Your ministry needs its next generation of leaders.

You know it. Your leadership team knows it. You’ve talked about succession planning in meetings.

So you invite younger volunteers to share ideas and take on more responsibility.

But there’s a catch.

Every time they suggest a new approach, someone revises it until it looks exactly like the old one. They’re assigned tasks but aren’t allowed to make many decisions.

Eventually, they stop suggesting things.

Then leadership asks a frustrating question:

“Why doesn’t anybody want to step up?”

That was the scenario Coach Nyala and Dr. Karmel explored during BestieFinder Office Hours.

Their conversation raised an important possibility: Maybe your emerging leaders aren’t unwilling to lead. Maybe they haven’t been given enough room to practice.

You Can’t Develop Leaders by Giving Them Tasks Alone

There’s a difference between asking someone to help and preparing someone to lead.

A volunteer can set up chairs, send reminders, prepare materials, or coordinate an event without making a single meaningful decision.

Those contributions matter. But completing assigned tasks doesn’t necessarily teach someone how to evaluate options, solve problems, or take responsibility for results.

Succession requires more.

An emerging leader needs opportunities to make decisions, explain their reasoning, receive feedback, and learn from what happens.

If every decision has to be approved—or quietly changed—by the current leader, the volunteer may learn a very different lesson:

“Don’t make a decision until somebody tells you exactly what they want.”

Then, when leadership looks for someone ready to take over, the people they’ve been developing are still waiting for instructions.

You can’t expect independent leadership from people who’ve only been allowed to follow directions.

First, Define What You Mean by Succession

Coach Nyala raised a question that gets to the heart of the problem:

What does the current leader actually want succession to look like?

Does the leader plan to step away from the role?

Do they want someone to share the workload while they remain in charge?

Are they preparing a replacement, building a larger leadership team, or simply looking for dependable volunteers?

Those are different goals.

And each one requires a different kind of preparation.

During the conversation, Coach Nyala referenced the biblical relationships of Moses and Aaron, and Paul and Timothy, to illustrate different ways leaders can support and develop others.

Her practical advice was to ask the current leader directly:

“How would you like to see succession happen?”

That question can open a conversation that neither side has had clearly.

An emerging leader may believe they’re being prepared to take over.

The current leader may believe they’re simply training someone to assist.

Without a shared understanding, both people can become frustrated while thinking the other person is the problem.

Before assigning another task, define the destination.

When Every Idea Gets Rewritten, People Stop Offering Them

Dr. Karmel identified trust as one possible issue.

If leaders invite volunteers to contribute ideas but consistently change those ideas without explanation, volunteers may begin to wonder whether their input is actually wanted.

They may ask themselves:

“Do they think I’m capable?”

“Why ask for my ideas if they’re going to change everything?”

“Maybe I’m not the right person for this team.”

That doesn’t mean every new idea should be adopted.

Some suggestions won’t fit the ministry’s mission, budget, schedule, or responsibilities.

Experienced leaders may have information emerging leaders don’t yet have.

But there’s a big difference between explaining a decision and simply replacing someone’s work.

Consider two responses to a proposed event plan.

Response A: “We’ve never done it that way. Use last year’s plan.”

Response B: “I like your idea for welcoming new families. We need to keep the event within our budget and finish before the evening service. How could you adjust your plan to meet those requirements?”

The second response preserves the ministry’s needs while allowing the volunteer to solve the problem.

That’s how leadership develops.

You can keep the standard without controlling every step.

The GiftIQ Connection: People May Reach the Same Goal Differently

One of Dr. Karmel’s strongest points came from her experience assigning work at a childcare center.

She described learning to pay attention to how staff members approached tasks and giving them room to work through their own processes.

Her focus was on the result.

If someone’s work aligned with the organization’s mission, vision, goals, and objectives, there could be more than one acceptable way to get there.

That’s an important distinction for leaders who are used to doing things a particular way.

Your process may work well.

It may even be the best approach in some situations.

But “different from how I do it” doesn’t automatically mean “wrong.”

Gift Intelligence gives leaders a way to reflect on the different motivations and working styles people bring to a team.

The Compassion Gift: Wanting to Help Without Taking Over

Coach Nyala described how a strong desire to help can make someone willing to remain in a supporting role for a long time.

That willingness can strengthen a ministry.

But it can also create a blind spot if someone keeps helping without asking whether they’re being given opportunities to grow.

For the emerging leader, the question becomes:

“Am I supporting this ministry in a way that helps me develop, or am I staying in a role with no room to make decisions?”

For the current leader, it becomes:

“Am I giving this person room to grow, or am I keeping them close because their help makes my job easier?”

The Giver Gift: Looking at Where You Fit

Coach Nyala also discussed stepping back to understand the bigger picture.

An emerging leader may need to ask what kind of support the current leader actually wants and where their own contribution fits.

