When we went through COVID, I realized that the timeline for growth and campus development had shifted, and I probably didn’t have enough years left to finish the building process, which would come at a time near my retirement. I will turn 65 this year, and with a multi-year process to make room for multiple services, I realized I was running out of years, while the church’s need would only grow.

By early 2023, I began preparing for the reality of my upcoming retirement. During my sabbatical leave, I considered the effect of the COVID crisis, the changing community around us, and the growth of our church family, and how to keep making room for the people who would be coming to our church. But mostly, I have sought to understand God’s direction for me, personally, and for our church.

So, 3 years ago, I began to talk to our personnel team about what I saw on the horizon. I invested a very serious study of healthy transitions in long-term pastorates. It wasn’t realistic for me to expect to lead into my 70s, and after over two decades of leadership, I needed to work with all our teams to prepare for a major leadership transition when I retired.

Following my sabbatical study, reading, and interviews with other long-term pastors, I believed the choice was simple: do I delay my retirement and put the church in a delay until later, or do I move my retirement date forward and free the church to pursue challenges with space, community needs, and discipleship plans with fresh leadership sooner? That made my choice very clear. I am committed to the healthy future of our church, and I must do what I think is healthiest for the church, even if it means that I must adjust my own plans. To me, this was the consistent function of leading this church family in healthy ways.

My decision does not mean I will disappear in a few weeks. It simply starts a healthy process of transition. The target date that our personnel team, church council, and staff felt was realistic was late autumn of 2027. That’s about a year before my full retirement date by age, but that also gives a search committee about a year & a half to have a new pastor in place.

No. Kelly and I have been talking, praying, asking questions of older peers, and trying to find the sweet spot between what is best for the church and healthiest for our family. I’m not ill, burned out, disillusioned, or disappointed. I still get very excited to come to work, to engage with our team, to invest my life in the lives of our church family and community. This timing is ALL ABOUT my sense of God’s purpose and vision. It is the expression of my love for this church family that has led to this timing.

Our pastoral staff is the best I have ever had the privilege of leading. They are capable, dedicated to this church, eager to serve each other, and they operate with mutual respect. Any pastor would be crazy not to love our staff! The pastoral staff have been aware, have prayed with and for me, have asked great questions, and have provided incredibly helpful suggestions. At first, it was a bit of a shock. But before I thought about specific times, we had long conversations about long-term pastorates and what is involved when those come to an end. Our pastors love this church family, and they have loved my family and me well. They are invested and will be invested throughout this entire season. They have the capacity to help a new pastor settle in, and their character will mean that they will help him begin to lead.

I have always believed that I was accountable to the church through certain teams. Personnel Team evaluates and consults with me many times a year. So as this began to unfold on my heart in 2023, I began to visit with them and see if they saw some of the same realities I saw. When I completed my sabbatical research and presented my findings, they confirmed my thinking with their support.

So, we launched a team to help us examine our bylaws. They had not been modified in any significant way in 20 years. We realized that we had no policy for a retiring lead pastor. I presented my sabbatical findings to that team and asked them to spend time studying options and crafting material for bylaws. I read them in on my intentions and received affirmation from them. When we took our Bylaw proposal to the church, we spent time discussing it with the entire church before asking for approval. Our church affirmed that proposal overwhelmingly last year.

In the last few months, I requested our personnel team to initiate my review, in congruence with the new pastoral transition process, which is stipulated in the Bylaws. They completed that review and then sent their recommendation to our church council. On April 22, the church council affirmed this action and voted to join the personnel team in this recommendation.

The transition process has several parts. (The SEARCH process will be detailed below.)

The first part is for me, as lead pastor, to notify the church of my intentions. Then, I needed to address the leadership that would be needed while the church searched for the next lead pastor. Most churches have “interim pastors” for an “interim time” of leadership. I have walked through 7 different “interims” in my lifetime, both as a staff member and as a church member. In Baptist churches, pastors who are leaving typically give 2 to 6 weeks’ notice and then move away. The church will immediately hire an “interim pastor” to lead temporarily until the next pastor starts.

But in churches that have had consistent lead pastor leadership for many years (like ours), the transition can take longer.  I am not taking another job. I am retiring, so I want to continue to lead our church as I have for the last 23 years and provide stability for the church family while a search committee does its work and as the church prepares for the next pastor’s arrival and leadership.

That’s why our Bylaws Task Force spent two years researching and preparing for a new policy concerning “retiring” lead pastors. It stipulated that the personnel team would assess my physical, emotional, spiritual, and leadership health to determine if I was healthy enough to HELP the church, rather than HINDER the church through this interim period.

Our personnel team completed the evaluation, reviewed it with our Church Council, and recommended that I lead through the months of the search and be available to help in the transition as needed and requested.

In most ways, it will feel like “usual” or “normal.”

For more about the SEARCH, see “Search Process” below.

