Faith community preparedness ยท Continuity
Continuity and Leadership Succession
Keep the institution working when the usual people, place or systems are not available.
A flood in the office, a leader in hospital, a treasurer out of the country when the roof comes off: any of these can stop a congregation from paying its staff or opening its doors. This guide shows how to write a short continuity and succession plan: decide what must continue, name who takes over, give them the authority they need, protect the records and plan the return.
General U.S. guidance. Governing documents, denominational rules, employment law, banking authority and local legal requirements control actual succession and delegation.
By Dan Whelan, founder of New World Survival
Researched from government agencies, university extension services, and other published sources. See our sources
The five-minute answer
Name what must continue, and who decides when you cannot.
Every institution has a few people who carry things in their heads. Think of the treasurer who knows the bank login, the sexton who knows which valve shuts off the water, and the senior leader whose signature opens every door. Continuity planning starts by imagining a Tuesday when one of them cannot be reached and the building cannot be used.
FEMA defines continuity as the ability to provide uninterrupted services and support, while maintaining organizational viability, before, during and after an incident that disrupts normal operations.[1] It describes its guidance as flexible and meant for a broad range of organizations, not only government.[2]
For a congregation, the whole plan fits on a few pages if it answers four questions about each thing that must not stop.
Realistic effort: two governing-body meetings to agree the list and the succession, an afternoon to copy records, a few minutes a quarter to check the roster and one hour a year to test it.
What is the function?
The result that has to keep happening, described without the usual method. "Staff are paid on time," not "Linda runs payroll on her office computer."
How long can it stop?
FEMA calls this the maximum tolerable downtime: how quickly must the activity resume if disrupted?[1]
What is the minimum?
The reduced version you could live with for a while. A phone call in place of a visit. A service in a borrowed hall.
Who restores it?
One named role that confirms the function is working again and says what is still unresolved.
Four things every function depends on
People, equipment, information and a place.
FEMA's guidance organizes continuity around four planning factors, on the right. Its summary is practical: people must perform activities, equipment and systems are used to carry out functions, and information and data are needed to inform decisions.[1]
Take each function on your list and ask what it needs from each of the four. The gaps appear quickly. Payroll may have a backup person and no backup login. Pastoral visits may have plenty of people and one paper list in a locked office.
FEMA's self-assessment for faith organizations asks you to review your emergency operations and continuity plans with local emergency managers.[5] Our suggestion: be ready to tell them what you can still do when your own building is damaged.
The sequence, start to finish
List what must not stop
The few functions whose interruption would cause real harm, and how long each can be down.
Write the order of succession
For each key role, the positions that take over, in order, checked against your governing documents.
Delegate specific powers
Who may spend, sign and speak when the usual person cannot, with limits and an end point.
Protect the records and the ways to reach people
Copies of essential records somewhere else, a current roster, and more than one way to make contact.
Practice, then plan the return
Run one scenario a year, and write down how temporary arrangements are ended and reconciled.
01
Staff and organization
The people who perform the work, their backups and the authority they carry.
02
Equipment and systems
What the work runs on: the phone system, the accounting software, the boiler, the van.
03
Information and data
What people need to know to decide: contacts, accounts, policies, schedules.
04
Sites
Where the work happens, and where it would happen if that place were closed.
The four names are FEMA's.[1] The one-line descriptions are ours.
Priorities
Group the functions. Do not rank every one.
FEMA suggests weighing each function on three factors: its maximum tolerable downtime, the impact if it is not conducted, and management priority. It adds a piece of advice that saves a great deal of argument: it may be most efficient to group functions into priority categories and not attempt a single ordered list.[1]
Open this sectionClose this section: Priorities
Four groups are enough for most houses of worship. The grouping on the right is ours. Yours may differ, and the discussion that produces it is most of the value.
Notice what is not in the first three groups: the community services you would like to offer. Protect the institution's own essential work before promising anything to the public. A cooling room that runs while payroll and an insurance deadline slip is help the congregation cannot sustain.
First: life and care
Knowing who is in the building and getting them out. Reaching members who depend on you. Safeguarding. Calling for help.
Second: authority
Someone able to decide, to spend, to control the property and to speak for the institution.
Third: obligations
Payroll and bills. Insurance notices: check your policy for notice deadlines. Protecting the building from further damage. Records.
Fourth: core ministry
A workable minimum of worship, rites that cannot wait such as funerals, and pastoral contact.
What can pause
Say out loud which programs stop first: committees, classes, the newsletter, rentals. Programs that matter a great deal can still wait three weeks. Deciding that in advance spares someone from deciding it alone, under pressure.
