Robin Fuller
The ministry you love should outlast your leadership.
Finish Well is a practical guide to succession planning for executive directors and boards — twelve steps, written by a coach who spent four years handing off the ministry she had led for twenty-three.
Finish well means leaving the ministry ready.
- Ready for the people who will remain.
- Ready for the leader who comes next.
- Ready for the mission to continue.
Every ministry leader leaves. Almost none of them plan for it.
You may be years from that day or closer than you have told anyone. Either way it is coming — the day someone else unlocks the doors, sits in your chair, and carries what you have carried. What the ministry looks like on that day is being decided now, by whether anyone is willing to have the conversation.
Most ministries put real thought into welcoming a new leader. Far fewer put any into bringing a season to a close. Succession is the thing everyone experiences and almost nobody talks about, and the silence is what costs the ministry — its momentum, its staff, sometimes its donors.
God cares about the ministry more than you ever could, and He sees the full picture.Robin Fuller, Finish Well
I have sat where you are sitting.
I served in pregnancy center ministry for twenty-three years, sixteen and a half of them at one organization, and I did not know how to leave it. Coming back from a sabbatical, I could finally see what we had built: a ministry that ran on one person. The transition took four years of honest work with a board, a coach, and a God more patient than I was. It was not tidy. It was good.
Since then I have walked alongside other directors through their own transitions. Finish Well is not my story. It is the field guide I did not have.
Twelve steps, three movements
Prepare yourself
Steps 1–5
Before a ministry can be ready, its leader has to be. Start the conversation, write down what you actually do, and discern honestly whether this is weariness or release.
Prepare the ministry
Steps 6–9
Strengthen the structure, the hiring, the team, and the board while you are still there to strengthen them.
Hand it off
Steps 10–12
The handoff itself, what a board should look for in a candidate, a word for the one who comes next, and walking away well.
“A thoughtful, encouraging, and much-needed guide for leaders navigating the often complex journey of ministry transition. Whether you are preparing to step away or helping someone step in, this book will leave you feeling supported, equipped, and reminded that, with God’s guidance, it is possible to finish well.”
Erin Forsythe, M.Div. — Care Net
“Every ED/CEO and any board officer should have Finish Well to lay a great foundation for a good transition of leadership. Succession isn’t something you want to be foisted upon you.”
Jor-El Godsey, President — Heartbeat International
“This book will be invaluable to any organization, regardless of where they are in the succession planning stage. In my personal experience as an outgoing CEO, Robin walked with me through that transition over a period of four years and with her help, I did Finish Well.”
Doreen Jansson, CEO — Align Leadership
What you will walk away with
- Language for a conversation you have been avoiding, and a way to open it without alarming your board or your staff
- A written record of what you actually do all day, so the ministry is not carrying it in one person’s memory
- Clarity about timing — the difference between being weary and being released
- A board prepared to run a process instead of a scramble
- Documents you can use this month: a staff survey, a project proposal form, and a sample succession plan
- A plan for your own heart, for the Monday morning after the keys are gone
Finish Well is available now.
Paperback, hardcover, and ebook. Order from your preferred retailer, or ask your local bookstore to order it — they can.
Retailer links pending — supplied before October 1.
Where does your ministry stand right now?
The book comes out this fall. You do not have to wait to find out where you are.
Ten minutes, and you will know which parts of a transition your ministry is ready for, which parts would come apart under pressure, and exactly which chapter to open first when the book arrives. It is free. Tell us where to send it.
Left unplanned
The board scrambles. The staff waits for news. The successor inherits questions nobody wrote down. And the leader who gave the ministry decades leaves it tired, and unfinished.
Planned well
The people who remain are ready. The leader who comes next is set up to succeed. The mission keeps moving — which was always the point, and never was about any one of us.
Reading this as a board member?
Succession is the board’s responsibility before it is the leader’s. Finish Well is written for both sides of that table — a practical guide for executive directors and boards. A board that reads it together before a search begins runs a process instead of a scramble.
If you would like copies for your board or staff team, or you are looking for a speaker on succession for your conference or network, get in touch.
| Paperback · 978-1-970642-06-3 | $19.99 |
| Hardcover, case laminate · 978-1-970642-16-2 | $24.99 |
| Hardcover, jacketed · 978-1-970642-17-9 | $29.99 |
| Ebook · 978-1-970642-18-6 | $9.99 |