YES! Gladly and passionately! Many have asked why I was absent from the family room or chapel services. The answer is very simple. We’re hosting 5 services now, 4 of which occur at the same time. I cannot be in two places at the same time. I will be preaching in these venues on most Sundays. I will rotate with Ben Condray, Chris Ransbottom, and Jansson Jackson, taking a few Sundays off for vacation, study leave, or an occasional pause. But for most Sundays until my retirement, I’ll be preaching in the Family Room or the Chapel.

I will still interface with personnel and the church council and will offer any help our pastor search team needs. It is not my role to name a replacement. It is my role to serve as a helpful resource to that team. But in all other respects, I’ll continue to do exactly what I am doing now.

Yes. But I will also be very aware of decisions that commit us beyond my expected tenure as lead pastor. I will still guide our staff in priorities, in reaching out to people in our community, visiting hospitals, and providing pastoral counseling to people in need. I just know that my time is now limited by this pastoral transition, and I must be sensitive to committing us to something I won’t be leading into the DISTANT future.

In our church, we elect a team of members who express spiritual maturity, active involvement, and who well represent the broad cultural fabric of our church. This group, the Pastor Search Committee (PSC), operates independently of my direction. I am a resource for them, but they operate on behalf of the church. I can provide help, resources, better understanding of the lead pastoral role, but I do not choose the next pastor. They will search, interview, and recommend that person to the church.

Several companies specialize in staff searches, and some are specifically skilled in matching churches with lead pastor candidates. Our policy does not dictate this in any way. The search team will be able to bring that kind of recommendation to the church. Our state convention provides some resources for assistance, but most staffing agencies provide services for fees.

The church body will nominate people for this role. Our committee on committees will then vet them, just as we would for any major committee. Then they will evaluate how those represent age, experience, and connections across the entire church family. Once that has been done, these final nominees will come before the entire church for a vote as a whole group.

Then, they will walk through a thorough orientation about searching for a new pastor. The church family will be given the opportunity to submit recommendations to that team, and they will prayerfully process those candidate recommendations as they conduct a national search for the best fit with our church family’s needs, culture, and challenges.

When this team settles on a final candidate, they will present that candidate on a call weekend during which our church will have a chance to become familiar with him, ask questions, hear him preach, and lead in a variety of opportunities. Finally, the church will vote to decide whether to call that person as our next lead pastor.

The most important role for the congregation will be twofold:

1. Pray for the search team, staff, and the future pastor.
2. Keep fulfilling the mission and vision of the church. The church is people. As the church, we continue to lead people to pursue Jesus where we live, work, and play. We will continue to lead, serve, love kids, reach people in our community with the Gospel, and take the gospel to other cultures in mission.

But directly with this process:

1. Church members will nominate people to serve on the search team.
2. The Committee on Committees will oversee the vetting process on behalf of the church family.
3. Church members will be allowed to recommend candidates.
4. The church membership will have the final vote on any candidate that the search committee recommends for the Lead Pastor’s position.

This will be largely determined by the Pastor Search Committee. They may engage congregation surveys, consultants, conduct interviews, or use other means to gather feedback from the congregation. They will develop a profile of non-negotiables (theology, philosophy of ministry, work history, and skills) and issues specific to our church’s needs. Those will shape the search.

On average, searches take 12-24 months. Often, those searches are delayed until interim pastor arrangements are made. In this scenario, we bypass that delay since our current lead pastor will continue to lead. Our timeline for this transition splits the average span at 18 months.

May 3

• The church asks for approval of the pastoral transition agreement.

May 17

• Church members submit search team nominees.

May 18-June 18

• Vetting of nominations by the Committee on Committees.

June 21

• Final slate of 7 nominees & 2 alternates for church approval by vote.

July-August

• Orientation & training for Pastor Search Committee.
• The Pastor Search Committee begins its search.
• The church submits recommendations of candidates.
• Fall Semester begins.

4th Quarter

• Pastor Search Committee presents 1^st update to church.
• The new budget year begins.

1st Quarter 2027

• Pastor Search Committee 2^nd Update to the church.
• Search continues.
• Spring semester begins.

2nd Quarter 2027

• Pastor Search Committee 3^rd Update to the church.
• Search continues.

3rd Quarter 2027

• Summer Programming.
• Pastor Search Committee 4^th Update to the church.
• Search Continues.
• Fall Semester Kickoff.
• New 2027-28 Budget Approval.

4th Quarter 2027

• Target Date for Bruce’s retirement, pending a new pastor’s arrival.

At any time in this span, the search committee may present its recommended candidate to the church. In that event, these reports and search updates would be moot, and my retirement would flex according to need.

Limited. I am a non-voting consultant. I can provide information about the lead pastor’s role and will offer any help they require. I am a shepherd, not a king. I can speak into experience or key responsibilities. I can provide background information if I know a candidate. I can speak to issues that I see in our future. But the search team is charged by the church with that responsibility. I will serve them as they see needs that they request me to address.

