ILI: History Makers Leadership Podcast
Explore the transformative journey that is leadership. In each episode, we will dive deep into strategies, stories, insights, and the core values that shape and inspire effective Christian leaders who make an impact - all around the globe. Get ready to unlock your leadership potential.
When leaders are equipped, kingdom impact multiplies. Equipping leaders and spreading the Gospel. Let’s change history together!
This podcast is brought to you by the International Leadership Institute.
ILI: History Makers Leadership Podcast
Ep. 32 | How to Lead Through Succession Planning
Succession Planning is one of the most important focuses organizations face in next years to come. Studies suggest that around 60% of newly promoted executive leaders fail within their first 18 months, emphasizing the importance of effective succession planning. Furthermore, only 35% of organizations actually have a formalized succession planning process for critical roles, indicating a significant gap in proactive leadership transfer strategies.
Pastor Todd Wright, a decades-long partner and facilitator of ILI, unpacks his story of navigating pivotal life events that forced him to reimagine his vision and focus on succession planning. With 40 years in ministry, including 28 years at his current church, Midway Church, Todd draws on his experiences, sharing how the onset of the pandemic led him to prioritize finishing well.
Inspired by his mentor, John Maxwell, Todd emphasizes the importance of preparing organizations for future transitions while remaining true to their core vision. Mentorship plays a crucial role in leadership development, and Todd's approach is both intentional and empowering. He believes in nurturing the next generation of pastors and leaders by encouraging mentees to take ownership of their growth. By sharing his journey with his own mentors, Todd highlights the incredible impact of having someone who genuinely believes in you.
This philosophy is not confined to church leadership alone. It extends to supporting young leaders across various fields, fostering a mindset that helps individuals grow into their best selves. Leadership transitions within organizations often require careful planning, courage, and clear communication.
Todd provides a transparent account of his experience with his successor, Kevin, detailing the steps taken to ensure a seamless transition. Drawing lessons from the biblical relationship between Paul and Timothy, he stresses the importance of setting boundaries and supporting new leaders without overshadowing them. As Todd moves towards a new role focused on mentoring, he underscores the significance of leaving a lasting legacy and using one's talents to impact future generations.
When you begin ILI training, you will discover how the Eight Core Values will lead to the Seven Outcomes in your life and the lives of those you lead. Join a community of leaders who are ready to change history and make an impact in this world. Discover more at ILITeam.org/connect.
Welcome to the History Makers Leadership Podcast, where we explore the transformative journey that is leadership. Each episode, we will dive deep into strategies, stories, insights and the core values that shape and inspire effective Christian leaders who make an impact all around the globe. This podcast is brought to you by the International Leadership Institute. Now get ready to unlock your leadership potential and let's change history together.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome. I'm Katie Bennett, director of Training Communications here at the International Leadership Institute. Today I'm joined with Pastor Todd Wright from Carrollton, georgia, a little outside the Atlanta area, a local pastor here and also just happens to be my personal pastor. So excited to jump in. Today we're going to be talking a little bit more about leadership development and the succession planning when you get to that season of life making sure you're developing leaders who will continue the vision that God has put you on. So, todd, I'm super excited to jump in today. Before we begin, tell me a little bit about your background in ministry, how long you've been in ministry, how long you've been at your personal church and I'll just give you this note You've been my pastor for 20 years now.
Speaker 3:Only 20?.
Speaker 2:Maybe a little more than that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been awesome. I was called into ministry at the age of 19. Grew up in a Christian home, was a dysfunctional church country church, always a conflict about something, and that has certainly permeated the foundation for how I think today and how church ought to be. I just turned 60, so been doing this for a long time.
Speaker 2:We're proud of that. 60 is an awesome milestone. It's a huge milestone.
Speaker 3:And you know it's interesting hitting 60. It's a complete new season. It's almost like shifting from summer into fall or fall into winter. You pretty much know you're on your last leg when you hit 60. And it's like if I'm going to get something done, it needs to be now and needs to be soon. So that's the mindset in which I lead through and the view that I look through in virtually everything I'm doing these days.
