Pastor Justasgood does not measure up to Pastor Bestofall

Sharon Mager, BCM/D Correspondent

COLUMBIA, Md.—Billy Bestofall, pastor of The Church of Everyone’s Dreams, leaves and the church is devastated. They cry, they have a farewell dinner and eat chicken and they look for a replacement. Soon Pastor Justasgood comes along and the church rejoices, starts new programs and the honeymoon is on. But then the church notices Brother Justasgood doesn’t do things the way Bestofall did. He must not understand. Justasgood has a clear direction of where the church should go, but it’s not what Bestofall envisioned. There’s trouble in The Church of Everyone’s Dreams. 

Maybe, if they took time to evaluate where they were when Bestofall left and prayed together seeking God’s wisdom on where He wanted to take them next, they could have been more prepared for Justasgood and maybe even decided to hire Pastor Bestever. Maybe they needed a transitional pastor. 

Ken Jordan, BCM/D missionary for church/minister relations, said that by his own knowledge and statistical data, there are about 50 churches in Maryland and Delaware without pastors. Jordan believes using a trained transitional pastor could greatly benefit those churches. 

Unlike  an  interim, a transitional pastor seeks to strategically guide the church through a process of introspection and evaluation. He provides focus and direction and prayerfully prepares the congregation to begin the next chapter in the church’s life. 

“It’s a more proactive approach that guides congregations through the process churches need to be prepared for the next pastor,” Henry Webb said. Webb leads a LifeWay-sponsored transitional pastor training team that came to the Baptist Resource Center in April to train a group of over 20 pastors from five states. 

Webb retired after serving for 28 years with LifeWay as director of pastoral ministries, discipleship, leadership and deacon ministry. He works on the team now with Roy Edgemon, also retired from LifeWay after leading the discipleship and family division for 25 years; Bill Hogue, past executive director of the California Convention and past director of evangelism for the SBC Home Mission Board (now the North American Mission Board); and Ernest Mosley, retired executive director of the Illinois Convention and past executive vice-president of the SBC Executive Committee. The team has been together since LifeWay began the program seven years ago and they’ve trained over 1,000 men to be transitional pastors. 

Webb stresses that all churches can use transitional pastors, not just those who were struggling or had some sort of split. 

“Most churches, even if they’re healthy can be grieving, hurting from the loss of the previous pastor and anxious about the future,” Webb said. 

Ken Jordan wholeheartedly agrees. “I know of about 30 churches that have been served by transitional pastors over a period of time. Those churches have discovered that they have had the opportunity to bring closure to losing the last pastor and are prepared for the coming of a new one. They analyze their strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats as a congregation and they gain more momentum, creativity and productivity,” he said.  

Transitional pas-tors are trained to look at the church’s history, examine basic biblical prin-ciples for the church and to guide the congregation through seeking what kind of results God wants from their church and how to get them. He helps train the church’s pastor search committee. 

Webb said tran-sitional pastors make it clear in the beginning that they themselves will not be available for the job of the permanent pastor. Once they find the right man, the transitional pastor transitions himself out so that the new pastor can establish himself. The process usually takes at least nine months, Webb said. 

Most of those trained to serve as transitional pastors are retired or nearing retirement. When they serve a church, it may be bi-vocational or full time. There are no smooth guarantees that a transitional pastor will go from one church to another, no steady guaranteed income or insurance coverage, so it isn’t usually looked on as a full-time career. It is, however, a unique ministry where pastors can share their years of experience and training. 

Upcoming  training  opportunities, costs and other information is available on the website, www.lifeway.com/tp. 

Ken Jordan said currently there are at least 40 trained transitional pastors available to serve BCM/D churches. To find out more, call Jordan at (800) 466.5290, ext. 213. or email him at kjordan@bcmd.org.