It was our favorite tree in our backyard, with strikingly bright orange colored leaves in the fall and beautiful bright green ones in the spring. But it got hit hard in a bad storm and was never quite the same. We had to radically prune it in the hopes it would come back. 

It didn’t.

Watering after watering after watering, but nothing grew on our favorite tree anymore. It was done. It got to a point where we were actually wasting water on it. It was clearly going to stay a dark brown stump. It was hard to make peace with that. We really wanted the tree to come back as it was before, with those bright orange leaves against a dark fall sky.

We faced a similar situation with a life group we’d led at church for 10 years. We saw an opportunity years ago for parents who were dropping their kids off at Sunday night youth group. We invited parents to stay and hang out with us and share life and God’s Word together. And they did. As a pastor’s wife and mom of teens, it was so much fun to watch something beautiful grow.

Like those brightly colored leaves, we watched people in the group start to take on some of the care for others in the group. And that was really fun to see. We watched new believers start to draw connecting lines from the Old Testament to the New Testament. That growth was exciting to see too. The group had a “core” that stayed as others came and went as they do over the lifetime of a group. 

However, in this 10th year of leading, we started to observe changing patterns:

• People were cancelling at the last minute on a regular basis. 
• People were arriving for the group later and later.
• Excitement and energy seemed to be fading.

Things were shifting and changing, and we knew we needed to discuss the future before it was too late.

In assessing what was happening, we could identify our own fatigue after 10 years of leading this group. The thought of leading it for another year did not excite us like it had in previous seasons. We could identify three leaders in the group, most of whom were younger than us. We realized after 10 years, the fatigue we were feeling, (plus the patterns we were observing), that it was time to approach younger leaders about passing the baton of leadership. There was limited time to do this so that the group would have a few months to transition before the fall season started.

Here was the (SWOT- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis we unexpectedly found ourselves in. We saw all of this as stewardship…utilizing the skills God gave us to the uttermost.

 

STRENGTHS: 

• There were still 6-8 people in the group who attended pretty regularly, including two brand new members who were excited to be there and added to the conversation regularly.
• We had led the group for 10 years consistently.

 

WEAKNESSES:

• The group was starting to see a drop in regular attendance. 
• Eagerness to be there was fading both for us and for other group members, almost like a mirror reflection.

 

OPPORTUNITIES:

• We could identify 3 of the 10 in our current group who were leaders, who could take the group forward.
• There were new women in our church who had never had a chance to be in a group.
• I was in a place to be able to host a group for women in our home.
• My time and energy as a pastor’s wife are limited. I needed to choose the very best outlet for them. Just because they aren’t flourishing in one area doesn’t mean they are done or that I’ve failed. It just means it might be time to move them to a spot where they can better grow.

 

THREATS:

• We used a “litmus test” from the book Necessary Endings (Cloud, 2011) – “If things stayed just as they are five years from now, would you be ok with that?” We could answer emphatically – NO. 
• If we waited too long to make a leadership transition, we might not have a viable group to hand to new leaders.

 

A verse I clung to during this time:

 

“Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” 

Isaiah 30:21

 

 

Here are the first steps we took in the communication process:

 

1. We listened to the nudges coming from God on this. Ultimately it is all His. We are simply stewards. He can see what we can’t. So we follow His lead.
2. We acted on what we believed God was calling us to do in having conversations with these younger leaders.
3. We asked the younger leaders to pray about future leadership and discussed some new ideas for the future.
4. We communicated with our group about the transition of leadership that would be happening, months before it would take place, so they were aware.

Almost simultaneously, a trusted friend approached me about starting a new life group just for women (something we really didn’t have at our church so it was a definite need). She and I both had daytime availability. I was in a place in life to be able to host it in my home.

We started meeting and praying about this, specifically praying around who God wanted to be part of it. And I could feel peace and excitement. While something was ending, something new was beginning.

Within a couple weeks, I “happened” to be volunteering in the nursery with a college student who needed a group (no coincidence). I talked to her about this new venture, and she eagerly accepted. Another lady I invited replied, “I’ve waited for something like this for a long time. Yes, I’d love to be part of this!” The leaders we approached to lead our Sunday night group expressed new ideas for how to lead and were excited about implementing them. I smiled at what God had done and was doing in all the transition. I knew I could trust God for what was ahead.

If we had insisted on continuing to water that stump in our backyard, we would have wasted a lot of water that could have been used to help other things grow. By diverting the water source of our energy to a new area, we were able to see God do things we would have missed otherwise. Your energy and skills are valuable resources for the bigger Kingdom. Use them to the uttermost in the time God has given you!

 

FREE DOWNLOAD:

MINISTRY SWOT ANALYSIS WORKSHEET | Alongside Ministry Wives

Here is a tool to use either by yourself or with a team if you are facing a transition and need to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

 

 

RESOURCES:

 

Leaving A Church Well As A Pastor’s Wife – Even If I Didn’t Choose To | Alongside Ministry Wives

If you are in a transition, people are still watching you and learning from you. Coletta has some great ideas to think through in this article.

 

 

Necessary Endings | Henry Cloud

Highly recommend this book if you are feeling a nudge towards a transition. This really helped me think through a lot of facets in significant change.

 

 

The Art of Letting Go: Biblical Principles For Successful Leadership Transitions | 242 Community

This resource looks at different facets in the Old Testament leadership transition from Moses to Joshua with some really good think points.