Passing the Torch
Your job is a temporary position.
God’s view of history spans hundreds of generations across all of history.
If your vision requires you as the leader to achieve the vision, your vision is too small.
In the grand tapestry of God’s design, your role occupies a fleeting moment. His plan uses even the greatest leaders, like Joseph, Moses, or David, for a very small slice of time. Then, someone else is raised up.
If your vision requires you as the leader to achieve the vision, your vision is too small.
Steward Your Role Well
If you instead see yourself as steward rather than owner, you will be deliberate about building an organization that outlasts you.
This mindset may sound dark. I am not saying you should daily plan for your demise. But when you do plan, take into account your limited time and how it influences your plan.
James says, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (James 4:13-14 ESV)
If you get this bigger picture, you honor God by having a vision beyond yourself. This will instill hope, knowing that your efforts are not just for the present but for the future beyond you.
Build with the Future in Mind
I left my role as Vice President of Marketing at World Vision nearly 30 years ago. Hardly anyone there knows who I am. But some of my work lives on—the ministry model for child sponsorship, the emphasis on low overhead. I could go on, but the point is this: When God uses us, it doesn’t matter if anyone remembers. Build with concern for the future, and your impact remains long after you are gone.
One leader I invested in told me, “Everything I’ve done [in the last 30 years] is because you recognized me as a potential leader.” It was a gift to receive that accolade, but I was not looking for it. It was a consequence of investing in him and in the organization’s future vision.
The biblical narratives of transition—from Moses to Joshua, Elijah to Elisha, and Barnabas to Paul—serve as clear mandates for leadership transition. If these transitions matter to God, then it is not just a good practice but a divine imperative to prioritize this aspect of leadership.
As in all things, as Christians, we ought to model to the world how to plan for and conduct leadership transitions. We should demonstrate an understanding of stewardship and an awareness of mortality that creates wisdom rather than fear.
Author and pastor John Maxwell wrote, “Achievement comes to someone when he is able to do great things for himself. Success comes when he empowers followers to do great things for him. But a legacy is created only when a person puts his organization into a position to do great things without him.”
How Are We Doing?
“When we talk about succession, why do ministries seem to have more stories about failure than about success?”
The hard truth is that roughly half of CEO transitions at Christian organizations are poorly handled—the same percentage a McKinsey study determined in the corporate world.
“When we talk about succession, why do ministries seem to have more stories about failure than about success?” asks Focus on the Family CEO Jim Daly. “That shouldn’t be our testimony as Christians. We’ve got to be healthier and do better than we are.”
I’ve become so deeply concerned about ministry transition that I spent last year writing a book about it. I interviewed dozens of leaders who experienced good or bad—even disastrous—successions. The principles I developed start with humility on the part of all involved: boards realizing they need the senior staff’s help, outgoing leaders planning years ahead for their succession, and incoming leaders who value the outgoing leader’s wisdom and show them honor—everyone working together in the same Spirit, focused on the organization’s future beyond its current leader’s tenure.
The apostle Paul said, “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers” (Acts 13:36). May that be said of each of us in leadership—that we served the purpose of God in our generation and built an excellent and lasting succession.
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Steve Woodworth has helped advance Christian ministries for over 40 years. As Vice President of Marketing at World Vision, he oversaw a decade of double-digit annual growth. As the leader of Masterworks since 1992, Steve has helped hundreds of Christian organizations achieve their mission. Steve’s recent book, Lost in Transition, (Kingdom Life Publishing, 2024) is about Christian leadership succession.
Listen to Steve Woodworth on The Flourishing Culture Podcast as he discusses “5 Keys to Successful Leadership Transitions.”
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