Over this reporting period, EGC’s work on intergenerational leadership succession and development has moved well into the data collection phase.
The team has now completed between 25 and 30 interviews and follow-up conversations with pastors across the city, including several conversations with pairs of pastors in which one had left the pulpit and the other had stepped into it. As interviews begin to wind down, the leaders participating are raising especially important questions about how transitions unfold in practice. The team has also held one focus group with intergenerational immigrant leaders from a Latino congregation, focused on the rhythms of leadership development and transition across generations. Two to three more focus groups are scheduled for this month, including a cross-cultural focus group on succession and leadership development and a focus group with Haitian pastors. In particular, the Haitian church context is one where intergenerational transition is especially difficult, in part because older pastors often have no financial provisions in place for retirement, which makes stepping aside a costly decision, and EGC is working to getting a focus group with this church community. After a lot of conversation, EGC is also sharing about this topic in a city-wide public event to mobilize and hear from the wider community.
Two themes are emerging that the team expects to discern further. First, there are few opportunities for younger pastors in Boston to connect with one another and with senior leaders. The city is well connected among its older generation of leaders, but the move toward online theological learning and the growing practice of recruiting senior leaders from outside the community, rather than developing them locally, are making it harder for leaders across generations to gather in the same room. Second, a growing number of leaders have told the team that this research names what they are living right now. EGC has been discerning modes of collaborative and collective inquiry and iteration that would empower the next generation of leaders, resource the church, and help the current generation of pastors finish well with honor for their years of ministry.
The photo shows Jane Yim and Pastor Henry. Pastor Henry, as the head pastor of a historic Black church in Cambridge, had a vision from the Lord to partner with, and eventually merge with, a thriving Asian American church plant. As a fun fact, this was the church that Soong-Chan Rah planted when he was in Boston. Pastor Henry then invited the younger Asian American pastor to become the head pastor, and instead of retiring, he stayed on staff as an associate pastor. Their continued leadership and relationship have been integral to the strength and growth of their church community, which is now Central Square Church in Cambridge, MA. Jane has loved getting to know him, and the photo was taken when the two had lunch on Saturday at his favorite restaurant after hitting it off during their interview that went on all afternoon weeks prior.