Customer Reviews

Transition Plan: 7 Secrets Every Leader Needs to Know

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All pastors are interim pastors.

All leaders are interim leaders.

Unless we are the pastor when our church closes, or the CEO when our business shuts down, we are all only in our churches for a temporary stay. And I believe the most critical task for a church leader is to do all he can to secure the long-term future of the church.

Our executive search firm [...] handles a lot of transitions for a lot of large churches, and we are recommending this book to all of our c,ients

Bob Russell, the previous pastor at Southeast Church in Louisville, KY has written an account of the hand off that he, Dave Stone (the current pastor) and the church leadership planned. Their story is perhaps the best known story of a successful transition, particularly in a larger church.

While every church has different needs, and every transition plan should be hand crafted around their particular situation, this book is a must read.

Why? Because we are all interim pastors. And the call to care for Christ's church extends beyond our temporary stay

As the titled implies, the book is centered around the transition plan that Bob Russell designed for himself and his successor, Dave Stone, as he retired from the pastorate. I have read a lot of books on leadership but have never come across one that takes you through the planning and execution of a leadership transition. Bob's writing draws you into his story as well as other stories of leadership transitions done well. I would encourage any leader who is transitioning soon or any committee whose purpose is leadership transition to read this book and apply the wisdom Bob shares.

Transition Plan: Passing on Church Leadership

by Emily A Mullens on Saturday 28 August 2010|

How does a legendary pastor hand over his ministry to someone else?
What are the secrets that saved his church from self destruction during the transition?
How can this story help your kids ministry now and in the future?

Keep reading to find out.

Transition Plan, by Bob Russell and Bryan Bucher, is a very short, very succinct story of how to gracefully pass the baton of leadership. It is broken into 5 easy-to-read chapters, and 1 bonus chapter of articles on leadership. Beginning with Bob telling the story of how the "transition" took place for him at Southeast Christian Church after 40 years as senior pastor, the book is an enjoyable read right from the beginning. Topics such as "setting a plan" and "letting go of pride" are approached in a truly humble and truthful format. He leads us through, why we need a transition plan, and backs it up with a full chapter of research. Then he choreographs us through the "goodbye" and, the "what's next?" phase of retirement.

Bob Russell explains humbly and humorously how to practice the transition. Every chapter is very personal and wonderfully motivational! He tells the story of returning to visit his church after a couple of years of retirement. One man saw him in the restroom and declared, "Hey Bill! Good to see you back!" In two years, he had forgotten Bob's name. Bob Russell's humility is apparent in every chapter and antidote. His style truly makes you feel that we are all apart of the same team trying to get to the same finish line. His advice is easy to swallow as it is so graciously shared.

My first impression was, that this would never apply to me -- I'm not the pastor -- I do the kids stuff. But as I read, the clarity of Bob's idea came to me. The idea of having a a transition plan is invaluable. What if this concept was used not just for the senior pastor but for the leaders in kids programming as well?. As the mission statement is created for a ministry, a basic transition plan could be too! As I pondered how this would reflect in our kids ministry, I realized the impact this concept could have on our leadership. The "my ministry" concept would never happen. Right away leaders would realize they are a part of an ongoing vision that has been there before them and will still be there after them. Everyone would be visualizing the future of the ministry immediately, where it will go and what it will become under their lead. Finally, it puts a leader in the position of mentoring and training up new mature leaders. Wow!

I especially loved the bonus chapter with articles published by Bob Russell on Leadership. Titles include "Combat Procrastination Today!" and "Mentoring Future Ministers". These quick two page articles read like a devotional and inspire like a good pep talk before the big game. All have great value, and are supported by scripture reference.

I only hope the word about this book gets out to leaders on all levels, not just senior pastors, so everyone can benefit from this book. I believe that secular organizations could benefit from Bob's experience as well.

Bob's humble teaching style is contagious and energizing. It has motivated me to share this book with my senior staff above me and to the incredible servants I mentor in kids ministry! I encourage you to order copies for your entire leadership team so you can take this wonderful journey together. Although I received a complimentary copy of the book for this review, I will be ordering a copy for all of my leaders this year. Thank you, Bob, for sharing your gifts with us: the teammates in this race. May we all give our best run and pass the baton to the next runner!

If you'd like more information on Bob Russell, you can find it at [...]. You can also follow the Twitter account and Facebook Page for this book.

Bob Russell communicates with an authentic spirit about the challenge of the leadership succession issue. The intentionality of what unfolded over a many year timeframe in his setting should be a model for thoughtful planning that any succession driven organization can benefit from. GT

"Transition Plan" was enlightening and helpful, as it gave a realistic outline for succession. I especially appreciated reading of some successions/transitions that DIDN'T work well, as that provided pitfalls to be wary of. My thanks for all the help this book provides.

Page for page, this little book is packed with wisdom about how to make a pastoral transition that glorifies God. Filled with good examples, and even some bad examples. Highly recommended.

In "Transition Plan," Bob Russell shares meaningful, honest, and transparent insights into the transfer of leadership from a long-time pastor to a young successor. This book is a thorough treatment of an often overlooked and poorly planned event that is inevitable for every organization. By reading and learning from the experiences of Bob Russell and Dave Stone at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, any organization can benefit and prepare for a leadership transition which is positive and peaceful to everyone involved. If the exchange is handled properly, it's even possible to gain momentum in the leadership transition. This book is proving to be an invaluable tool to our succession team and elders in our own transition process.

Chuck Williams
Author, Eternal Route 66

The thing I liked most about Transition Plan is that Bob comes across so real. This easy to read book (took me just short of 2 hours to get all the way through in one sitting) is filled with personal stories of not just the successes of the transition, but the failures too. Russell not only extrapolates on his thinking for many years before transitioning the church, and how healthy that was, but he goes into some details about where his thinking WASN'T so healthy and things DIDN'T go so well.

The subtitle is a little is a little misleading , 7 Secrets Every Leader Needs To Know. You have to watch for the "list" because he doesn't break it into 7 chapters (Hint: they are all in one of the chapters). But, be prepared. The list is NOT a "do this, then do that, then do this,..." sort of list. It's really a list of reflections.

One of the highlights of the book, in my opinion, is that Russell focuses on encouraging leaders to form a transition plan more than he focuses on giving you a specific plan. He acknowledges that every leader (outgoing AND incoming) is different and each church family culture is going to be different, so you have to form the plan taking those factors into account.

I highly recommend this book for anyone in church leadership, or even in business leadership for that matter. Practical, real, honest, and all those things make for good leadership

This book is absolutely everything I hoped it would be.

HOWEVER, there are multiple blank pages in the last 30 pages or so in all 3 copies that I ordered. If the information were not so incredibly practical and useful, I might not care. But given how impressed I have been with the rest of the material, missing a random 10 pages or so thru the last quarter of the book is very distressing!