Making the Leadership Transition: An Interview with Mark Earley Mark Earley, 47, former Virginia Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate, became president of Prison Fellowship, the world's largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families, on February 1, 2002. As president of Prison Fellowship, Earley oversees the U.S. arm of an international prison outreach organization with active ministry in prisons and communities in all 50 states and in 95 countries worldwide. Leader Links editor Michael Duduit recently visited with Early to discuss his leadership of this major organization, including the transition from founding president Charles Colson.

Leader Links: How in the world does somebody succeed Chuck Colson?

Early: Very carefully. I think one of the great strengths of Chuck is the desire to see the ministry identified with the vision more than with him as a person. Following along with that is the desire for him to see the ministry succeed for many, many years and actually to provide for that transition. When you succeed someone it's not that you try to be them or try to fill their shoes because everybody carries their own unique set of gifts. Chuck has brought his own unique gifting that really was pivotal and critical to the founding of Prison Fellowship. Our goal now is to transition this ministry into the next generation, the next thirty years — while Chuck is still very vibrant and energetic and has a tremendous amount of contribution still to make. In fact I think some of his most fruitful days are still ahead.

Leader Links: Sooner or later, most effective leaders face the question of handing the ball to a new generation. Thinking about it from a leadership perspective, was there a process that had to take place and some strategy that was involved in having someone else step into that role that had been so visibly connected to one person?

Early: First of all, our board at Prison Fellowship has had this on their radar screen for about ten years. Many churches, many organizations wait until there's a crisis or a death and then begin to think about the future of transferring leadership. That's obviously one of the worst things you can do. I think the leaders themselves have to be thinking about this in the future and they truly have to be committed to it — not just in word but in deed.

Secondly, I think you have to have a leader who is committed to a transition — committed to seeing someone else succeed — and they get involved in helping that person make their way in the new arena of leadership. A lot of times that doesn't happen. Sometimes there is a stated desire that it happen and yet there's almost a kind of hoping it doesn't happen so they can stay at the helm. With Chuck that's not the case.

The third thing that's important: he and I intentionally talk about transition. We intentionally talk about roles and who's going to do what and when and why. We are submitted in that relationship to an accountability group, which in our case is the board. A lot of communication is extremely important.

I think those things are key. That there be a long term commitment to do it on the part of the leader. Secondly, that there be a desire on the part of the leader who is transitioning out to see his successor lead. Third, that there be a lot of communications between those two individuals.

Leader Links: Have you or Chuck encountered any unexpected problems in this process?

Early: No, it's been a real relationship of grace. It has been good. I think one reason is that he is so committed to it. From my perspective it's God's timing and God's thing. I think that if you have a leader who is committed to it and a successor who doesn't have an agenda of their own, it really works well.

Leader Links: What led you to your interest in and involvement with Prison Fellowship?

Early: I'd been a lawyer for fifteen years. For five of those I was in private practice. For ten of those years I was a state Senator, and then for four years I was the Attorney General of Virginia. Subsequent to that I ran for Governor of Virginia in 2001 and lost. At that point I was sort of in a period of waiting on God and saying, "Lord, what would you have me to do? Would you have me run for governor again? Would you have me practice law and try to live for you and have my light shine in that arena? Or do you want me to go back into full-time ministry?" I say back into full-time because I really began before I was in law and politics. I was in full-time ministry with The Navigators for five years. I was in Campus Ministry one year in Pennsylvania, two years in the Philippines and then three years back in Virginia.

I always thought that the Lord would lead me back into full-time ministry after my season in government service and politics had come to an end. But my time table was a little different than God's. I thought I had four more years in the political arena and then I would go back to the full-time ministry. I was kind of waiting to see what the Lord wanted me to do, and Chuck called and left a message a couple of days after the governor's race was over in Virginia. I'd had quiet time the day after the loss and I had written in my journal the things I believe today. Two of the things I wrote down: one, that I believe losing the election is part of God's sovereign plan and grace for my life; and two, that having lost the election I believe God was shutting that door but that I was excited about what door He was going to open.

