September 7, 2024
FAYETTEVILLE – On January 31, Liberty Baptist Church welcomed their new pastor, James Oney. On Sunday, February 6, Oney was installed as the church’s pastor in an impressive ceremony. Ray Gentry, the Associational Mission Strategist for the Southside Baptist Network, presented a certificate of appreciation to Randy Wood, the man who served as senior pastor at Liberty for 18 years.
Wood then welcomed Oney as pastor and as a symbol of the succession that was taking place, placed a Yakama or kippah, a symbol that God is reigning over us, on Oney’s head. He then acknowledged the succession as being like the succession of Elijah to Elisha, Moses to Joshua, Jesus to the Disciples, and Paul to Timothy and placed a prayer shawl on Oney’s head and shoulders symbolizing the promise of his prayers for the new pastor and signifying the importance of prayer for those who minister and preach the Word of God.
When Wood began to sense that the Lord had a different ministry plan for him, he began to pray about how he might help the church navigate through an effective and seamless transition. That was two years ago. He explained, “As most pastors do, I investigated some options for moving to another ministry role outside Liberty, but the Lord was not in them. The Lord told me to demonstrate some unsought patience.”
Unfortunately, when many pastors begin to sense that God is leading them to another place of Christian service, they fail to consider how their departure will impact the church in which they have invested years of ministry. The Barna Research Group has discovered and reported that “unplanned transitions have more tumultuous outcomes. However, when transition is planned in advance, pastoral leadership staff have time to map out the shift without emotions and lack of time being thrown into the equation. This approach is more likely to lead to positive outcomes once all is said and done.”
Gentry was aware of the value of having a meaningful transition plan for churches and established a Vision and Succession Planning Team for the association and asked Wood to serve as the chairman. Wood responded, “No prayer is necessary. I believe this is what the Lord wants me to do.”
Before becoming pastor of Liberty, Wood served as Director of Missionary Personnel at NAMB and was somewhat familiar with succession planning in some large mega churches. He explained, “I had never seen or heard of succession planning in a middle-sized church but realized that succession planning could help the church and assist me in discovering my next step in ministry.”
Will Heath, who had written the book “Embracing Succession” became the 2020 Vision Team Consultant for the Southside Baptist Network. The counsel received from Heath was considered “amazing” by Wood. He added, “I read as many books as I could find on succession planning; and each session with Will Heath and the books I read stirred my spirit that succession planning was right for Liberty and me.
“The succession planning provided by our Network concluded in August 2020 and I presented the concept at Liberty at our quarterly business conference in October. We entered a process we called ‘2020 Vision’. We had studied our church and community. Half of our Sunday morning worship attendees were people of color. We are in a largely African American community. We didn’t need a vanilla process to guide our succession plan. We needed to develop a plan that would fit our unique church and community.”
Under Wood’s leadership the church established two primary goals in their succession planning. First, there was a desire to preserve the health and stability of the church during the pastoral transition, because of the racial diversity in the church. The second goal was to transition the pastor’s influence of 18 years to a new senior pastor.
A diverse Succession Planning Team that represented a cross section of the church was selected to chart a course forward. Wood led the team to create a prayer strategy and develop appropriate guidelines including: (1) Job analysis – what do we need? (2) Recruit high potential applicants, (3) Screen and evaluate those applicants, (4) Present the candidate to the church, and (5) Onboarding the new pastor.
To enhance the effectiveness of the succession, the Search Team chose a model they called, “Modified Continuation.” This model called for Wood to continue to serve the church as Senior Pastor until a new Senior Pastor was called and then continue to serve in a new pastoral role after the new pastor assumed his duties. Wood stated, “We knew this model would only be viable if I was a servant leader and our new pastor was a servant leader. This seemed ideal for us, because isn’t this the biblical model of a pastor?”
It became obvious to the search team that Oney was the divinely appointed successor to Wood. He was serving as the Minister of Education and Discipleship for Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Dothan, AL. Wood testified, “James is uniquely gifted to assume the responsibilities as senior pastor of Liberty. He is both a leader and a servant. The Lord has fit our hearts together. We have immediately bonded as brothers, co-laborers, and friends.
Wood, age 64, served for 44 years as a full-time vocational minister, but has now transitioned to being a part-time associate pastor at Liberty. Wood remarked, “A pastor can assume a title in a moment of time. I hope to spend several months transferring my influence at Liberty and in our community to Pastor James.
“Our new senior pastor and I have agreed that I would assume responsibility for outreach. I am so excited to ‘swing away at the devil’ and spend more time with my family. I am so blessed to continue to serve the church I have loved for 18 years.
Pastor Oney declared that he and Pastor Wood have developed a mutual admiration society and remarked, “From our first conversation I have felt a kindred spirit with Pastor Wood. He is so genuine and has such a great love for people. I feel like he is a brother from another mother. I am grateful that he is going to stay around to provide his knowledge and experience to our ministry.”
An effective succession plan can eliminate much confusion and turmoil for both churches and pastors if it is launched in prayer and carefully strategized.
