2021.05.16 | Succession Planning
“Succession Planning”
The Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, California
Sunday, May 13, 2021
Acts 1:15–17, 21–26 (NRSV)
Much is being published in the professional journals and blogs that I subscribe to about the challenges that the pandemic has brought to organizations and organizational leaders.
Early in the pandemic, I was talking with a good friend who is a seasoned leader. He has served most of his life in the administration of liberal arts colleges. Prior to that, he worked in county government. I remember my friend projecting that not all organizations or leaders would survive the pandemic, and that the landscape of our economy might be forever changed. I agreed with him.
Not all organizations will survive the pandemic. Many small liberal arts colleges that are primarily dependent for income on recruiting and retaining a large percentage of residential students are struggling to keep their doors open. The arts, especially the performing arts, are taking a beating through this shelter in place experience. And dine-in restaurants have had to revamp their business models to operate as take-out establishments in order to stay in business.
Years ago when I was working on my Ph.D. in Chicago, I studied organizational life cycles theories such as the type advanced by Ichak Adizes, who argued that all organizations progress through nine unique stages. At any time in the progress of their evolution, an organization can falter, stagnate, or die. Much of the success of organizations, he argued, was due to the organization’s leadership. Each stage of life required a different approach. In the early stages of the life cycle, Adizes explained, an organization had to have a leader with charisma and entrepreneurial skills, or it would never take off.
Not surprisingly, organizations can only grow to a certain point without an entrepreneur delegating authority. If she or he is able to recruit and retain additional leaders and let go of some day to day operations and control of the organization that led to its original success, the organization can continue to grow and thrive. Sadly, many organizations falter and die because what is sometimes called “Founder’s Syndrome,” i.e., the founder won’t let go, or she or he becomes incapacitated, leaves to take on a new venture, retires, or dies in office--without a succession plan in place.
My role with the UCC National Offices, before I came to serve Eden Church, was to help CEOs and governance groups in our 375 health and human service organizations recognize the importance of succession planning for CEOs and other top management roles, so that the ministries that they started or carried on would thrive rather than flounder or die as a result of a leadership change.
II
When I cracked open my Bible to prepare for today's message, I was reminded that current day businesses and religious organizations were far from the first to face significant contextual and leadership challenges. The early church struggled from day one with these challenges.
The story that Sandy read is a familiar narrative about a nominating committee, in this case the first apostles, who were gathered together in the City of Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost, facing a major organizational and leadership crisis. Jesus had been crucified and though raised, would not be continuing his conventional ministry. And, Judas, who betrayed Jesus, and who had never been a believer in the first place, committed suicide, and left a vacancy among the twelve.
You and I might have been content to settle for a lineup of eleven apostles, but that was not the case with this crew, who understood themselves to be part of a Jewish reform movement. You see, Israel had twelve tribes. The apostles believed that their mission was first to the Jews, and later to the Gentiles, so they needed twelve (not eleven) apostles to fulfill their mission.
Note that numbers are never randomly chosen or stated in the Bible. They are always symbolic. In addition to the number twelve being significant, because there were twelve tribes of Israel to reach, the number one hundred twenty figured prominently in the mission of the apostles too.
Luke reported in Acts 1:15 that “the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons.” This number was significant because, according to Jewish law, 120 men were required to form a synagogue with its own council. Thus, the decisions of this group gathered in Jerusalem were legitimate. They met the minimum requirements for a synagogue, and the number twelve was the number needed for the synagogue council.
Now you know why the apostles needed a twelfth leader, and why the reference to 120 people was significant. So let’s take a look at how the selection process was conducted.
I have to say, as someone who has spent a good amount of time studying the role of leaders in organizations, it’s a little disappointing to realize how Matthias got the call to fill the open seat among the apostles.
According to Luke, the eleven were together in Jerusalem, with the one hundred twenty, including Peter, and despite his tainted credentials, the other apostles affirmed Peter’s recommendation that all nominees be people who had been continuous followers of Jesus since his baptism. (This idea eventually was overturned by Paul, but it prevailed in the early days of the Christian community.)
Given this criteria, only two names surfaced: Joseph called Barsabbas and Matthias. According to the minutes of the meeting in Acts, chapter 1, the nominating committee prayed for the spirit’s guidance, and then they drew lots. That’s right, they said a prayer and played the lottery.
How crazy is that? No strategic planning, no succession planning, and no training for his successor, they just pulled Matthias name out of a hat and he got the nod to fill the vacancy.
III
So much for organizational life cycle theory, much for succession planning, and so much for a recruitment “scorecard” and a comparison of ratings related to measurable results, demonstrated skills, and behavior events. Matthias got the call, because he won the lottery--or some would say, “lost the lottery,” because he along with ten of the other eleven died as martyrs for the faith.
Most organizational design experts would consider the actions of the first apostles to be a sign of ridiculously poor judgment and practice. And, yet, the Christian church has survived over 2000 years, while most restaurants fail in the first five years, and even corporate giants, like Sears & Roebuck, have shuttered their doors after a little more than 100.
Perhaps you agree with me that there’s something going on in Christianity that Wall Street and the Harvard Business School haven’t figured out. But what is that something?
My read of Acts and the Epistles suggest that there are at least five counter-culture traits that the apostles exhibit that have contributed to the advancement of Christ’s mission:
The apostles exhibited a deep and abiding faith, a clear sense of vision, and a strong set of values.
They traveled light. They took little with them, and sought the hospitality of the citizens where Christ had sent them.
They knew their strengths and they leaned into them.
They knew their weakness, and collaborated with others to fulfill Christ’s mission (I Cor. 12)
They were all about the service of others, rather than serving themselves.
Imagine with me a church where these five leadership attributes are the modus operandi of its leaders, and you will see a church that is not only surviving this pandemic, you will see Eden Church and the Cherryland community thriving, to the glory of God. Amen.