Continuity: Gods Focus is on Purpose

Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Joshua 1:1‭-‬2 KJV

Did you react as I did in reading these words? I thought the narrative would say, for the next three months they couldn’t move, because they waited for Moses, who was their only leader. While people may mourn the exit of a great leader, Gods focus is on purpose. Well, God didn’t wait for them to finish mourning, He gave the next leader instructions. God is interested in continuity. Continuity is described as, ” the unbroken and consistent existence or operation of something over time”. Stephanie Godfrey describes that in leadership more succinctly, ” Leadership continuity is often characterized as a systematic (i.e. systems-based) approach toward ensuring a sufficient quantity of capable individuals exist within your organization at any given time who have the necessary skills, knowledge, and abilities to lead the organization ”. We wish we have space to unpack that. Do you have those kind of people in your organization or your unit? Every leader must make himself vulnerable at training for transitions. Moses did. The pursuit of purpose requires critical training for succession planning. Godfrey says the following are likely considerations you must have to choose people like Joshua: ” 1.Identification of high-potential candidates
2.Structured mentor initiatives
3.Directed or guided developmental assignments
4.Jointly created success criteria and measurements
5.An essential component to this is ensuring an appropriate balance between planning and doing. Welcome to Joshua’s season. The baton has changed.