Latest / The Healthy Church Staff Podcast / Andy Stanley's Succession Plan: The Work Behind the Announcement

Transcript

Andy Stanley's Succession Plan: The Work Behind the Announcement · The Healthy Church Staff Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: When a well-known pastor announces his success report, the first question we normally ask is, who's taken over?
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's understandable, but for church leaders watching from the outside but don't have the inside track, there's probably a more useful question.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And here it is.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: What happened before the announcement that made this transition possible?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about that here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast today.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Todd Rhodes.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the co-founders over chemistrystaffing.com, and I am so glad you're here today.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yesterday, October 18th, 2026, Andy Stanley announced plans to hand off his leadership responsibilities at North Point.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: The elders have unanimously nominated Joel Thomas to succeed him.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, pending church approval, Joel would become the senior pastor of North Point Ministries, all of their campuses, all of their churches, on January 1st, 2027, and lead pastor of North Point Community Church, the kind of the main campus there in Alferata, Georgia, on June 1st.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Andy Stanley plans to continue preaching, being a part of the rotation, and serving as an elder.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm an outsider.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't go to North Point.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're probably an outsider too, since you're listening to this podcast, unless Andy's listening or Joel.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Hey Andy and Joel.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know every conversation, every concern, or every detail of all of the arrangements, because we're outsiders, right?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And a public announcement doesn't tell us really how a transition will ultimately turn out.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: But the public explanation gives us some useful things to think about.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we want to talk about today here on the podcast.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the first thing succession planning needs to begin while you still have time to prepare.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Andy said that he and his wife Sandra had discussed, started discussing this about four and a half years ago.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, even as an outsider, I had heard rumblings that this was coming, and I had heard that Joel was the guy.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Joel's been there, went out west for a little bit, but came back, and Joel was the heir apparent.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: At least that's what I had heard that he was being set up for.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: This has been going on for four and a half years, according to Andy.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that matters because a church can spend years knowing that a transition is coming without actually preparing for it.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: I know at chemistry staffing we get calls quite often from pastors that are like, I want to talk to you about succession.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: What's your timeline?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: I just turned in my resignation and I'm leaving at the end of the year.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's already October.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a transition that's not necessarily a succession.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it really does matter because this is the truth.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: A church can spend years knowing that a transition is coming.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: The senior pastor, the board, can know that something's coming without doing anything about it or actually preparing for it.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows the pastor won't stay forever.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody wants to make Thanksgiving dinner awkward by bringing it up.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Or the elder meeting awkward.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: So the conversation gets postponed and postponed until boom, you're almost at the time where you thought that transition needs to happen, right?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't give you a whole lot of time.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Important decisions remain unanswered.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Who will lead the staff?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: What will the church look like?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: What will the church need from its next pastor?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: How will the board even go about making that decision?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to announce a retirement date tomorrow, okay?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Don't put yourself under that kind of pressure.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: But your board should be able to discuss the church's future without treating the conversation as a vote of no confidence in the current pastor, right?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Planning for the next leader is part of caring for the church today, right?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first thing.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, develop leadership before you need to name a successor.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Joel became North Point Ministries Executive Director in 2023.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: That was a promotion.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And according to Andy's explanation, that meant leading the organization while still reporting to Andy.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lesson here that applies well beyond a church of North Point's size, and they're huge, right?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you consider, if you're considering an internal successor, what meaningful responsibility have they actually carried?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Have they led through conflict conflict?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Have they developed people?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Have they helped make difficult decisions or at least been in the room?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Have they earned the staff's trust?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Being a familiar face on Sunday helps people recognize somebody.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't by itself tell you whether that person will eventually be able to lead the church.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, after an honest assessment in that kind of responsibility, the right answer might be to look outside of the church, right?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is to understand what the church needs and then evaluate people against that responsibility.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that's number two.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And number three, be very clear about what happens after the handoff.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Andy's continued involvement raises a question every church should address when a former pastor stays connected.