Author name: Emily Heaton

“People kept asking me, are you excited? But I wasn’t all that excited, and I felt like something was wrong. To be honest, I was a little bit scared. There are so many calls in scripture where the call was clear, but it wasn’t something they were excited about.” Meet Dave Dummitt, Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, dynamic leader and pastor who knows a thing or two about transitions. In this episode, Dave invites us into the behind-the-scenes process of being pursued by Willow, wrestling with God’s call to Chicago, and what it meant to leave 2|42 Community Church in its season of thriving. Dave says candidly, “This wasn’t a transition, it was a turnaround.”

“We’re half the church we were before Covid hit, attendance wise. But the foundation is stronger than it was when we built from where we are now, before.” Meet Greg Lindsey, Lead Pastor of Discovery Christian Church in Colorado Springs, CO. From lawyer, to church planter, to transitions leader, Greg has a transition story that didn’t start well, and then got worse before it ever got better. He shares his approach of leading Discovery with “duct tape and dreams” and encourages leaders to let off the gas in their striving and driving and be far more willing to grow slowly.

“People aren’t looking for solutions to problems they don’t understand. I would have spent a lot more time in my younger years selling the problem, rather than selling the solution that people weren’t in the market for.” Since 2008 Gene Appel has been leading Eastside Christian Church in Anaheim, CA. Prior to his long tenure and catalytic leadership at Eastside, he made two successful transitions into the Lead Pastor role. To say he’s an expert in transitioning well is an understatement.

“The most challenging leadership task we’ll ever take on is letting go.” On this episode of Leaders In Living Rooms, Ashley Wooldridge, Lead Pastor of Christ’s Church of the Valley in Phoenix, AZ shares his personal story of the baton handoff with former Lead Pastor, Don Wilson, five years later. Ashley’s unique perspective on transition comes from his time at Intel prior to joining the CCV team. He leans into how differently the secular world does leadership transitions (typically more successfully than the church) and what we can learn from their proven track record.

Covid was a black swan event. Something that only happens maybe every twenty years, but completely changes culture. You have the opportunity for a new direction, a new place, a new time. What will you do with it? Meet Larry Osborne from North Coast Church who challenges leaders to understand where they really are today, not where they were two years ago. “Vision is worthless when you only know where you need to go. The starting point is you need to know where you are.”