Speaker 2:Okay, and how long have you been pastor at Midway?
Speaker 3:Been pastor there 28 years, so a total of 40 years in ministry, 28 of those in the same church.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you have some experience under your belt. Then to talk about this leadership development and, specifically, todd has actually stepped into a season of transition, so he is entering into the legacy years, and so I want to talk about today that process of what that succession planning meant for you personally and your church, and the process of how that came about and in that, help us understand how we as leaders, how important it is for us to continue that growth and leadership development in those following us in our footsteps. So first of all, talk a little bit about that succession planning process and how it came about.
Speaker 3:I think it's a huge component that's completely missed in most leadership settings, especially in the church. You know I'm a visionary leader. That's my passion, that's my drive, that's the type of leader I am and that's so foundational in biblical leadership all the way through. God gives you vision and he calls out leaders to go and change history by implementing that vision and doing what he's called them to do. I found myself always driven by that vision and never really thinking about how it was all going to end. And then I wake up one morning and I just don't have that vision. Now that's actually happened several times in my life and you know you go before God, you pray and you know, hopefully you get fresh, fresh insight, fresh renewal. But then I came to a point where it didn't happen and things were going great, church was going great, but I just had nowhere to lead the church. So that's how I stumbled into this concept of intentionally transitioning. It wasn't a thing I planned my whole life. Right.
Speaker 3:So that's what took me there.
Speaker 2:I love that you used the word intentionally planning, because I think something that we love to teach through the HistoryMakers curriculum is finishing well, absolutely. And so many leaders we see fall off the deep end and not finish well. So this intentionally planning, that's a huge phrase. That's probably amiss with many.
Speaker 3:Well, and one of my mentors many years ago. Everybody knows the household name, john Maxwell, but he said in a conference he was teaching there's no long-term success without succession. And I was in my 30s when I heard that statement. But it just kept resonating as time went on. And when I woke up one day and just didn't have vision as to where to lead the church, I had two thoughts on my mind at that point what's next for the church? One was help get our church out of debt. We had a fairly sizable debt at that moment and it was who's going to take my place after I'm gone? And that was only. That was six years ago and it took a year or two to really come to grips with the fact that it is time to plan that succession.
Speaker 3:And you'll remember some of these events. But for our audience, two things happen. One we had COVID. So soon as the vision dies inside of me, I'm trying to develop a succession plan and then COVID happens and it's like I can't leave before COVID. That would be irresponsible under church our size.
Speaker 3:And then, in the middle of all of that, I had a health issue, two health issues. I had a tumor on one of my kidneys and I still have that tumor and I live with that every day. Uh, they, they cauterize the blood flow. But they said if it were to rupture I'd be dead within three steps. And so I still live with that in the back of my mind. Uh, that was a wake up call. And before I can have the surgery for that, I'm driving down the road.
Speaker 3:I had a stroke and I had an accident. As a result of that stroke, I was out for a full day. I was in the hospital for three days. Today, thank God, I have no repercussions from that stroke. But those two events plus COVID really said you know, you have too much responsible for here to just continue on without having a plan in place. So, following all of that, I wrote a plan. It was really a 10 year succession plan for the church. If they want it that way. If not, they want it shorter than it would be a five year. And so we they've actually gone with the 10 year and the new pastor has gone with the 10 year and I will still be involved.
Speaker 2:So so talk about that first step of identifying a potential leader, because this is is the story of identifying a leader for your succession also plays into us identifying leaders for each of us in our own leadership roles of how we pinpoint somebody to continue the vision God's given us. So how did you, personally and as a church, go about identifying the next person?
Speaker 3:I actually said to our church leaders and to our church family you have to choose, you have to believe in who God's called the church to lead. I can't handpick someone. Even though I'd been there for a lot of years, you know, I had people I thought and people would ask me who's going to take your place someday? And my response has always been and I think this is a great mindset to have it's not my job to call the next person. Not my job to call the next person, but it's my job to train and prepare and coach and mentor numerous people that God can choose from and our people could choose from. And the person the church has chosen is someone that I mentored and coached for seven years personally in their younger years and they went off and served a church for six years and then they came back. But I was not a part of that decision as to who we would bring in. They chose that person.
