens, New York City, a large, multiracial church with more than seventy-three countries represented.
Peter is the author of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, a groundbreaking work on the integration of emotional health and contemplative spirituality. He has also authored The Emotionally Healthy Church, winner of the Gold Medallion Award for 2003.