Editor's Note: Recognizing that a number of pastors in Virginia will soon retire from active pastoral ministry, we began this series in the previous issue with a foundational book review by Gary Chapman, who directs the Southwest Virginia Christian Leadership Network for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. In the next issue will appear an article by Bob Moore, pastor of Bonsack Baptist Church, who writes from his own experience in preparing Bonsack for his retirement.
Craig Harwood, a seminary-trained human resources director with the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, is uniquely qualified to share how churches may benefit from what business has learned. For more than 15 years he has led human resource development efforts that include succession planning, executive and team development, organizational and personal transformation and overall organization development.
Harwood earned a masters of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and served as a bivocational pastor in New York for 11 years. Most recently he has worked with associations and state conventions in leadership development, and assisted the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board in designing and implementing the “Association of the Future.”
For two days, April 24-25, long-tenured pastors in some of the largest Virginia Baptist churches, most of whom are approaching retirement, met in Charlottesville to discuss how best to prepare for the succession of pastoral leadership. The meeting, called a “Succession Conference,” was sponsored by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. The focus of the conference was to provide these pastors with some ways to assist their churches in succession planning.
The following interview was conducted during the course of the conference by Dee Whitten, team leader for the empowering leaders team of the VBMB.
Whitten: Craig, tell us about your ministry background and your current position with Coca-Cola.
Harwood: I enlisted in the army after high school and became an electronics technician, working on Nike Hercules radars for four years. When I came out of the army, Texas Instruments hired me in Dallas. I worked as a technician in Dallas and went to college and then sensed a call to ministry and attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. During all this time I continued my work in electronics. After receiving an M.Div. degree, I found out through a meeting with my preaching professor that there were a lot of churches in the northeast which did not have pastors because they could not afford the salary. Since I had some technical skills, I took a position with Texaco, moved to New York, and received a call to be the bivocational pastor of a church in Stoneville. While at Texaco I transitioned from electronics work to become the manager of human resources development for research and development, focusing on team building, performance management, career development and leadership development.
Then Texaco asked me to come to the corporate office in Harrison, N.Y. So I resigned my church in Stoneville and moved to the Chappaqua area, where I accepted a call to pastor a church there. The ministry track and the corporate track moved along together, but the corporate track accelerated much faster than the ministry track. So after 11 years in New York I resigned from my pastorate because it got to be too much to try to do both. Everybody knows there is no such thing as a part-time church and Texaco wasn't going to let me do their job part-time either. So I resigned from my church and moved my family to California where I continued to work with Texaco on a special assignment. After being in California for six or seven months, I received a call from an executive with Coca-Cola.
Whitten: Explain how you see your work with Coca-Cola as your “ministry?”
Harwood: I attended a Deming seminar [W. Edwards Deming who developed Total Quality Management theory] about 15 years ago and listened to him talk about leadership development. My experience at this seminar was almost as real as my initial calling into ministry. Deming was a Christian, and he focused on practices and principles to use in working with people in the workplace. I just felt like I had received the word that I needed to stay with what I was doing because I was going to have an opportunity to influence large organizations in the way that they treat people. This would open the door for them to hear the message of the Lord. Even though you can't share the gospel in the workplace, you can practice the behavior and you can set the stage for the gospel. I have a driving passion to ensure that an entire organization of people would be aligned with a specific set of values concerning the way that they treat people and edify one another.
Whitten: Tell us a little about your work with succession planning and leadership development at Coca-Cola.
Harwood: I went to work first with the Minute Maid division of Coca-Cola in Houston. My focus was to develop the succession plan for this division. After a couple of years I received an offer to come to Atlanta and manage the succession plan for the entire organization. The foundation for succession planning was already in place but I had to develop the “legs” for this program. We needed to develop the system and start building the talent pool of potential executives.
Whitten: What are some transferable principles that work with Coca-Cola but would also work in succession planning with churches?
Harwood: One transferable principle would be the need for assessment. In the corporate world the executives receive official assessments three to four times a year. These assessments include 360-degree feedback on strengths and weaknesses and passions. Executives in the corporate world really get tired of these assessments but it is something that needs to be done on a regular basis. It helps executives to stay focused on their capabilities and assets and the areas that need specific growth and attention. This assessment process is not common in churches but could be a huge asset to the growth of the church and the individual leaders. There are plenty of assessment tools available for churches to utilize.
Whitten: Besides assessments, what are some other transferable principles from the corporate world?
Harwood: There is the whole issue of understanding your talent. So often, when a company is building a succession process for a particular role, the leader has no idea what skills are needed in order to fulfill that role. They know what type of people they are looking for to fill the role, but they could not tell you what skills are critical in order for that role to be successful. So too, when churches are looking for a pastor, they need to know what competencies the person needs to have in order to be a success. That's why succession planning should always include a study of core competencies needed and experience mapping.
Whitten: That's good! Are there any other transferable principles that you would like to share?
Harwood: I think that another one would be ongoing feedback that measures performance and the results of that performance. Without this ongoing feedback there is really no way to gauge whether a person does well or not in their role. Although it is a staple in the corporate world, most churches do not carry out regular performance evaluations and most pastors do not submit performance reviews. The challenge that I put out for pastors is that if you don't write down at the beginning of your plan what it is that you wish to accomplish for the Lord and the church, how are you going to know if you get it done?
Whitten: Why haven't churches been proactive with succession planning?
Harwood: I think that the pastors themselves are very often barriers to succession planning. The pastor may feel threatened and not want to deal with the issues of succession. The church body is often not comfortable talking about the departure of the pastor. When you are planning for the future, you must know the competencies of the current pastor. Yet that can be threatening for the current pastor and makes the church members even more uncomfortable. Many times the church members will tend to be a little dishonest in their appraisal of the pastor. However, this is not fair to the pastor because he needs to have the opportunity to grow and develop in his position. Also, there is almost a jealousy taboo against talking about the previous pastor or the future pastor or even a staff member who replaced a previous staff member or even a volunteer who replaced a previous volunteer. There is that unwritten code which says that “if you can't say anything good about someone, don't say anything at all.” Actually, what really happens is that “if you can't say anything good, don't say it to their face — rather, say it to their 50 closest friends.”
Whitten: So, what are some practical steps that a church and a pastor can take in order to start in the direction of succession planning?
Harwood: First of all, have the vision of the church laid out in front of everyone. Then, make sure that the church understands who they are, what their strengths are, and what their opportunities for ministry are. When you have those things out in front of the people, then they can do a self-awareness evaluation. They can decide what skills it will take in order to achieve those strategic goals. Then, they are ready to have the conversation about pastoral succession.
Whitten: Should succession planning be reserved primarily for long-tenured pastors or would it be something that all churches need to be involved in?
Harwood: I personally think that every single church should have a pipeline to a succession plan. They should know what type of person is needed to fill the pastor position in their church and should know the qualities and competencies that are needed. What are the competency areas and the personal characteristics required of the person who will lead this church?
Whitten: That might keep changing based on the growth and development of the church?
Harwood: Yes, if the demographics of the church change and the population of the church shifts, that's going to impact these competencies.
Whitten: Craig, thanks so much for your input and your work with Virginia Baptists.