Speaker 2:So you mentioned in there having that responsibility of equipping and training multiple people. I love this idea that it's not just a hyper one-focus person but identifying potential leadership. How do you go about equipping and training and preparing? What does that process look like once you've identified that person?
Speaker 3:I think number one is a mindset, an awareness that that is our task as a leader. It's not just to get things done, to preach sermons, to quote grow a church or reach people All that's part of the Great Commission. To quote grow a church or reach people All that's part of the Great Commission. But when you step into leadership Ephesians 4, it's very clear. It's about equipping the believers, the saints, for the work of ministry. And so equipping and that through coaching, discipling and coaching and mentoring are those three primary mechanisms that we teach through ILI and they're so essential, each one at different seasons. I always look for a person that I can see God's hand on. There's a sense of hunger. I also look for basic character and work ethic. You can just tell is someone doing this because it's the new thing to do? Are they doing it because they want a job? Are they doing it to be known? I mean, there's a lot of reasons we do stuff, but you can just tell, over a period of time, the people who just keep on serving and they just keep stepping in to new territory and are willing. So I look for that. Keep stepping in to new territory and are willing. So I look for that.
Speaker 3:I also have tried to build a culture and culture is so key in an organization, a church and every organization. But the culture itself that we tried to build was one of critique and growth, meaning you build an environment that allows people to fail. I sometimes think that some people approach marriage and they approach having a team of people in the same way. They're looking for reasons to get rid of that person, they pick out all the bad stuff they don't like about these people and and they build a case. You can't mentor people in that environment. It's impossible, because you don't believe in them. Yeah, I look, I look for the smallest good thing, the smallest good quality, and begin there. And begin there. And do people sabotage themselves? Yeah, all the time. But, my goodness, I've sabotaged myself many times and I'm glad I had people patient with me. So building that environment has been huge for us. So we have critique times.
Speaker 3:I had to start by building that for myself because it's hard to critique some people. I've never found a person who loves to be critiqued not one in the universe. So I started out having a team of younger people, most of whom were not even born when I started preaching and after I would preach, I would get them to critique my sermon to my face. Tell me what was wrong with that, tell me how I could communicate better, tell me how I can make it better for the next service or the next time. And so once we did that for a while and one of those people was the individual who's speaking, speaking next then it created a better scenario for us to turn the table and they could be more receptive to it. So there's small things to do along the way to critique, to help develop, and it's and you do that for enough years it becomes a mindset the culture, the culture it builds the culture.
Speaker 2:And I'm sure in turn, you as a leader, have felt growth from that teaching moment.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, absolutely. We have a teaching team today. So 10, 15 years ago I was doing all the teaching and preaching at Midway Church and even a large portion of that. We had three services on Sunday morning and I was worn out and I still did all of them. The church thought I should be the one preaching every sermon and today we have a teaching team of about four or five people and I'm preaching this coming Sunday first time in about six weeks, you know.
Speaker 2:And that's part of that potential leadership that you helped develop and pour into and really in a sense helped the church and as leaders it can help whatever you have under you, follow people following in part of your vision, running with you, not be attached to you as the leader, but be attached to the vision, because now they realize that it's not about you as the pastor or you as the leader in that slot.
Speaker 3:And you know, as a leader you have to work at that constantly. I call it deconstructing the God complex, because one of the biggest traps of leadership in any realm is to begin to think everything is about me as the leader, right, and it's just. It's a natural outflow. When you're in charge of something for a long period of time, that's just the natural outflow. So I've had to intentionally do things. Through the years I've got an ego like everybody else. I love my ego stroke like everybody else and love to be told how awesome I am.
Speaker 3:And, uh, you know, my mom always was telling me I wish I was as good as my mom always thought I was but um, I've learned if I, if, if I'm not, if I don't perceive myself as good as my fans think I am, I don't have to accept that I'm as bad as my enemies think. I am either, so that always helps. Yep, always helps.
