As only a barely gifted athlete in high school, basketball was my main sport. At my high school, Louisville Seneca, if you played basketball it was required that you ran track in the off season. I was only a little better at basketball than track, so my races were the 440 (yards back in those days!) and the mile relay (440 x 4=mile). We trained hard to build our body strength and endurance. But for the mile relay we mostly practiced. Not running, but passing the baton from one runner to the next. Why practice the passing of the baton? Because we knew for certain that most races were lost when the baton was dropped in the passing from one runner to the next. not because of a lack of speed. The time between pastors is very similar to the passing of a baton in a relay. Often churches put the baton on the ground when the retiring pastor leaves, not to pick it up again until the new pastor is called. Churches today do not have the luxury of leaving the baton on the ground for an extended period. The engagement of a transitional pastor signifies to the church body that “we’re still running the race, we haven’t placed or dropped the baton to the ground.”