On June 24-25, 2006, Bob Russell preached his final sermon as Senior Minister of Southeast Christian Church, the 6th largest church in America. I was there and had the privilege of seeing Bob pass the baton of leadership to Dave Stone, his handpicked successor, and teaching pastor Kyle Idleman. More than ever, Bob believes stepping aside at the peak of his ministry was the right thing.
In Transition Plan: 7 Secrets Every Leader Needs to Know (Ministers Label Publishing), Bob Russell tells the whole story. Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with Bob about his new book, the importance of succession planning and life after retirement.
Q: Bob, it’s great to talk with you again. Of all the great lessons of effective leadership you could have written about from your 40 years of ministry at Southeast, why did you choose this topic? Why do you think this is such an important issue for our time?
Well, I chose that because I think it’s one thing we did well. I think it’s rare, in churches especially, that preachers are able to pass the baton and the church continues to move forward.
I’ve seen so many examples of churches that have either stagnated or declined when the minister left. I’ve seen examples of preachers who have hung on too long or have actually worked against their successor.
So I feel like this is really a needed topic in churches. And it’s been a hot topic in business as well.
Q: When did you first become aware that putting a succession plan in place was something God wanted you to do?
It was in the back of my mind for several decades, to be honest with you, because of a situation that I had seen in my home church when I was a little boy.
We had an elderly pastor in his eighties. They asked him to step aside because he had outgrown his effectiveness, and it was a sad time for Dad who really loved this preacher. For a period of months, this preacher wouldn’t even speak to my Dad, because he was one of the elders who had asked him to step down. And this preacher stayed on in the church and made it really difficult for the young man in his early twenties that succeeded him.
So having that image in my mind all throughout my ministry, I thought … when the time comes I want to make sure I step down before people start questioning whether I’ve outlived my effectiveness. And I want to step aside in the most gracious way possible.
Q: You say the five years you spent with the Elder Board carefully planning and executing the transition process were some of the most important years of your ministry.
I felt like if Southeast’s ministry was going to continue on, these four or five years of planning would impact the next decade, or two.
In fact, when I brought it up, it was toward the end of a long elder’s meeting, and it got a little silent there. One of the young elders said, “Guys, this is huge. What we’re beginning to talk about here is bigger than anything we’ve discussed at this entire meeting or maybe even in the last several months.”
I think from the very beginning everybody understood it was big.
Q: What was the toughest aspect of the transition for you personally?
There was a lot of it that was tough. Everybody’s got an ego. And the sense of losing control, losing importance, is tough.
I guess I would say, the toughest part was the reduced number of times that I was preaching. I love to preach. I enjoy writing sermons. And to not be up on Sunday morning when I was accustomed to doing that 48 out of 52 Sunday’s a year … that was probably the hardest for me.
Q: What were the last days at Southeast like for you?
The church was very gracious to me in the last few months. I say in the book that they went overboard, to the place where even I was sick of hearing about it. (laughter)
Looking back, I think it’s good for the church to find a way to say good-bye, because in a sense, it’s like somebody dying and there needs to be a grief process. But, once that itch is scratched, then I think people are ready to go on to the next phase.
After Southeast had finally said good-bye to me, it was finally over, the next Sunday that Dave Stone gets up, he just walks to the pulpit and everybody stands up and applauds. That was, number one, an affirmation of saying to Dave we’re going to do everything we can to support you. And number two, it was a way of the congregation saying we’re ready to turn the page.
Q: How is the retirement plan going and what do you mainly focus your time on these days?
Retirement shouldn’t be regarded as a phase of self-indulgence but of service.
I’ve been reminded that the Lord has another phase for me. And I’ve done a number of things the last four years that have been really, really gratifying.
My life is spent primarily now in counseling and encouraging ministers all across the country. And I not only do that through mentoring groups and through seminars that I conduct, but every day all most I get e-mails and phone calls from younger pastors asking, “Can I tell my situation to you? Can I run it by you?”
Preachers don’t have that many people they can talk to. Because of the experience I had at Southeast, because of my age, I think they feel comfortable turning to me.
I have really enjoyed this role.
Q: What do you think of the Social Media phenomenon? Do you see a role for new media and technology in evangelism?
It’s amazing how many of the younger people get their information from the Internet and how effective the Internet is for sharing information. We all know there’s a lot of evil that takes place there, but the church has an incredible opportunity to take the gospel worldwide on the Internet.
I’ve just been reading a book called Hipster Christianity, and it talks about how some young pastors and church leaders are almost obsessed with being cool and being edgy and impressing the world with image. And I think we have to be careful that we don’t become so super concerned with the coolness of our website or the edginess of the gospel that we preach, that we detract from Jesus’ call for us to be counter culture and to be distinctive people.
Q: You recently returned to Southeast to talk about the Restoration Revolution. What is that?
The National Missionary Convention combined with thirty Bible college presidents, have banded together because they see an alarming trend of declining number of people interested in the pulpit ministry and the mission field. Bible college enrollment has remained about the same but the number of students interested in ministry is declining. This is at a time when our movement is one of the few that is growing.
So this doesn’t pose well for the future when Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” We’re not producing the laborers for the future harvest.
The Restoration Revolution was formed by this coalition and their goal is to recruit 10,000 new harvesters–missionaries and ministers–over the next decade.
Q: What kind of response did you have?
My appeal that weekend was for people to understand that while everybody’s a priest and we’re into discipleship, there’s a special calling for men and women to be missionaries and ministers. God has equipped some to be pastors and teachers “to prepare God’s people for works of service” the Bible says.
More than 70 responded.
So I made an appeal. I said we’re praying, that there would be at least one youth in this service who at the end will say, “I’m ready to change my vocation plans.” More than 70 responded. I said I should’ve prayed for three. (laughter)
It was an overwhelming response. We were just thrilled.
In preaching, Gordon, there are a few times in life, they’re not often enough, but there are a few times where you sense a double outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I would have to say in the last three or four minutes of that sermon, all three times I preached it, I knew that the Lord was speaking to people through me. And that is a humbling and awesome experience.
(You can watch a video of Bob’s sermon International Harvesters here.)
Bob, I know you don’t think that Southeast’s transition plan is a cookie cutter model for everybody to follow. But, as you mentioned in the book, the process you went through asks the right questions, introduces the right subjects, and can stimulate thought and discussion.
I pray many will read Transition Plan and be helped by it’s lessons. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us.