Speaker 2:That's good. Well, I want to expand a little bit on the mentorship that we started to talk about, because we teach in the History Makers curriculum about multiplication. It's one of our eight core values here at ILI and through that multiplication you've already mentioned the three arms that we go into with discipleship, coaching and mentoring, and so mentoring, being that third arm, really to me speaks into succession and leadership development pouring into the next set of leaders. So how do you personally go about mentorship in your life, both for you as a person but also for your church? How does that come into play in culture of your church?
Speaker 3:Yeah, this has several layers to it. One is it's hard to mentor somebody that doesn't want to be mentored. I'm not going to spend time with someone talking about an issue that they're not interested in changing. So my number one philosophy right now I'm intentionally mentoring pastors, younger pastors. So my philosophy is I'm looking for the pastor who's looking for me, and so I don't go around really making a lot of phone calls, sending texts. I'm looking for the person that's hungry and that asks me, because those individuals are going to do something with what they learn. So that's my number one philosophy.
Speaker 3:Second is I ask them to come with the agenda. I don't know where you want to go. You tell me where you want to go. You tell me what your biggest challenge is, what your biggest weakness is, what your biggest struggle, your biggest fear, your biggest dream, what's next in your church, what's next in your journey or your marriage, and so that's where I begin. I have, as of this week, I have 11 guys that I'm intentionally meeting with about once a month. Wow, and it's all about where they're going. Their churches are all different, different sizes, different denominations, their ages are different the individuals. But each of them they bring the agenda and we just sit and talk. They ask questions, but each of them they bring the agenda and we just sit and talk. They ask questions and if I don't have the answer I try to go help them find the answers and help them think through things, develop a strategy and a plan.
Speaker 2:So that's interesting that you've actually stepped outside of the succession of your own church and your position as a pastor to actually help succession of local pastors and those around you.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and you mentioned specifically in our church I mentor men. You know, and I will do that spend time with people. I mentor young leaders. I love young leaders that are in any realm Doesn't have to be church life, because I know what it's like to have a desk and a name and a sign and be oblivious to what I need to be doing and I'm drawing a paycheck and sometimes you're sitting there waiting for the phone to ring or you know how do you become intentional, how do you plan, how do you dream what's the strategy to take the organization or church or department through a process and just put your finger on the pulse of what's needed. I know what it's like to not have a clue, but if I can hear a person's questions or fears or frustrations, I can usually help them identify that and I love helping that.
Speaker 2:So, to you, a key area of mentorship to hone in on is that personal touch, that intentionality of each one's relationship as different and unique.
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 2:So to help them grow.
Speaker 3:Yes, pastors, men and young leaders that's really my focus, but they have to own the process and journey. I'm here to help them become the better version, or best version, of who God's called them to be.
Speaker 2:I love that and I love the intentionality of letting them come as well and owning their half. I think that's a big we talk about in our material. It has to be an established relationship. Sure, it does, Just like you said it's not something that just you don't want it and it almost has to be someone who's excelled at something.
Speaker 3:Nobody's a master at everything they. If somebody's gonna mentor, they've got to be good at something right and to pass it on.
Speaker 3:And many years ago I had no one in my 20s. I had. I had one pastor. Then there was a moral failure and he disappeared. Uh, outside of that, literally I went years with no one and that's when I connected to john max and that's sort of the passive mindset. There's good material out there, like these podcasts, books. There's so much good stuff. The best masters in the world of various subjects are all out there and if you're hungry enough, you can find them and they can change your world.
Speaker 2:That was going to be one of my questions is how you have felt mentored over the years. But it's very good point that you'd.
Speaker 3:Sometimes you don't have that mentor and that's a part of the fuel that fuels me today. I went all those years without someone. Now I had a couple of mentors Dr Larry Reeser. He was the founder of an organization, global Focus, and he's very familiar with the International Leadership Institute also. He's now retired and in Connecticut he intentionally walked into my office as a stranger and said I want to be your friend, and that's how it started. And to this day he's still a close friend and through every season of life he's one of those guys that's just been there and sometimes being a mentor is nothing more than having someone you know, who loves you. When they find out the worst about you, that's someone.