It was just a couple of days later that Chuck called and said, "Would you pray about becoming President of Prison Fellowship and begin a process of transitioning my leadership of this ministry to you?" I prayed about it for a couple of months. The Lord impressed on me two things during that time. One was that of all the things I'd ever had a passion about in my Christian life — evangelism, disciple making, missions, public policy, and a concern for people who are on the margins of society — all had a home at Prison Fellowship.

Then during those two months I was praying about it I was having my quiet time in Exodus and Acts. I was impressed afresh that Moses — the one God chose to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, the one God chose to give the Ten Commandments to, who He chose to write the Torah — was a murderer. I thought, "Now if I was God, I wouldn't have picked the guy who was a fugitive hiding out from justice for four years." Then I'm reading in Acts and I'm reminded again that the man God chose to write most of the New Testament — to actually frame the doctrine of justification by faith, to frame and articulate who the church was, to be the first missionary — was Paul, who was also a murderer. A co-conspirator to put to death Lord knows how many Christians simply because they named the name of Jesus.

And it dawned on me: this is God! It's been like God since the beginning of time, it's like Him today. It's the same God we serve today. He's in the business of raising up leadership for His people that come from having been broken and come from a position where most of us would think they're not going to ever be fit to lead. God says, "That's precisely when I have the opportunity for my grace to be demonstrated most significantly." And I thought, "Boy, this is the same God that I serve today, and wouldn't it be just like God to raise up the next generation of leadership for the church worldwide from behind prison bars!" That's what motivates me when I get up every morning now as President of this ministry. I truly believe — and Chuck Colson is an example — that a lot of the vibrant leadership for the generation of the church in the next generation is going to come from people today who are either in prison or should be in prison because of what they've done.

The people God has chosen to lead don't come out of what we in the church think is sort of the exemplary paradigm. That doesn't mean God can't use people who come from great Christian homes and live great lives and don't cross the line, but the fact of the matter is that God is just as much in the business of using people who do fall flat on their face, are totally broken before Him, who the rest of the world looks at and says, "they're finished; we going to lock them up and put them away forever." And God says, "Now I have a chance for my glory to shine."

Look at how many people were in prison who had a significant impact on the church: Paul, Daniel, Joseph, all these great leaders of God ended up at one time or other in prison — either for the Lord or they were in prison because they were running from the Lord and — He reached in prison and plucked them out. There is a solid biblical basis and command for the church to be involved in a ministry to prisoners and to prisoner's families.

Leader Links: As a culture we can't build prisons fast enough to hold the population, and these men and women behind bars also have families. How do we respond to that need in our culture?

Early: We have two million people in prison today in America. We have over two million children of prisoners in America today. In terms of the prisoners of those two million that are in, 600,000 of them will get out this year. We know nationally the recidivism rates are between fifty to sixty percent. If you have two million people in prison, 600,000 of which are getting out this year, and they are going to be back within two years at a rate of fifty to sixty percent — and they are coming in at the front end at the same rate — you can see we've got a growing mission field and we have system that is broken. It's a pregnant opportunity for the witness of the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The great untold story in the church today is what's happening behind prison walls in the revival of God reaching out and saving men and women, and of the church forming behind the prison walls. It's really beginning to have an impact beyond where they are. It's a huge opportunity for the church, and we just dare not miss that opportunity.

The opportunity to minister to the children of prisoners is a way not only to minister to those children but to reach their mother and father who's in prison. One of the great things about the Angel Tree program that we do every Christmas — we serve about 600,000 kids a year with about 15,000 churches as partners — is the stories we hear about the prisoner who signed their child up to receive a gift and to hear the gospel. Those prisoners weren't Christians but they see a church care enough about their child — they see somebody love their kids who they don't know — and all of the sudden their heart is almost like Wesley said, "strangely warmed". They get a sense of the power of the love of God. That leads so often to prisoners coming to Christ because someone reached out and touched their child.

