Next: Pastoral Succession That Works

Packed with new research, new interviews, and practical solutions, this updated and expanded edition of Next will equip pastors, ministry teams, and Christian organizations to navigate leadership changes with wisdom and grace.

While there is no simple, one-size-fits-all solution to the puzzle of planning for a seamless pastoral succession, Next offers church leaders and pastors a guide to asking the right questions in order to plan for the future. Vanderbloemen, founder of a leading pastoral search firm, and Bird, an award-winning writer and researcher, share insider stories of succession failures and successes in dozens of churches, including some of the nation's most influential. The authors demystify successful pastoral succession and help you prepare for an even brighter future for your ministry. Includes a foreword by John Ortberg and an introduction by Eric Geiger and Kenton Beshore.

From the Back Cover

When it's time for a new pastor, will your church be ready?

"I pray this book sells a million copies! My dad used to tell me this too: 'All pastors are interim pastors.' We're stewards, not owners. We're only here for a blip in time, but the church goes on forever."--Rick Warren, founding pastor, Saddleback Church

"Wisdom around pastoral succession is one of the great needs of the church today, so it's about time this book showed up. I have already sent a copy to several of the elders at my church."--from the foreword by John Ortberg, author; former teaching pastor at Willow Creek and pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, Menlo Park, CA

"In the kingdom of God, success equals succession--looking for a successor all the time. Next shows pastors how to do that for themselves and how to model succession for their staff and volunteer leaders."--Mark Batterson, founding pastor of National Community Church, Washington, DC

"Someone said that the moment you succeed, you need to prepare for your successor to succeed. The church has too often failed in this critical mission. I believe this book to be one of the most timely and important of our day."--Jim Henry, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention; pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church, Orlando, FL

"This book is incredibly rich with good advice. Even a simple pastoral handoff like I experienced, from my father-in-law to me, could benefit from the wise insights and great stories."--Wilfredo "Choco" de Jesus, lead pastor of New Life Covenant Church, Chicago, IL

"Reading this book so helped me prepare for my own succession that I not only got all our leaders to read and process it but even went as far as inviting the authors to visit and coach us on how to do it right. Every leader needs to read this book."--Oscar Muriu, bishop, Nairobi Chapel (nairobichapel.net), Nairobi, Kenya

"Vanderbloemen and Bird are giving leaders permission to ask formerly forbidden questions now so that churches can thrive rather than limp through inevitable pastoral transitions."--Marnie Crumpler, executive pastor of Peachtree Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, GA