In August of 2024, the USA men’s 4x100 relay team lost the chance to earn a medal when they passed the baton outside the designated zone. Nobody wins when the baton is passed incorrectly, and this is true when it comes to passing the baton of pastoral leadership.

“Every pastor is an interim pastor,” one of my GFA colleagues often says. If that is true about pastors, how much more is that true of missionaries! Missionaries know the day will come when they must pass the baton to their successors.

But how can we pass the baton without dropping it?

In Acts 20, Paul passes the baton of leadership for the Ephesian church to the group of elders he meets at Miletus, about 30 miles from Ephesus. In a way, these elders were already leading the church, but they clearly anticipated that Paul would circle back around at some point and perhaps even spend another multiyear period with them. Paul informs them that neither will happen, and in verse 28 he lays upon their shoulders the mantle of responsibility for shepherding the flock.

Many of you anticipate the day when you, too, will pass the baton to those whom you have mentored. What will that day look like? What should that day look like?

Based on Paul’s speech to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:18–35, I see four realities you must pass along to those receiving the baton. We will deal with these four realities in a series of articles, the first of which comes from verse 28: You do not own your church, and you did not choose to be a leader in it.

The Church Is Not Yours, But God’s

The elders are to shepherd “the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.” The church is not the elders’ church. It is not the members’ church. It is not the community’s church. It is not Paul’s church! It is God’s. None of us should assume any proprietary interest in the church simply because we started it or are its current leader.

We sometimes speak casually of Pastor Smith’s church or Pastor Jones’ church. We need to dial back our words until they fit Scripture. We must convince those to whom we pass the baton of leadership that the church does not belong to them. Pastors are Christ’s gifts to His church, tasked with building up Christ’s body but not with being its head! Christ is the Head and all the members of the body, including pastors, are growing up in all things into Him (Ephesians 4:15). The Chief Shepherd will someday appear; we simply function as His undershepherds until His return.

In the opening verses of 1 Peter 5, Peter addresses elders specifically. In no uncertain terms, he seeks to remind them as a fellow elder that they are to be examples to—not lords over—the flock  (v. 3). This is not to strip away from an elder (pastor) the duty of leadership. 1 Peter 5 refers to those under the care of these elders as those “allotted to your charge” (NASB, 1995) or “entrusted to you.”

Other New Testament passages urge church members to submit to their church leaders:

• “And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you” (1 Thessalonians 5:12, NKJV).
• “Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you” (Hebrews 13:17, NKJV).

Pastors must lead! But they lead as overseers, not as owners—as those who have been appointed by the owner to oversee his valuable property and will, therefore, give an account someday to Him!

The Choice Is Not Yours, But The Holy Spirit’s

I was talking to an entrepreneur recently who makes ink pens that sell for $120. When I commented on how easily I lose pens, he replied that you keep track of pens that are valuable! The church is God’s and precisely because it is His and was purchased at great cost, He values it highly and has appointed overseers to protect it.

Paul reminded the elders at Ephesus that the Holy Spirit had appointed them as overseers (Acts 20:28). Those to whom we pass the baton must feel the weight of this. For most of our congregations, decisions about who leads the church will be made by congregational vote. Acts 14:23 may even suggest a similar process: the word “appointed” (NKJV) has the idea to “stretch out the hand in voting.”¹ Whatever the exact process used for appointing those who succeed us, they must be convinced of the reality that behind the workings of men is the will and voice of God’s Spirit. Their primary accountability is not to the church body but to the church Head—to the one who by the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit has made clear to the church that they are His gifts to the church.

My church recently ordained a young man to the gospel ministry. The instigation for his ordination did not originate with him. It originated with our church leadership who, recognizing God’s call upon this young man’s life, insisted that the church proceed to officially ordain him to the gospel ministry. These leaders were the instruments by which the Holy Spirit made His will clear for our church.

We will prevent many a catastrophe in passing the baton of leadership if when we do so, we, by our words, actions, and example, convince those who follow us that the flock is not theirs, but God’s. They must realize that the position of overseer is not a result of their choice, but God’s.