The Narnia 3 Book Review Blog: January 2006 Archives

January 28, 2006

Elephants in the Boardroom

Carolyn Wese and J. Russell Crabtree. The Elephant in the Boardroom: Speaking the Unspoken About Pastoral Transitions. San Francisco, CA: Josey Bass, A Wiley Imprint, 2004. Cloth, xviii + 220pp ($19.95).

In an era where the average tenure for a protestant pastor is somewhere between two to three years, there is an obvious a need for congregations and their leaders to have resources for making good pastoral transitions, mainly in the hope that there would be fewer of them. The subtitle for this particular book is “How to Think About and Create a Strategic Succession Plan for Your Church.” The authors apparently bring a significant amount of experience and expertise to the task of this book. Both are executive directors of their respective ministry consulting firms: Weese heads Multi-Staff Ministries and Crabtree, Holy Cow! Consulting. Additionally, Weese lists an administrative position in a large Presbyterian church in her background and Crabtree indicates that he served as a pastor in “small, medium and large churches” (p. 209) but no specific information is included.

This work is part of the Leadership Network Publication series from The Leadership Network of Dallas, Texas. This particular series has centered on works from Emerging Church authors such as Brian McLaren, James H. Furr, Reggie McNeal, Milfred Minatrea and others and has really become a key series for works from that movement. In a statement that is quite revealing the book states,

The Leadership Network’s focus has been on the practice and application of faith at the local congregational level. Churches and church leaders served by Leadership Network represent a wide variety of primarily Protestant faith traditions that range from mainline to evangelical to independent. All are characterized by innovation, entrepreneurial leadership, and a desire to be on the leading edge of ministry (p. 211).

There web site www.leadnet.org gives more information about the organization and its goals, interestingly enough a survey of all of their pages did not reveal even one Biblical reference or any sort of doctrinal position. Leadership Network declares as its purpose “Our mission is to identify, connect and help high-capacity Christian leaders multiply their impact” (http://www.leadnet.org/mission.asp ). It is also somewhat odd that the publisher, Jossey-Bass, who specialized in secular management, administrative and higher educational works, would pick up a religious or Christian series of books.

In terms of layout there is an excellent subject index; however, there is no bibliography of any sort and no indication that the authors cite any significant sources. There are no footnotes, endnotes or anything other than a few passing references to two authors (Ken Blanchard, p. 17 and Peter Drucker, p. 106) and two others (Linda Karlovec, p, 13, 150; and Ron Rand, p. 23); whom, while they quote, no reference source is given for the quotation. The authors also apparently assume their readers will immediately recognize the later two, giving only the profession of Karlovec and no information at all as to who Rand might be.

The writers take an egalitarian approach to pastoral roles, acknowledging that, “We are ever mindful of the fact that women and men fill the pastoral and lay leadership roles in the church today; therefore we have tried to be inclusive throughout the text” (p. 9). This “inclusiveness” tends to manifest itself in the book by an annoying shift from masculine to feminine pronouns, sometimes within the same context.

The writers begin with an assumption, without offering any particular support, that most churches do not have a plan for pastoral transitions and that for the most part they are unwilling to even discuss the issue until it is too late (p. 2). The book begins with the “story” of Meadowbrook Church and their pastor, Pete, who decides after a ten year ministry to look for a new church and depart. He does, and leaves nothing but chaos in his wake (p. 2-5). The authors present their scenario as “typical” of churches and something that needs to be addressed. They then present their perspective on how pastoral transitions should take place. They state,

Succession planning is the second most important need in every church in the country (well trained and committed pastoral and lay leadership that is culturally relevant being the first), and few if any do it well (p. 5).

That these are the two most important needs in “every church in the country” is a dubious assertion and really exposes the most significant weakness in this book.

The most glaring problem with this work is the complete lack of any Biblical references, discussion of ecclesiology or a theological perspective of any kind. Except for a couple of passing references in Chapter One (“Principles of Transition: Jesus Style”) there is only a single Biblical reference in the actual text in the remainder of the book, a brief quotation from a verse in Proverbs (p. 117). The only other place where Scripture appears in these pages is in brief quotations that appear at the top of each chapter heading. Despite the assertion on the dust jacket that the authors are “firmly rooted in Biblical principles” there is no evidence of any particularly defined Biblical principle. If the authors have developed some Biblical principles on pastoral transitions they fail to share them with the reader.