Speaker 2:Close relationship. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and belief, just a mindset of belief. Do you know how few young people and church leaders have had someone look at them who really believes in them and speaks to them as someone who believes in them rather than being? We have all all kind of voices in our head and I always say, the loudest voice we ever hear is our own and for some of us and this is addressed in the uh ili and history makers some of that is our own self-esteem and it doesn't matter. You can have a thousand people out there and you can be so gifted, but if you can't see it through your own voice and it's not about being arrogant I'm not speaking about being arrogant, I'm just talking about being confident in who God made you and he wants to use that. And so when I sit down with someone, one of the first things I want them to know is I believe in them. I wouldn't be spending time with them if I didn't, and that makes a lot of difference and that's what the couple of people.
Speaker 3:Larry, another man named Bob, bob Keller was a lay person almost twice my age. I think he's 87, so not quite twice. He's 25 years or so. He's 87 years old now. We talked on the phone two weeks ago and he still asks me and he still believes in me and I was just a young guy and he was in the church, but he would speak truth to me, but not threatening. He would speak harsh truth to me as a young leader and pastor, but I always left there feeling like he was my friend and that was a unique gift.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so, speaking on this mentorship and you really touched on something I want to see if you can help me with, because I know there's leaders that are listening today who are struggling with that confidence. Yeah. How do we talk about succession planning and developing the next leaders when we're struggling with our own confidence? So have you battled that along the way in this succession planning and developing your next set of leaders, and how do you overcome that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and developing your next set of leaders. And how do you overcome that? Yeah, I don't have an exact strategy, but I know the power of the Holy Spirit is number one, because there's a sense of boldness, even when I felt inadequate and felt like I didn't have the answers or didn't feel confident in something. You look in Scripture and being filled with the Spirit, one of the first things that comes is courage and boldness, and so I think there's a component of spiritual dynamic. I believe there's a component of emotional dynamic.
Speaker 3:Some of us get beat up and battered and bruised internally and we can look confident on the outside but be so broken, scarred and wounded on the inside, and it hinders our ability to be bold in doing what God's called us to do. So I think the way I learned it many years ago was the phrase that Mark Twain uses. You know, if a cat sits on a hot stove, he'll never sit on a hot stove again, but he don't like cold stoves either. And the concept is we have a bad experience in something and our confidence goes down immediately. We feel like a failure and we never want to go there again. But if you're going to lead, you have to. You just have to, and so I think a sense of awareness of that helps, because they're success after failure If we just keep moving forward. God never called a single flawless person. All the great stuff that's happened throughout.
Speaker 2:Read the Bible You'll see that right.
Speaker 3:Lots of flaws, the good bad and the ugly, and we all have them, and it's learning how to manage those things that makes a lot of the difference when it comes to confidence and self-esteem accepting who God made you to be and living in that, embracing it, being transparent about those things, but then be bold about the vision.
Speaker 2:I think that's important is having that level of transparency with the ones you are bringing alongside and trying to raise up. Having that transparency, humility, allowing them to see vulnerability is probably key in all of that succession.
Speaker 2:One verse I wanted to mention is a foundational verse for us at ILI, and the thing what we teach is 2 Timothy 2.2. And the things you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will be qualified to teach others. This is Paul talking to Timothy, so a key mentorship relationship that we see he's passing the baton so to speak.
Speaker 2:In your experience? What does it look like to pass the baton? What is the actual prepared? What are you doing? What does it feel like? What does it look like? What? What are you passing off?
Speaker 3:Well, I'll say it's. It's tough, but for both um, kevin, who's going to be my successor and is my successor, um, he's 37 now and here I am 60. And we had the conversation when we entered in this at Midway, as co-pastors for three years and there's one year left in that process. There's only two ways this can go wrong, and that's you or me, just two. The church has already accepted my proposal, the church has already officially called him. So the church is good, and now it's you and me we have to manage this relationship. There has to be an intentional process of handing off and an intentional process of you stepping in.
