Friend, you are not Moses. You are not the last guy. God never meant you to be. Honor your predecessor not by being a better version of him but by building on whatever good foundation he left behind.

We are all interim.

I have often reminded myself of this fact in recent years. When I started seminary, I also applied for a ministry assistant position at a local church. Their youth pastor had left earlier in the year; they asked me to interview for the leadership role in the ministry as the “Interim.”

“It could be for four months . . . or four years.” With excitement and apprehension, I dove into the work. There has been a tension all along the way. How can I keep from checking out when my time might be up at any given moment? How can I drive and inspire a group of leaders toward a unified vision when I know all I’ve done will be handed over to another?

Put simply: How can I lead well when I’m interim?

I have felt the tension. That’s not surprising. When you’re interim, ambiguity is baked into your job description. At the same time, I have learned that the struggles attendant to an interim leader are common to all sorts of people in all seasons of life. The question is less of kind and more of degree. No matter our situation, we don’t know how long our Lord intends us to be in any given place. We don’t know how long we will enjoy the gifts of particular relationships and mentors.

So, what do we need to run with endurance this transitory race? Whether you’re starting a season or ending one, or perhaps grieving the loss of a ministry partner, I hope to encourage your heart. Part of the key for me in recent years, my challenge and comfort and charter, has been accepting the fact that good leaders come and go, so good leaders go and come.

Good Leaders Come and Go

The fact that good leaders come and go is illustrated by Israel’s transition of leadership in Numbers 27. God has just called Moses to glimpse the promised land and die without entering because of his disrespect in the wilderness (Numbers 27:13–14). Moses immediately thinks of Israel and begs God to send a new leader. Who will it be? And who will the people be without Moses?

If your church has ever lost a leader, you have probably asked these questions. What will happen to us? Who will take his place? What comes next? What is God’s plan? I remember a certain elder who stood up before the people in the aftermath of a crisis and voiced the cry of every bewildered heart: Are we gonna be okay? Even when we part ways on good terms for good reasons, the loss of a beloved leader raises a thousand variations of that same question: Are we gonna be okay?

Maybe you’ve asked that question yourself. It’s not necessarily an overreaction, and the feeling of instability doesn’t inherently mean we have idolized a leader. When Moses appeals to God to fill the open slot, he prays for God to put a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd. (Numbers 27:17)

Moses knew the absence of a commanding leader would spell disaster for the people. They would be scattered, vulnerable, susceptible. They would fail to conquer the promised land.

So, what kind of a man did Moses look for? Not a man who could facilitate plagues or provide new laws or stand forth as a prophet. Those were qualities unique to Moses’s calling. Rather, knowing good leaders come and go, Moses looked for a leader who would go and come.

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