Succession
An order of succession is a list of positions, written before it is needed.
FEMA defines orders of succession as formal, sequential listings of positions, not specific names of individuals.[1] They identify who is authorized to assume a leadership or management role when the person holding it resigns or is otherwise unable to perform.[1]
Open this sectionClose this section: Succession
Positions, because people change and the list should survive them. FEMA says to document them in writing, in advance and in accordance with applicable laws.[1] Our view: a successor nobody authorized may have no standing with the bank, the insurer or the congregation. Ask your bank and your insurer what they require, and have your counsel confirm the order.
For a house of worship the first place to look is your own constitution, bylaws or denominational rules. They may already say who acts when the senior leader cannot. We treat them as controlling over anything you write now; ask your counsel or denomination how they apply. The federal planning guide for houses of worship also asks that a plan include provisions for the succession of decision-making authority.[4]
Raising this can feel awkward, because it means asking out loud who leads if the senior leader cannot. It helps to say plainly that the list is about positions, not people, and to ask the senior leader to open the discussion.
Three deep
FEMA advises including at least three positions permitted to succeed to each identified leadership position, if possible.[1]
In a small congregation the same person may appear on several lists. That is acceptable. Write it down anyway, so everyone knows.
One who is somewhere else
FEMA suggests considering one successor who is geographically distant from the others.[1] A storm that reaches the senior leader will probably reach the associate who lives next door. A regional or denominational officer can fill this place.
Legal review
FEMA says the organization's legal department or equivalent should develop and review the orders of succession to ensure they are legally sufficient.[1] For you that is your counsel, your denomination or both.
Roles to cover
- the senior leader
- the chair of the governing body
- the treasurer
- the person responsible for the building
- the safeguarding lead
- the person who sends official messages
Delegation of authority
Holding the title is not holding the power.
A successor steps into a role. In our view that does not by itself put their name on the bank account; ask your bank what it requires. FEMA treats delegation as related to succession but distinct: a written delegation of authority gives the person legal authorization to act on behalf of the organization's head or other officials for specified purposes.[1]
Open this sectionClose this section: Delegation of authority
It says a delegation should set out the authority and its exceptions, and the limits of authority and accountability.[1] It should also say whether it can be passed on to someone else, and the circumstances under which it takes effect and ends.[1]
FEMA notes that some delegations attach to specific individuals, and gives committing funds and contracting as examples.[1] Those two are where a congregation most often gets stuck. We treat a bank as acting only on the signers it has on file; ask yours what it requires.
Write for each power
- what exactly may be done
- up to what amount or scope
- who is told afterward, and how soon
- what starts it
- what ends it
- whether it can be handed on
The ones to settle now
- a second and third signer at the bank
- who may spend in an emergency, and the ceiling
- who may sign an agreement to use the building
- who may file an insurance claim
- who may release a record
- who may speak to the press
An example
"If the treasurer cannot be reached within four hours during a declared activation of this plan, the assistant treasurer may approve payments of up to $2,000 each for emergency repairs and supplies. Each payment also needs the chair's signature. Every payment is reported to the governing body within seven days. This authority ends when the treasurer returns or the activation closes." This example is ours, and the figures are placeholders. Yours go to your governing body for a vote.
Essential records
A copy in the building is not a backup.
FEMA sorts essential records into two kinds. Emergency operating records are what you need in order to act: emergency plans, the succession and delegation documents, staffing assignments and procedures. Legal and financial rights records are what protect the institution and its people afterward, such as payroll, insurance and property records.[1]
Open this sectionClose this section: Essential records
Its examples include standard operating procedures, the continuity plan and other emergency plans, personnel and payroll records, contracts, vendor agreements, memoranda of agreement, orders of succession and delegations of authority.[1]
Among its options for access are a backup server in a different location and hard copies positioned in advance.[1] It also lists cloud computing, provided the cloud provider has adequate continuity plans of its own.[1] FEMA adds that organizations should have multiple copies of their essential records in several locations.[1] Keep at least one paper set and one digital set. A fire and an internet outage are different days.
To act
- the emergency plan and this continuity plan
- the contact sheet and phone tree
- the succession list and delegations
- floor plans, shutoff locations and alarm instructions
- vendor and utility contacts
- partner agreements
To protect
- governing documents and minutes
- deeds, leases and the insurance policy
- payroll and employment records
- bank and investment account details
- the property inventory, with photographs
- safeguarding records
Where copies live
A paper set in a fire-resistant box off site, with a named custodian. A digital set in an account the institution controls, with two administrators. The federal planning guide asks that a plan say how vital records will be preserved.[4]
Privacy does not relax
A backup copy is still the record. Keeping it at a member's house does not widen who may read it. Seal sensitive files, log who holds them, and collect and destroy temporary paper copies when the emergency ends.