That can prevent two people from working toward different expectations.

It also creates room for a conversation about what responsibilities can be transferred over time.

The Administrator and Teacher Gifts: Asking Whether the Process Works

Dr. Karmel brought up an important practical question:

Is the current process effective?

A ministry may have used the same approach for years because it works.

Or it may have continued because nobody has questioned it.

An emerging leader who asks about steps, systems, and results isn’t necessarily challenging the ministry’s history.

They may be trying to understand whether the process still serves its purpose.

A useful response is to explain which requirements must stay the same and which methods can change.

The Exhorter Gift: Asking When It’s Time to Move Forward

Coach Nyala described the need for boundaries when a helping relationship continues without progress.

There’s a time to listen, encourage, and support.

There’s also a time to ask:

“What’s the goal, and what’s our next step?”

That question matters in succession planning because an arrangement can continue for years without anyone defining when more responsibility will be transferred.

These Gift-related patterns are possibilities to explore, not labels to assign based on one conversation. Understanding someone’s Gifts should help leaders ask better questions—not assume they know another person’s motives.

Trust Doesn’t Mean Giving Someone Unlimited Freedom

Coach Nyala acknowledged another side of the issue.

Automatically trusting everyone with every decision isn’t necessarily good leadership either.

An emerging leader may need guidance, training, and clear boundaries.

The answer isn’t to hand over an entire ministry overnight.

It’s to create opportunities where someone can make real decisions within agreed limits.

For example, instead of saying:

“Help us organize the volunteer appreciation event.”

Try:

“I’d like you to lead the volunteer appreciation event. You can choose the format and organize the volunteers. Your budget is $500, and we need the plan finalized by November 15. Let’s meet next week to review your ideas.”

Now the emerging leader knows:

• What they’re responsible for.
• Which decisions belong to them.
• What limits they need to respect.
• When they’ll receive feedback.

The current leader still provides oversight.

But the volunteer has something meaningful to lead.

Three Things Ministry Leaders Can Try This Week

1. Ask What Succession Actually Means

Before another planning meeting, have a direct conversation.

Ask:

“Are we preparing someone to take over this role, share the work, or support the current leader?”

Write down the answer.

Then identify what responsibility the emerging leader should be ready to carry in the next three to six months.

A succession plan becomes more useful when everyone understands what they’re working toward.

2. Hand Over One Decision, Not Just One Task

Choose a small project that matters but doesn’t put the ministry at unnecessary risk.

Give the emerging leader the goal, deadline, budget, and any nonnegotiable requirements.

Then let them decide how to approach it.

If their method differs from yours, ask why they chose it before changing the plan.

You may discover they’ve considered an option you hadn’t.

Or you may find a training opportunity.

Either way, they’re practicing leadership rather than simply following instructions.

3. Explain Your Revisions

When an idea needs to change, explain the reason.

Try:

“I changed the schedule because we need two volunteers present whenever children are in the room.”

Or:

“We can’t use that venue because it exceeds our budget. Can you find another option?”

That feedback teaches someone how to make a stronger decision next time.

Without the explanation, they may only learn that their ideas aren’t welcome.

Emerging Leaders Have a Role in This Conversation, Too

If you’re the volunteer whose ideas keep getting revised, you don’t have to guess forever about what leadership wants.

Coach Nyala encouraged emerging leaders to ask questions.

You might say:

“I want to support the ministry and grow as a leader. Can we talk about what responsibilities you’d like me to take on and which decisions I can make independently?”

Or:

“When I bring a plan, what parts do you want me to decide, and what parts need your approval?”

Those questions can reveal whether the challenge is unclear expectations, missing skills, limited trust, or a genuine difference in vision.

And if leadership isn’t ready to transfer authority, it’s better to understand that than to spend months believing a transition is underway when it isn’t.

The Next Generation Needs More Than an Invitation

It’s easy to say, “We need younger leaders.”

It’s harder to let someone run a meeting differently, try a new event format, or make a decision you wouldn’t have made yourself.

But that’s part of developing people.

You can share what you’ve learned without requiring someone to repeat every step you took.

You can protect the ministry’s mission without protecting every old method.

And you can offer guidance without taking the project back whenever the process looks unfamiliar.

If you want someone ready to lead tomorrow, give them something meaningful to lead today.

Discover How Your Gifts Shape the Way You Lead

Coach Nyala and Dr. Karmel closed this Office Hours conversation by encouraging viewers to explore their motivational Gifts.

Understanding your Gifts can help you reflect on how you communicate, make decisions, support others, and respond when someone approaches a task differently.

The DiscoverYOU Gifts course is a place to begin.

Explore the DiscoverYOU Gifts Course

Watch the Office Hours Conversation

Join Coach Nyala and Dr. Karmel as they discuss ministry succession, trust, communication, and giving emerging leaders room to grow.

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