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THE SUCCESSION PRINCIPLE:
- What we bring to our leadership is important;
- What we do in our leadership is more important;
- What we leave from our leadership is most important of all.
Succession Revisited
For Christian leaders, legacy shifts from our aspirations for success to our responsibilities for succession. Today, this view of leadership invites a revolution. It makes our successor(s) more important than our success and what we give more important than what we get.
Succession planning is now a well-structured process that “focuses on systematically identifying, training, evaluating and mentoring promising internal candidates.”
Leadership development—in either a religious or secular context is a cycle of three stages:
Stage I: Selection: “What do we expect a person to bring to Christian leadership?” Usually a profile of leadership that includes expectations about character, competence, and culture.
Stage II: Service: “What do we expect a person to do in leadership?” One Christian leader summed up his performance review by saying, “We are hired for our strengths and judged on our weaknesses.”
Stage III: Succession: “What do we expect a person to leave from leadership?” I propose that “continuity” be the expectation for succession in the leadership development process. Joining with character for selection and competence for service, the expectation of continuity for succession will be a pervading influence throughout the whole of leadership development. In fact, succession was the primary goal of Jesus in the development of his disciples.
The Prayer of Succession
“Father, the time has come. Glorify your son that your son might glorify you.” John 17:1
John 17 can be called the Prayer of Succession because it addresses the three questions of the Succession Principle:
(1) “What does Jesus bring to his leadership?”—The Legacy of Trust (vv. 1–5)
- How have we exercised the leadership authority that God has entrusted to us for his purpose of bringing eternal life to all people?
- How have we organized and implemented the required functions in order to coordinate and complete our task?
- How have we accounted for the physical, human, and spiritual resources entrusted to us in order to give the glory to God? Our answers to these questions will determine our legacies as leaders in the name of Christ.
(2) “What does Jesus do in his leadership?”—The Legacy of Truth (vv. 6–19)
The legacy of truth will be written in the readiness of His disciples to assume leadership in His place. This legacy applies to all Christian leaders. When the time comes for us to step aside in favor of our successor, these questions will remain:
- Have our followers internalized the word of truth entrusted to us for teaching in principle and practice?
- Have our followers the assurance of faith that comes with their identity in the name of the Father and the Son?
- Have our followers experienced the full measure of Christ’s joy whatever the circumstances?
- Have our followers seen our example and submitted themselves to the sanctifying discipline of the word of truth? Humbling questions, to be sure.
(3) “What does Jesus leave from his leadership?”—The Legacy of Love (vv. 20–26)
- When the legacy of our leadership is written, what will we leave to our successor and coming generations?
- Do we see beyond our time and tenure to envision the full potential of the organization we are called to lead?
- Do we leave an organization unified by the Spirit of Christ’s love in complexity, diversity, and even conflict?
- Do we bequeath to our successor the example of sacrificial love in surrender without stipulation, service without success, and suffering without support? These questions force us to change our thinking from a legacy of success to a legacy of succession.
Succession Principle: What we bring to leadership is important; what we do in leadership is more important; what we leave from leadership is most important of all.
Part I: The Legacy of Trust
The Gift of Authority
“For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.” John 17:1–2
In Jesus, we see how authority to lead is to be accepted humbly, used discreetly, delegated clearly, and double-checked regularly.
Leaders reveal who they are by the way they use their authority. Jesus humbly accepts the authority that the Father entrusts to him. The authority that we receive for Christian leadership must be accepted with humility and exercised with discretion.
Jesus used his authority with discretion and never for personal, political, or economic advantage. Jesus delegates authority to his disciples with clarity and confidence. With the delegation goes the trust that lets his followers learn and grow on their own.
Time and time again, Christian leaders must stop, assess their achievements, and ask, “Who is glorified, God or me?”
Warning of history echoes through all of the years that follow. Power without virtue is the path to disaster. Power with virtue, however, is the promise of greater things given to us by Jesus Christ.
The Gift of Accomplishment
“I have glorified you on earth by completing the work that you gave me to do.” John 17:4
Peter Drucker, known as the “Father of Modern Management”, liked to say, “Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right things.” Tacitly, at least, Drucker seems to imply that leadership trumps management on the scale of value and position. But, we can be sure that he means a complementary and integrative relationship between two different dimensions of administration.
A leader cannot do the right things without a manager who does things right. Every organization is first judged by the standards of best practices as the baseline for managerial integrity and efficiency.
Let’s take a look at the eight working principles of administration from 1 Corinthians 12:
- God, through the Holy Spirit, is the founder of the church, the center of its organization, and the source of all spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:3–6).
- Members of the church, by the same Holy Spirit, have different gifts, ministries, and operating styles (1 Cor 12:4–6).
- God, through the Holy Spirit, endows each person with one of his special gifts: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, or interpretation of tongues (1 Cor 12:7–11).
