Preaching: And yet you’re almost inevitably going to become a model because this issue of leadership transitions in megachurches is a problem in American Christianity. There’s this whole new issue of how you take these gigantic churches and transition leadership to the next generation.

Russell: Well, we thought about that a lot and that’s why we did it. You can’t look out at the thousands of people every week and be aware of your own mortality or be aware of the fact that we all age without thinking about what is going to happen ten years from now, what’s going to happen five years from now? If it is the Lord’s church and you really care, you’ve got to think about how we can make this transition as effective as we possibly can make it. I’m glad it’s gone well. We prayed about it, we think God has led, I’m just saying I don’t want somebody to say this is a model that worked at Southeast Christian Church so we’ve got to follow it, because the personalities are a whole lot more important than the schedule.

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I have people ask me about it, and I’ll say, “Hey, we’re not finished yet.” But they’ll say, “Yeah, but you’re the only one. We don’t have very many others to look toward.” I’m sure there are others that have done it, and done it effectively. I don’t think very many.

Stone: The biggest piece of the puzzle is that man (pointing to Bob). The senior pastor has got to be the biggest cheerleader for the up and coming person. And that means swallowing your pride a whole lot and that means remembering why you’re here. He has done that. He’s probably my closest friend on staff and he’s my biggest encourager. We can laugh our heads off together, and when something happens in the church service or away from each other we get on the cell phones and we get in our car and pick up the phone and call each other, we’re laughing before the person’s even said anything because we can finish each other’s sentences — you know what’s going through their mind. It’s kind of cool to have another preacher sitting down there who knows what’s going through your mind when the baby starts crying during the conclusion or this takes place or when that doesn’t go right on the screen the way it’s supposed to. You’ve just got somebody to say I feel your pain!

Russell: There aren’t very many staff people who share the passion for the church or who look at the church from the same perspective as the senior pastor does. And David’s done that from day one. I think a good analogy for us was the passing of the baton. Certain things are required for the pass to be effective. One is the guy who’s passing the baton has to keep running until the very end and not quit. And the other guy has to start running before he gets there and they’ve both got to be in the same lane. There has to be a willingness to give up the baton at the appropriate time. You can’t drop the baton. The other piece was that when you pass the baton you don’t run along aside and criticize and coach; you go to the finish line and cheer like everybody else. That’s probably going to be a hard thing for me!