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: How will the next pastor, how in this case, Joel, how will Joel have room to lead?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know, and you probably don't either, know North Point's private boundaries in the succession plan.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: But in your church, those boundaries need to become really explicit.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm assuming that they are at North Point.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Andy's a pretty good leader, and he's seen kind of the pitfalls of a bad succession.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And Andy wants this to go well, and so does Joel.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, who supervises the staff?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Who sets the direction?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when someone approaches the former pastor because they dislike a decision?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine a staff hearing, your new pastor approved this, but your former pastor thinks we should wait.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can't ever have that happen.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: The staff member has a problem when that happens, and it's a problem that they didn't create.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: A continuing rule can be really valuable.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: It also requires some clarity about authority and accountability and how any kind of disagreements will get handled.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can't use the Trump card after you've handed over the responsibility.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Write down those expectations while everyone is getting along.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Don't wait until things start to go south.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And remember the people living through this, right?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: A longtime pastor may be letting go of responsibilities that have shaped decades of life.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: A successor may be carrying enormous expectations, and staff might be wondering whether they still have a place.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: A transition plan needs room for those realities.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: The truth is, and we tell this to churches all the time when we're talking succession, you don't know what you don't know.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: For most pastors going through succession, this is the first time they've ever done it.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: They've transitioned before, but they've never done a succession plan.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And for boards, same thing.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first thing.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: So they don't know what they don't know.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you're going to be surprised by some of the things that come up.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, everybody is.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: So here's something practical for this week.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Put succession on an upcoming board agenda and work through three questions.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Here are the three questions.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you can do this whether your retirement is the end of the year.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you give it a little bit more time than that.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or the end of next year, or five or ten years from now.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is a conversation that it's never too early to have with your board.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it it's actually better the earlier you can have it, because then it doesn't put the pressure of a timeline on it, right?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: You can say, hey, no timeline here.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just ask these, let's start asking these questions.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so here are the three questions.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, if our pastor became unavailable tomorrow, who would lead immediately?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, if our pastor became unavailable tomorrow, in our chemistry staffing some circus circle with my operations team, we call that the the Todd got hit by a bus conversation.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, if our pastor became unavailable tomorrow, who would lead immediately?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, what preparation would a planned transition require?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that takes it out of immediately to plan, okay?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then question number three, what would we need to clarify so the next pastor could lead with the church's full support?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: North Point has announced its plan.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: The implementation is still ahead.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: For the rest of us, this is an opportunity, okay?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Take it as that.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Today, this morning, right now, this week is an opportunity to start conversations that our own churches need.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you'd like help thinking through succession at your church, I'd be glad to talk with you.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can email me podcast at chemistry staffing.com.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: We actually do quite a few succession plans and work with churches.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen a lot of succession plans, those that have gone really well and those that have not gone so well.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: We know kind of those things that you don't know yet.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Not that we're caughty or anything, but we've just worked with a lot of churches that have gone through it, and this might be your first time.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: So if you need some help, just even starting the conversation.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're a board member, maybe you're a senior pastor that hasn't talked to your board yet, and you just want to kind of get some advice beforehand, reach out, email me at podcast at chemistry staffing dot com, and we'll set up a free Zoom call and we can talk about that.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the bottom line for today.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to have a departure date to begin preparing well.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the best day to do that, to start that preparation, even if in your head and on a piece of paper, even if it's reaching out to me at podcast at chemistry staffing.com to have a conversation.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Today is the best day to do that.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's it for today.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hope this has been helpful to you.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Very timely today, since yesterday was Andy's announcement.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe I've not looked at it yet, but I believe the service is all up over on their probably on their website and also on their YouTube channel if you want to watch exactly how Andy described what's going to happen there in a little bit more detail.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's it for today.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be right back here tomorrow.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hope you'll join me right here on the Healthy Church Death.