- God, through the Holy Spirit, gives different gifts, ministries, and operating styles to different people for the common good (1 Cor 12:7).
- All of the diverse gifts, ministries, and styles in the body of Christ are integral to its harmony and essential to its effectiveness (1 Cor 12:12–27).
- God, through the Holy Spirit, organizes the church by appointing to special office apostles, prophets, and teachers, and to special work healers, helpers, administrators, and speakers in tongues (1 Cor. 12:27–28).
- Whatever general or special gift the Holy Spirit gives a person, higher gifts can be sought and received (1 Cor 12:28–31).
- Love is the highest gift of the Holy Spirit, available to all, and indispensable to the internal harmony and external effectiveness of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:31).
Management is more than efficiency of functions; it is all about the effectiveness of relationships. Justice is the special responsibility of administration. Sooner or later in the growth of any organization, the distribution of limited resources surfaces as an issue.
Character is the first thought that comes to mind when we talk about the qualifications for Christian leadership. Integrity as evidenced by honesty, truthfulness, and reliability is the internal imprint of character for which we look. Reputation is character put to public test. It is what others think of you.
Doing the right things while doing things right is a synchronized gift that every leader owes to a successor.
The Gift of Accountability
“I have glorified you on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” John 17:4
Jesus shows us how to finish strong. With a sense of finality in each step, Jesus left his disciples:
- His most humble example of servanthood by washing his disciples’ feet (John 13:1–6)
- His most detailed prediction of his death and the specifics of the disciples’ betrayal (John 13:18–30)
- His most personalized promise of the Holy Spirit to comfort, teach, and empower them (John 14:15–31 and John 16:5–16)
- His most memorable confirmation of their relationship in the analogy of the vine with the promise of fruit (John 15:1–17)
- His most comforting words for coming persecution and mourning when grief will turn to joy (John 16:17–32)
- His most conclusive words of assurance in the benediction, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Experience as a president and a consultant to presidents tells McKenna that the greatest temptation is to overstay our welcome. Rather than planning for succession according to the pacing and needs of the organization, the tendency is to schedule the decision on personal timing. McKenna often offers this advice to colleagues coming toward the end of their career, “Leave while you are loved” or “Go out on the high tide.”
To avoid these unnecessary complications, a leader should separate from the organization and its people, not just by position, but also by emotional and even physical distance.
Part II: The Legacy of Truth
The Gift of Acceptance
“For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.” John 17:8
Until a leader is willing to make the sacrificial investment in those who are entrusted to her or him, change will be small and growth will be minimal. For Jesus this means time, energy, and patience with disciples who are unlearned, shortsighted, and frequent failures.
Jesus employs all four types of instruction with his disciples:
(1) teaching truth;
(2) rebuking error;
(3) correcting deviation; and
(4) training in righteousness.
John Stott tells us that the first two steps teach creed; the second two steps teach conduct.
Not until his third presidency did McKenna get serious about growth plans for the executives who served with him. He asked each one to prepare a professional and personal growth plan that they would share and he would resource. Again, the demands of the presidency took the keen edge off these plans, but nevertheless, McKenna learned the value of meeting regularly with his direct reports, hearing of their progress, and helping them take their next steps. When he is asked what he would do differently if he could rerun his years in a presidency, it becomes clear that McKenna would give more attention to planning, resourcing, and following the development of those who led with him.
The Gift of Assurance
“Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me— so that they may be one even as we are one.” (John 17:11b)
The timing for the release of a student or a protégé is a test of leadership. When a teacher or mentor refuses to set her or his followers free, the relationship coagulates into codependency that is detrimental to both parties.
Whenever the mantle of leadership is passed from one Christian leader to another, the question must be asked, “Is the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God, the legacy of our leadership, that identifies us, protects us, and makes us one with the will of the Holy Father?” All other gifts of succession depend on an affirmative answer to this question.
The Gift of Affirmation
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them” (John 17:13)
To focus on either extreme of suffering or joy is to put a blight on our Christian faith. Suffering can lead to religious paranoia and joy can be a giddy form of the prosperity gospel. Only as we grasp the meaning of eternal truth can the paradox be resolved. As we know good because of evil, truth because of falsehood, and beauty because of ugliness, we know the fullness of joy because of suffering.
Jesus allows time for his disciples to weep, mourn, and grieve after his death, but it is the promise of his presence that is the hope for their healing.
In his later years, McKenna makes these his first words upon awakening, “This day I die—to self and sin—that I might come alive with the mind and spirit of Jesus Christ.” The discipline of these words draws his attention to areas of life where he is weak and where he needs to vow again to obey the commands of Christ. At the end of the day when McKenna remembers highlights and lowlights, wins and losses, there is almost always a joyous moment that goes on record in his daily journal.