Leader Links: Your professional public career was a series of successes, and then you hit a point — when you lost the governor's race — that publicly would appear to be a failure. Obviously God has taken that moment and used it in a remarkable way. Out of your own experience of dealing with that, what are some insights that you would offer for people who feel they have hit the wall of failure?

Early: The problem comes into how we as Christians define success. If I define success and I find my self worth and my security in attaining a position or having a certain job or having certain economic standard of living, then when I don't have that I feel that I'm not a success. That's not how the scripture defines success. Basically the scripture defines success as faithfulness to Jesus Christ. So for the believer there are going to be a lot of circumstantial ups and downs in life which shouldn't be viewed as success or not success, as long as we are being faithful to Jesus Christ.

In politics I never prayed to win an election. I just knew God wanted me involved in that arena to be faithful to him and to be faithful as a witness to him, to be salt and light. I used to pray that God would help me not to get my identity wrapped up in my title of Senator or Attorney General so that when it came time to give those up — and I knew there would be a time, either voluntarily or involuntarily — that I would not be wondering about who I was, that my identity would always be rooted in Jesus Christ. When I lost the election for Governor I did not go through a lot of bitterness or soul searching or disappointment. I was disappointed I didn't win but I was over it in an hour. I got up the next morning and basically said, "OK Lord, you've shut this door. Where's the door you're going to open?" And I was excited because I really believe in the sovereignty of God, so I just had a real sense of calm assurance that if what I had thought was where He wanted me was not where He wanted me, I was content with that because I believed He knew better what was best for me. I think for Christians we get locked in our mind what our dreams are, what our ambitions are. We ask God to bless those and we try to get Him to make them His own as opposed to saying, "Lord I want to make my own what's in your heart," and be much more open to where God will take us. Sometime it will be pleasant and sometimes it will be unpleasant. That's a promise.

Leader Links: You obviously had great experience as a leader in the public sector and now in a ministry organization. What are some of the most important things you have learned about leadership over the years?

Early: I think in any position of leadership a leader has to paint a vision of where you are going and what it's all about. It has to be simple and it has to be memorable and it has to be biblically based. You have to continually repeat that vision, remind people of that vision, and keep people focused on that vision. I think that's an absolute key component to leadership.

The second thing is that we have forgotten as believers what our calling is. We tend to think of calling as a particular job or a place or a position with an organization. As I read the scriptures our calling is to fellowship with Jesus Christ. The call that God has on our life is that we be in relationship with Him, and then in that relationship He sends us out to a lot of different places. One of the key principles for any leader is to be grounded in the calling they have to fellowship with Jesus Christ. Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:9 says "God is faithful who has called you to fellowship with Jesus Christ."

I remind all of our folks at Prison Fellowship that the most important thing we have to do every day as leaders is to give God the choicest cut of our day in the Word and in prayer. You know the story of Mary and Martha — Martha wanted Jesus to get Mary up away from His feet and to go help her do what she was doing. Jesus' response was: "Martha, you're troubled about a lot of things but one thing is necessary and Mary has chosen it and I won't take it away from her." Whenever Jesus says one thing is necessary I think your ears ought to kind of pop. He was saying the one thing that's necessary is she is with me. She is sitting at my feet listening to me. That's the one thing that's necessary in the life of a leader every day.

There was a book written years ago called Tyranny of the Urgent. Basically the premise of the book is there is a lot of things every day that clamor for our attention. They are urgent in the eyes of the world and they will rule our life. We have to make sure that our life is being ruled by the most necessary thing, and the one thing that Jesus says is necessary for the believer is to be in a position of fellowship with Him everyday. We can't do that unless we are carving out time to listen to Him speak to us through His Word and then us to talk back to Him through prayer.