Perhaps the most disturbing problem in this book is the total omission of the Biblical requirements and qualifications for pastors. The key passages in Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3 are not referenced at any level. The authors present a model church in the following terms:

When the church configured its staff it chose a staff heavy in lay professionals and light in ordained clergy. It then offered a significant body of training to both staff and ministry leaders. Staff members were trained in total quality management, with skills in teamwork, collaborative decision making, problem solving, customer service, coaching, strategic planning, listening, confrontation, assertiveness, rational emotive self-management, gift assessment, and personality inventory. Ministry leaders were given similar training, with more emphasis on strategic thinking, goal and objective development, prayer and accountability. A churchwide organization of ministry leaders was put in place that met quarterly to set goals, evaluate progress, celebrate victories, learn from mistakes, and receive ongoing training (p. 170-71).

While replete with management fads and buzzwords in their description of this “model” church and its leaders there is no mention of training in the Scripture, a theological core, or the ability to preach and teach the Bible. There is no discussion anywhere about the biblically-mandated giftedness or character qualities for a pastor. In another place the authors give what they view as the six most important things to ask a pastoral candidate in the interview process: “discover their knowledge of the best practices in six critical areas: Worship, Adult learning, Youth ministry, Fundraising, Mission, Evangelism” (p. 184).

Likewise there is no discussion of the Biblical role and mandate for the local church. In terms of ecclesiology the authors seem unaware of denominational differences within Protestantism and even that there is an essential difference between Catholicism and Protestantism in terms of the local church and its actual operation. While it is true that they are writing a “generic” work in which they attempt to have a broad appeal across denominational and associational lines the overall work is almost so generic that it has almost no practical value to any local church.

While the authors present some helpful tidbits about pastoral transition, one practical area that is very questionable is their underlying assumption that most churches don’t have a coherent plan. In this reviewer’s experience most churches do have a plan, an actual formal plan or guidelines, which are codified in the constitution or by-laws. Many denominations, such as Presbyterians, actually have specific denominational rules and laws in place that either governs how the local church handles the transition, or limits the actions that they can take. Despite this, there is not a single discussion in this book about church constitutions, by-laws or even actually how a church “codifies” whatever plan they adopt. Of course, churches that have codified plans may not have good ones, but since the authors simply assume that no plans exist, they don’t present any help in evaluating existing succession plans.

Another problem with this work is the “illness based model” versus the “health based model” that the authors present. In their view when transitions are viewed as “bad” then “the subject of leadership transition is avoided” (p. 44) and then the entire process spirals downwards. When this happens to enough churches, “the illness-model takes hold in the church at large and the collective consciousness of the religious community” (ibid). To counter this, the authors present a “health-based” model as follows:

A health-based model of leadership transition assumes a better possibility. Because it expects that healthy church leaders can actually talk about a pastoral transition without a rash of dependency issues swamping the discussion, it also expects that it is possible to plan for that inevitable day. Since planning for a pastoral transition requires a coordinated effort among several key players, a health-based model assumes that each player is sufficiently healthy and committed to execute a successful transition. A health-based model of pastoral transition also assumes that these players are willing to be equipped with the best practices available for managing one of the most critical seasons in a church’s life (p. 44-45).

There are several problems with this approach in our view. First of all this is terribly naïve, most pastoral transitions are, at some level, problematic. Even a seemingly smooth transition will often cause a heretofore unknown issue to come to the surface. The reality is that there are an almost infinite set of variables in pastoral transitions. This reviewer has come into churches (as interim or consultant) after pastors have been fired for incompetence, dismissed for various moral or character issues, pastors who simply walked away from the church, pastors who intentionally split a church, pastors who died, pastors who left for a new ministry, and several other scenarios. In each scenario each church required a different approach in transition. The assumption of “health” is a flawed assumption that really renders all of the other “assumptions” in the “health-based” model suspect. Even their short chapter on “Crisis Transitions” (p. 187-94) is so vague, general, and self-evident, that it really is of little value.

The authors present a picture of what they view as four levels of church ministry. The increased levels are presented as increasingly desirable. They are: (1) Level Zero or Not Performing; (2) Level One: Person-Driven; (3) Level Two: Team-Driven; and (4) Level Three: Innovation-Driven (p. 162-65). One might ask at what level a “Biblically-Driven” ministry might be or where that fit into the author’s thinking. This is also a key problem in the Emerging Church Movement, the mindset of which this work represents: innovation is the highest good. It is really Argumentum ad Novitatem adopted as a philosophy of ministry.

This book could have been a useful tool for local churches and their leaders to manage and even plan for pastoral transitions. Unfortunately, the lack of a set of core theological and Biblical principles related to pastoral ministry and pastoral qualifications, really renders this book useless. This book should not be ignored, there is occasionally a needle of useful insight buried in the mound of straw, but they are few and difficult to find.

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