Succession Planning

https://odb.org/MY/2022/02/17/being-seen

As leaders or seniors or managers serving or working in teams, we constantly need to be on a lookout for promising people under or around us. This is relevant at work as well as in ministry or church. At work, we call this succession planning, basically, identifying others who may take our place in future. At work, we may want to move on to do other work, leave for another organisation or retire and thus having a replacement is the right and responsible thing to do. Of course, there are some of us who are afraid of losing our place and thus may put others down to show and prove that we are irreplaceable. But we know that at work, no one is indispensable. Just a question of how much stress an unplanned vacancy will cause. Even Apple continued to thrive after the passing of Steve Jobs. I believe it is the same in church and ministry too. No one is indispensable. God will raise us up and God will raise others up. Joshua and Caleb took over from Moses and Aaron. Solomon took over from David. Elisha continued the work of Elijah with a double portion of his anointing.

The stories of Barnabas taking in Saul (as Paul was originally known) and later believing in Mark when Paul himself didn’t are real life biblical examples in the book of Acts on how we should look out for and hone the potential in others. This is pertinent in the church and ministry to ensure that we are not led by old men and women who will eventually become older and slower and thus less agreeable to change. Church and ministry will thus become like a slow moving gargantuan ship either drifting aimlessly or on a collision course to hit a gigantic iceberg one day.

Another reason is that the transitioning from old to new usually takes a long time, even years. Leaders need to be made sub leaders first before becoming true leaders. In church and ministry, the congregation needs time to look up to and accept the new leaders and thus if the fresh blood have been around doing leadership tasks for a long time, the transition will be smooth and without much drama. That is why new and current leaders should serve alongside each other with the current leaders ceding more and more responsibilities over time.

The message today I believe is we should emulate Barnabas to see the potential in those around us and encourage and support them to achieve greater heights in their walk with God and their service in the Kingdom. Their personal testimony is important and that needs to be developed and moulded by God over time as no one can be transformed in a blink of an eye. Everything I believe is work in progress, from the laying down of our lives to serve others to leaving behind our dreams and desires for God’s plans and purposes for us. Spiritual maturity and leadership qualities come over time. But if we don’t start on them now, we cannot expect any one to take our place in future and for that I believe a time horizon of 5 to 10 years is not unreasonable, especially in church and ministry.