Robert Mullins said with the large number of retiring ministers versus the small number of young pastors rising up to take their place, “we’re in big trouble.”
But he wonders if the answer might just be in each church’s own pews.
“I think it should be an option to find that pastor within your congregation,” he said.
Mullins saw that happen recently in his own church — Crossroads Community Church in Elmore. After 11 years as the church’s pastor, he stepped away in September 2023 to become executive director of Madison Baptist Association.
And on March 17, Mullins preached the installment sermon for Crossroads’ new pastor — Brandon Wilemon, who for the past two years has served as the church’s associate pastor of students and discipleship.
Preparing for the future
The two have known each other for more than 20 years, ever since Wilemon was on a ministry team that Mullins was leading at a Super Summer camp at Mississippi College. After meeting at conferences occasionally over the years, they reconnected in 2015 and “rebooted” their friendship, Mullins said. Then in 2022, Crossroads called Wilemon to its staff.
“He was the perfect person to come in and begin his pastoral ministry,” Mullins said.
By the time Mullins felt the call to leave Crossroads in late 2023, he felt confident God was also preparing Wilemon to be the next pastor.
“I was mentoring him, and we made sure he was able to preach as much as he could and teach, to let him flex his muscles as much as he could, and he nailed it,” Mullins said. “You can see those signs all along the way.”
Naturally stepping in
Wilemon wasn’t sure about taking on the role at first, but in the months after Mullins left, he began to naturally step into those gaps.
“God used that time to show the church and him that he was supposed to be the guy,” Mullins said.
He said Scripture models transition through mentorship, such as when Moses passes the baton to Joshua.
“I think we are so traditional in our mindsets that we have put together this pastoral search process that is so strict in nature, but sometimes what we need most is to pray and walk in the Spirit and He will lead us to the person He has for us,” Mullins said.
Wilemon said for him, in addition to the built-in mentorship, a helpful dynamic of the transition was that he already knew the church’s vision and “already knew the people and their heart.”
“People have asked me if I feel different now that I’m the lead pastor, and I say that I’ve changed offices, but I’ve been leading like this for a while,” he said.
Crossroads was home before Wilemon became the pastor, and that’s made him even more “eager to embark on this journey,” he said.
Perfect opportunity
Zane Miles said similar things about his transition to become pastor of First Baptist Church Guin in January.
A decade ago, he left his job as Guin’s parks and recreation director to come on staff at the church as associate pastor and student minister.
“I moved my office the three blocks from the park to the church,” Miles said.
Since then, he’s had some opportunities to leave and take pastoral roles at other churches, but he talked with then-pastor Kenny Hatcher and told him that he felt led to stay in Guin.
And Hatcher thought that was the perfect opportunity for an internal transition.
“For three years, only we knew about it,” Miles said. “In November 2022, we started having conversations that he was ready to transition out of being the pastor, and we got a team together and started working through a transition process.”
In May 2023, the church voted for the transition to happen, and on January 1, Miles and Hatcher switched places. Hatcher is now associate pastor and senior adult minister.
‘Learning curve’
“I think the greatest benefit is that you don’t really have that learning curve of going to a new place and learning the congregation,” Miles said. “You’re able to jump in — you know the heart of your people, you know what the mission is, you know your community. You’re able to hit the ground running and do the work the Lord has called you to do.”
Mullins said he believes churches miss out on great candidates right within their church by having a requirement that new pastors already have pastoral experience.
“Some say you’ve got to have three to five years of experience before you can come as our pastor,” Mullins said. “But if you’ve been a youth minister for 20 years, how are you going to qualify for that job? One of the things we really need to do is ask, ‘What does the Bible say about this?’ And it says a lot.”
Miles said he sees this kind of transition modeled in Scripture too.
“Paul would start the churches and find people within that house church to lead that church — that was the biblical approach to the early church,” he said. “My observation is I think God really intended to raise up people from within the congregation to lead the congregation.”
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