Speaker 3:So the biblical analogy that I have used. Neither of us really like it, but we can't think of anything any way. Better is we say I have to become more like John the Baptist. He has become more like Jesus. You know, I've got to decrease and he has to increase. So I had to look at him being he's the younger guy. So I had to lead the way and I said look, there are things in this transition that only I can do and I have to manage those, those. I have to intentionally let go of some things and defer. And so we.
Speaker 3:We decided that I would continue to be directly involved in anything that had begun while I was there initiatives, campaigns, whatever. So I want to help finish well with all those things. Anything that is like immediately, right now. We both will do together. Anything related to the future, he owns it. So if it's futuristic in nature, even if it means undoing a lot of the stuff that I've done, I had to say to our staff first day, 42 people in the room. I had to say to our staff don't ask me ever what. I think about something that Kevin has proposed.
Speaker 3:Never come behind closed doors and ask me what do you really think of that? Because I'm telling you, if he initiates it and says this is where we need to go, I'm for it, even if it's direct opposite of some of the other things that I may have initiated in the past. I'm no longer the leader in charge of the vision. He owns the vision. And so I've had to say to Kevin you cannot be intimidated by my tenure, by my large, massive footprint of 28 years tenure, by my large, massive footprint of 28 years. And you get a big footprint when you lead somewhere 28 years. I'm going to do my best to tone it down and step away, but you have to be willing to step in and step in boldly, without feeling like I'm over. You know my shadow's hanging over you and he is doing that. He spent the first year almost every time he would preach saying something nice about me. I said stop it, you got to quit that stuff.
Speaker 2:That's also his character. It's his character.
Speaker 3:He's such a gracious guy but he's doing such a great job and he's a bold leader and is doing exceptional. So the first year I would still be fairly involved with a lot of things, but today I don't attend any staff meetings at all, haven't this year? Um, we have a lead staff meeting that I'm a part of, but I do not lead that. I do not speak at that unless I'm asked. I'm in the room to just as point of reference and to be a support to Kevin, and soon I'll stop attending those. So it's been a gradual process.
Speaker 2:I think what I heard was one thing to watch out for. A pitfall might be lack of strategy, lack of clear focus set at the beginning. It sounds like you guys really laid the framework.
Speaker 3:Clear expectations.
Speaker 2:Clear expectations, the beginning. It sounds like you guys really laid the framework expectations, clear expectations and I think when that's not there for succession planning, you're just.
Speaker 2:You're not really going to hit the mark, you're not going to hit that target and that's what we want to do as leaders is to finish well, because we have planned and strategized and clearly set that expectations for the next leader, and I think that succession planning is successful when you are able to do that and, speaking personally from my vantage point as a member of the congregation of that church benefiting from this succession planning, we have seen a very smooth transition already, very seamless integration of Kevin coming in and feeling like he quickly owned that position and not in a in a very humble way.
Speaker 2:so I think that's also important to see the next leader coming up, not like you said, not feeling like they're overpowering or anything but it is a humble ownership of that position and to be able to say that you gave him that authority and you gave him, you initiated that with that expectation is huge.
Speaker 3:Well, it all comes down to another key principle. With history makers, material is stewardship. You know we talk about time and money and gifts, spiritual gifts and all those things, but when you're a leader, it's not my church, it's not my church. Our church was founded in 1847, so we just celebrated 177 years or so. It's not mine. So I am a steward not only of the church entrusted to me for this season, but also the giftedness and influence. Leadership is influence. I have to manage the influence God's given to me and at this point it's about helping diminish that influence and build the influence of a future leader and so just being faithful in that process and really excited about the future, believe our best days are ahead. Because of some of that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that that stewardship is a calling for each of us as leaders If you step into, whatever leadership position you are in right now, I would challenge everyone listening to this podcast right now to think strategically about the future and whether you're just getting started in your leadership role be that ministry or corporate, or wherever as a parent, wherever your leadership role is to think about the end and how you want to finish and finish well, and we know that that's not easy to do without intentionality.