Hudson Taylor, pioneer of nineteenth-century missions in China, put it this way:
McKenna always remembers his first reading of Henry David Thoreau as a junior high school student, and his statement, “He chooses to be rich by making his wants few, and supplying them himself.” A simple formula was devised with this passage in mind. When our wants are reduced to our needs, we are rich.
The Gift of Anointing
“Sanctify them by the word of truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” (John 17:17–19)
As we have already seen, he first prays that the Holy Father will protect them from the evil one (chapter 7). Then we have felt him speak his desire that they will have the full measure of his joy within them (chapter 8). Now, we come to his third plea, that they may be sanctified through the word of truth. His first prayer invokes the power of the Father; his second prayer requests the joy of the Son; and his third prayer appeals to the anointing of the Spirit.
Part III: The Legacy of Love
The Gift of Anticipation
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.” (John 17:20–21)
In the book Maestro, by Roger Nierenberg, the conductor of a symphony orchestra teaches us that a leader lives in three time zones. Applied to music, there is the time zone of the past in the written score, the time zone of the present in the conductor’s baton, and the time zone of the future in the unified sound of great music in the conductor’s mind. All three time zones come together in the movement of the conductor’s baton as the orchestra soars beyond the notes to the awe-inspiring realm of musical artistry. Jesus is the maestro. Grounded in the time zone of the Word, he anticipates the time zone of the coming kingdom through the deft and delicate touch of his Spirit in the time zone of his earthly ministry. No wonder his disciples never lost the sense of holy awe that took them across the earth and through the fire. To be leaders worthy of his name, we too must live in three time zones, faithfully honoring the Word, deftly directing our disciples by the Holy Spirit, and always anticipating the glorious promise of the kingdom of God on earth.
The Gift of Accord
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:20–21)
Jesus is still praying that we might be one in our relationship with him, one in our association with each other, and one in our witness to the world. This is the long-term legacy of every Christian leader. Oneness in Christ is a gift of succession that Jesus leaves us.
Ray Bakke is known as a global urbanologist with a passion for the poor and the needs of the city. In his book, A Theology as Big as the City, Bakke takes us deeply into his heart and mind as he confesses, “The burden of my life has been to find a suitable spirituality for urban ministry.” Confronting the inevitable tensions among Scripture, history, church, and city, he finds balance in Scripture as the final test of “doing theology” in the context of the city.
Using the model advanced by Andy Crouch in his book Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, the institutional church would have the sacraments of baptism and communion as its artifacts, a multigenerational community as its market, a discipline of character leading to holiness for its members, and a description of roles based upon gifts of the Spirit. Crouch also reminds us that it takes at least three generations for a mediating institution to develop, only one generation for it to fall from prime, and less than one generation for it to be corrupted to the core.
The Gift of Agape
“I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known to them in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:26)
Love is the bond that makes oneness possible among the disciples and in the church. Jesus uses the word agape, meaning “sacrificial love,” as the defining characteristic of the Father’s relationship with him, his relationship with the Father, his relationship with us, and our relationship with him.
McKenna notes that he had to learn the difference between self-control, a virtue for leadership, and self in control, a vice of leadership.
A Christian leader is, first and foremost, a servant. Secular leadership literature is to be credited for adopting the term “servant-leader” with its implications for personal humility and interpersonal responsibility for serving others. Those of us who claim to be servant-leaders in the name of Christ are confronted by the dual challenge of faithful stewardship and sacrificial love. Faithful stewardship is to serve others rather than ourselves; sacrificial love is to die for others rather than live for ourselves.
Suffering is inseparable from sacrificial love.
Depression is a frequent form of suffering for leaders. Winston Churchill battled what he called the “black dog of depression,” and Abraham Lincoln suffered so much from its effects that he wrote, “I am now the most miserable man living.” Leaders, whether in secular or religious professions, are especially vulnerable to depression. Doubt can also be a special form of suffering for leaders, even Christian leaders.
So, after exploring many gifts of succession, we conclude that of all these gifts—authority, anointing, accountability, anticipation, administration, and accord—the greatest of these is agape, or sacrificial love, that may ask us to suffer death in the silence of God with only the assurance of his unseen presence and the certainty of his promised resurrection.
The Succession Package: “Seamless Transition”
Christian leadership jointly recognizes that succession is a comprehensive package. Our tendency is to segregate the expectations of character for the selection of leaders, competence for the service of leaders, and continuity for the succession of leaders into separate packages. Leadership theory shows us that these expectations are interlinked like a seamless garment and predictive of leadership at its best.
Mission takes priority over position, relationships take priority over achievements, and long-term goals take priority over short-term gains.
As Max De Pree reminds us in his book Leadership Is an Art, every leader is a servant and a debtor.
Christian leadership gives priority to the assets transferred from one generation to another according to the Succession Principle: What we bring to our leadership is important; What we do in our leadership is more important; What we leave from our leadership is most important of all.
In a nutshell, the primary task of a Christian leader is to make Christian leaders.
