Every church inevitably goes through a time of leadership transition. Whether because of retirement, scandal, health complications, a change in calling or some other shift in a pastor’s life or career, churches are bound to walk through a pastoral succession of some kind eventually. A new Barna report produced in partnership with Brotherhood Mutual, Leadership Transitions, addresses this universal reality and examines how churches navigate pastoral change and stay healthy amidst the shift. This article takes a look at what happens before the transition and how directions and motivations steering this change affect certain outcomes for the congregations experiencing them.

The Most Common Type of Leadership Transitions are Pastor-Initiated Barna analysts grouped pastoral successions into three major types based on the circumstances directing the leadership change. The first is planned transitions, which are planned in advance of the change (17%); the second is pastor-initiated transitions, set into motion by a decision from the outgoing pastor (62%) and the third is forced transitions, commenced by unexpected circumstances such as illness, death or crisis (13%).

Most Pastors Transition out of their Congregation Entirely Researchers also looked at three directions of pastoral transition. First, there are pastors who step back from the senior pastor role and move into a co-pastor or associate pastor role (15%). Second, there are pastors who withdraw from the senior pastor role into lay leadership, such as eldership or teaching, or regular membership in the congregation (a majority of the time, the impetus for moving in this direction is a pastor’s retirement) (20%). Thirdly, there are pastors who depart the congregation entirely (56%). Across the board, departing entirely is the most common transitional direction, but it’s more common when the transition is unplanned. When a transition is planned in advance, more than half of outgoing pastors stick around, whether they step back to continue on staff or withdraw to a lay role.