Speaker 3:I always laugh and say everybody wants a funeral where people say nice things about them. But we need to give them a little something to work with, and sometimes with some people at some seasons, they'd have to struggle to find something nice, you know, and I want to give them plenty of things to work with.
Speaker 2:Goal and goal in mind it's called our legacy.
Speaker 3:Our legacy, that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I want to hit really quick on um as you approach that successful ending. Okay, let's say that the succession has gone well and you're you are foot out the door. What does that look like for you? What is the celebration? What does that?
Speaker 3:Well, we have a plan for that too. Okay, it needs to be a strategy for everything.
Speaker 2:We're having a big party, aren't we?
Speaker 3:That's exactly right we are having next August 25. We will celebrate my 30 years at Midway. Immediately after that I will go on a one full year sabbatical. That's twofold purpose. One is for me to give me time to sort of revamp, shift gears emotionally, because the transition is not just happening in the church and with Kevin, it's happening in me. I'm giving up something I've done, an identity I've owned for 30 years and stepping away from that and it's been my life's blood for all that time. So you need some time intentionally to let go of some of those things. Also, I'll be coming back Now.
Speaker 3:In our case it's unique. I gave the church an option and I gave the new pastor an option. I'm willing to go after that sabbatical and disappear and never see me again. I'm not going to interfere with what's going on here. Another option would be I really want to invest in pastors and young leaders and men in this next season of my life and if you could find a way for me to do that, I would love to do that. Pastor Kevin actually wants me to do that. A new role on staff, at a much lesser pay, of course. A different type of role where my responsibility really is about coaching and mentoring pastors and missionaries and young leaders and all those things. So I'm calling that Better Legacy. Better Legacy is a sort of a side organization. I'll begin to help do that and write some materials, but it's all about producing a better legacy, so I will continue on. I'll have the title of Global Leadership Pastor, so all of our mission.
Speaker 2:That sounds good, doesn't it sound good? That sounds good. It's Global Leadership Pastor. I like it so.
Speaker 3:I will be available to teach with the International Leadership Institute. Midway wants to support that endeavor. I will be available to go meet with pastors for lunch and just listen to their heartaches and help them overcome obstacles. We have various missionary partnerships around the world. Go and invest in them as an extension of Midway and I'll be doing that for at least the next five years after I return from my sabbatical, until I'm 67. And we'll take it from there to evaluate after that. But it gives us a plan for that season. So I'm retiring. The phrase I meant I couldn't think of a second ago is some people talk about retiring While I'm slowing down and shifting. I'm retiring, if you want to use that phrase, to something, not from something, and I think that's huge because we need purpose and to me it's sort of like the capstone will be the capstone and multiply my ministry and what God's done in my life through the years to be able to invest True finishing Well.
Speaker 2:That's truly. We love a good celebration here, so if you would like to ever invite us to have some cake and ice cream. We'll join you anytime.
Speaker 3:Ice cream's top of my list. Uh, it'll be handed out when we go to heaven, so I think so too.
Speaker 2:Um, I and I want to thank you for coming today. I think your legacy has already gone before you and our church and both. Todd has actually been equipping leaders with ILI since 2004. He's been on many continents and many countries and probably holds the record for as many nations as any pastor that's gone with us and equipped leaders. So we thank you for your service to HistoryMakers training and also for me personally for being my pastor for so faithfully and long, and I know that the best years are ahead of you and ahead of our church and for those listening.
Speaker 2:If you would love to get plugged in a little bit more with Todd's new podcast he's launching soon. It's called Mentors Chair. We'll put that in the notes and, todd, I know that will be a really cool podcast to listen to. We touched on mentorship today and it was so easy to tell that you're passionate about that and have a calling from God for that, so I know that will be very informational for everyone. We hope you enjoyed today's podcast and we pray that you just take a moment to ask God how your leadership will go before you and how you can take and multiply that what God has given you to the next generation.