1. Belmore Road Church of Christ, Melbourne
2018 APEDS - Brisbane Passing the baton of church leadership – Part II: Knowing when to let go
Benny Tabalujan, 28 March 2018
Belmore Road Church of Christ, Melbourne

2. Baton holder: knowing when to let go?
Introduction: sprint, marathon, relay
Advice from a relay coach
Knowing when to let go
Group conversations
Maths Model – action points for knowing when to let go

3. Sprint, marathon, relay
The Christian life: sprint, marathon, or relay?
The elements of a relay:
Team of 4 runners, each running a fixed “leg” (eg m)
The baton is to be handed over to the next runner within the “exchange zone” (20m long). The receiving runner begins running in the acceleration zone (10m zone) but the baton can only be passed in the exchange zone. Otherwise, the team is disqualified.
Relay events are won often not by the fastest team. They’re won by teams that pass the baton well in the exchange zone.
Watch this video of the Beijing 2008 Olympic 100m women’s relay final. The pre-race favourites, the Jamaican team, and the British team in the adjacent lane, fumbled the baton passes at the second handover:

4. Advice from a relay coach
The race is about the baton, not the runners. The baton must be the fastest member of the team.
The relay brings out the best in every team member.
Good baton handover takes practice. So: practise until it’s instinctive. By this stage, the receiving runner does not have to look back, but will trust and respond to a hand command.
Good baton handover occurs near the maximum speed of the runners.
A baton drop does not automatically disqualify – if the baton can be picked up within the exchange zone.
Source: Advice given by Nigel Hetherington, Scottish National Sprints and Hurdles coach, as quoted in

5. Knowing when to let go Who: identify the runners for the next leg?
Where: how close are we to the acceleration zone and exchange zone?
When: a question of timing…
Practise until trust is high
Passing at near maximum speed means running together at our peaks
In an eldership, several batons may have to be handed over around the same time
There’s not one ideal timing for the handover – it can happen anywhere in the exchange zone.
What if we fumble the handover? Consider: Moses to Joshua; then Joshua onwards (Judges 2:8-10)

6. Group conversations
From when Paul started on his missionary trips, he had apprentices eg. John Mark, Timothy, Titus, etc (2 Tim 2:2). Similarly, older women are to teach younger women (Titus 2:3-5). In our case today:
Who passed the baton to us?
How well did that handover occur?
Who are our younger apprentices? How intentional are we in practising baton handovers?
Reflect on your own baton handover and other handovers you have witnessed. In respect of “when to let go”:
What challenges were there?
What went wrong, and what went right?
How can we improve our next baton handover?
“Don’t let go too soon, but don’t hang on too long.”
Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie (2002)

7. Knowing when to let go – the Maths Model
“Leadership is more like a baton than a trophy. You keep a trophy, but you hand off a baton.”  (Bruce Miller)