I’m not eager to retire, and I’m not avoiding a problem. Every part of my research on transitions like this pointed to the advantage of a lead pastor continuing to lead while the search team did their work. I want to help our church for as long as my involvement is healthy and helpful. I want to care for our church while we walk through this change together. In my studies on church transitions, 87% of the “healthiness” of the transition depended on the retiring pastor—his attitude, his willingness to pass the baton, his concern for the health of the church, and his attitude toward the incoming pastor. I am just as concerned about our church today as I ever have been. And I am determined to do all I can to help our church family AND the next pastor in his arrival and ministry.

I will still be the lead pastor until the next pastor arrives. I will offer help in the transition, based on how much he requests or desires. But until then, I’ll continue to lead.

During the transition process? No. After a new pastor comes? Any good leader will shape the vision, mission, and direction of the church. But the church will still operate under a congregational polity, with committees and teams charged with specific responsibilities. The personnel team, church council, finance, and a host of existing teams will still influence the vision, mission, and direction, just as they do now. But a new pastor will certainly bring new ideas, experiences, and strengths to the table.

Our ministries, staff, and weekly services will continue to function as they do now. The change will be related to the incoming pastor. Until then, we will not make major changes that have long-term implications that would hamstring a new pastor from leading well.

Pray.

Pray for our church family, for the search team, for our staff, and for the future pastor.

Give.

Continue to support the ministry of this church financially. Costs will continue, needs will continue, and our effort to reach our community will continue. But additionally, we will need to support our search team when they need to travel for interviews, site visits, and meetings.

Serve.

Everything we now do to love our community and make disciples still matters. We don’t go on “hold” for this search. We simply empower a team to search while the rest of us keep serving, worshipping, and, with resilience, leading people to pursue Jesus where we live, work, and play.

This is unknown at this time. I cannot dictate that. My predecessor gave me ample room to use my gifts and skills to lead. He was very intentional about not interfering, although he offered his support, friendship, and wisdom for the asking. So, I will be available to help if he needs or wants that, but I AM RETIRING. But I’m only retiring from being a lead PASTOR. I will never retire from being a disciple and disciple-maker. I can’t predict the future, but I do know what it takes to lead a congregation. And when I came here, I wanted the freedom to use my gifts, insights, and the Lord’s direction to lead this church in the direction this community and church family needed. My main job after retirement will be to do everything I can NOT to hinder, but to support this new season in our church. And my predecessor showed me what that looked like. I’ll always be grateful!

I would wrap up my time as lead pastor earlier. That could be really great for the church, and we would embark on the future sooner.

I have expressed my willingness to extend for some time. The same evaluation by the Personnel Team would apply (is he healthy enough, effective enough, to continue leading our congregation?) At the same time, I do not want to hinder this transition with no end in sight. As long as the team is working faithfully for the church, so will I.

When we created the new transition policy, we considered some kind of overlap as a healthy advantage. To help the new pastor acclimate, I could be available to serve as a helper to the new pastor. But that overlap is affected by many factors: the experience of the incoming pastor, the comfort of that arrangement, my physical health, and a healthy transition to a new pastor’s leadership. The main goal of this process is to have a healthy SHIFT of leadership from a seasoned pastor to the next. We picture it like a relay race. The one holding the baton runs alongside the next runner only until the baton is secured by the next runner. The new runner (new pastor) then takes off while the previous pastor slows and leaves the track. Some handoffs are easier, quicker, and more successful than others.

Again, I am retiring. It is not a shift to co-pastoring. My presence only serves a purpose as long as it helps the new pastor settle in and begin to lead.

I have always been concerned with momentum. But momentum ebbs and flows, influenced by culture, the economy, families’ experiences, the politics of the day, staffing, and a host of other factors. The whole point of this transition is to help maintain the momentum of disciple-making by this church. We will continue to push to do our best, to reach people, to lead well. But decisions affecting 2 or more years ahead will be slowed. This church bought land for a new campus without a pastor, so it didn’t stop fulfilling its mission or seeking to reach people. But our staff will be cognizant of decisions that will need to be made after a new lead pastor is in place.

He WILL BE different. He NEEDS to be different. It’s a matter of degrees. We obviously don’t want a pastor with reduced ethical standards or commitment to Jesus. But personality and gifts do affect the kind of leadership that a new pastor will bring. The mission is timeless. The programming or styles do change over time. But a pastor’s heart for the Lord and His people will be expressed in a variety of ways. The search committee represents the church and will express who we are, what we envision, and how we have operated. They will be sensitive to that as they review candidates. At the same time, needs will change. This community is not the same community that I came to lead 23 years ago. So, we should anticipate change. It’s not “will it change,” but “how will it change and to what extent?”