Every leader in ministry eventually faces the same question: “Who’s the next you?” It’s a simple question — but it should stop us in our tracks because it demands an actual answer. Because if we don’t have a real answer, then we don’t have a name, and we might not have a plan.

Church leaders across the country are scrambling to add services and expand ministry. I keep hearing stories of young adults sitting in the front row, bringing their friends, and being baptized together. Something is happening.

But the question is—how long will this cultural moment last? While none of us knows the answer, here’s what we do know: now is the time to act. Launching a residency program in your church isn’t just about staffing—it’s about capturing this moment to invest in the next generation of leaders. Here are five reasons to start today.

Here are five reasons you should double down on your investment for future leaders in your organization.

We must keep the conversation alive about staffing and what to do next.

A look at Lp’s Masterclass in Denver - October 2023.

We do this because the success that your organization will have in leadership development will only be as strong as the leaders you have who are doing the coaching and the one-on-one meetings.

At the end of a leadership pathway is not a nirvana where young twenty-somethings “finally get it right.” We should think of a leadership pathway more like a two-way street of influence where the student may at times becomes the teacher.

Leadership Pathway is in its fifth year of helping churches recruit, support and develop their next leaders through coaching and field experiences of a church residency. Over those five years of launching church residency programs my tune has changed…

Senior and Executive Pastors tend to say one of three things when the topic of residency comes up:

Leadership Pathway (Lp) matches potential ministry residents with churches that have committed to being a teaching church. We then coach the staff at the church in the best practices of equipping the resident for two years in 20Core Competencies in our coaching manual we’ve called a Guidebook.

Over the last eleven years I’ve been in a church leadership conversation that sounds something like, “We’re looking for someone who is probably 29 – 32 years of age, and has built a ministry and ready to take their next step. Know anyone like that?”

No matter the role in a church, this seems to be the center of the target when it comes to looking outside for the next team member. When churches have depleted their internal pipelines, and connections, it’s time to go out and hunt.