People and contact
Find everyone, then ask how they are.
FEMA's list for the people side of continuity is short. It says to keep an up-to-date roster of primary and alternate personnel, cross-train, establish procedures to contact all staff in the event of a disruption, and advise personnel to maintain family care plans.[1] The last item matters. A staff member worried about their own children or parents will, and should, go to them first.
Open this sectionClose this section: People and contact
A current roster
Staff, key volunteers and successors, with two ways to reach each one. Check it every quarter. A roster is the first thing to go out of date.
Cross-training
For every essential function, a second person who has actually done it once, with the real login and the real key, not only watched.
More than one way to reach people
FEMA describes planning a primary, an alternate, a contingency and an emergency method, used in that order, and asks for multiple methods because one may not be accessible to everyone.[1] The communications guide has an example.
Their households first
Encourage every staff member and leader to have their own household plan. Our guides for families start at the first 72 hours.
When the building cannot be used
Arrange the other place before you need it.
The federal planning guide's recovery annex asks who can close and reopen the building, what temporary space would be used, and how services would be offered another way.[4] It also advises working with your utility and insurance companies before an emergency, and documenting your assets.[4]
Open this sectionClose this section: When the building cannot be used
FEMA's continuity guidance uses the term alternate sites, and asks that such a site be accessible to people with disabilities: entrances, exits, restrooms and paths of travel. It adds that some people may need a quiet space.[1] A borrowed hall that half your members cannot enter is not an alternate.
Worship and gathering
Ask a neighboring congregation, a school or a community hall now, and offer the same in return. Put the answer in writing with a contact name. Decide what you would need to bring: sacred objects, texts, a sound system, the offering procedure.
The office
Where would the phone be answered, the mail collected and payroll run? A member's dining table is a reasonable answer if the laptop, the logins and the essential records can get there.
Online
If you already stream or meet by video, name who can run it from home and check that the account does not depend on equipment in the building.
Tenants and partners
Tell the preschool, the recovery group and anyone else who uses your building what your plan is, and ask for theirs. Their continuity depends on yours. If your congregation rents the place where it meets, ask the landlord who will tell you the building is closed, and how.
Turning it on and off
Plan the way back as carefully as the way in.
FEMA describes continuity in four phases.[1] Congregations usually plan the second and third and forget the fourth, which is where money and authority quietly stay in the wrong hands.
Open this sectionClose this section: Turning it on and off
01
Readiness and Preparedness
Ordinary time. The plan is written, copies are placed, people are trained.
02
Activation
Something has happened. The plan is switched on, by a decision or by a trigger.
03
Continuity Operations
Essential functions run in their reduced form. FEMA lists accounting for personnel among the first tasks.
04
Establishing a New Normal
Normal operations resume or are re-established. Temporary authority is handed back and the response is reviewed.
Two kinds of trigger
FEMA distinguishes active triggers, where leadership decides to activate, from passive triggers, used when leadership is not available and the required actions follow from criteria set in advance.[1]
Write at least one passive trigger. "If the senior leader has not been reached within four hours of a disaster declaration for our county, the chair acts under this plan." A second covers the quiet case, with no declaration at all. "If the senior leader is in hospital or cannot be reached for 48 hours, the first successor on our list acts under this plan and tells the chair the same day." Both examples are ours. Set your own hours.
Returning to normal
- the usual leader confirms they are back, in writing
- temporary spending authority ends on a stated date
- every emergency payment is listed and reconciled
- borrowed keys, logins and records are returned
- the governing body reviews what was done in its name
FEMA calls this reconstitution and notes that planning for it begins before any disruption.[1]
Keeping it current
FEMA names the changes that require an update.[1] They include a change in leadership, which it says will require new orders of succession and delegations, a reorganization, a change in a process or system, and the results of exercises and real disruptions.[1]
It also offers a Continuity Assessment Tool for regular self-review, for example annually.[1] Put the review on the governing body's calendar.
Ready.gov lists business continuity alongside emergency response, crisis communications and technology recovery, and says the technology recovery plan should be developed together with the continuity plan.[3] For you that means: the person who knows the passwords is at the table.
Stop conditions
Do not improvise institutional authority.
In a crisis, capable people step forward and start deciding. That is admirable and it is also how a congregation ends up with a contract nobody was entitled to sign. The point of this plan is that the right person steps forward, with the authority already in their pocket.
A one-hour test
This test is ours. Once a year, gather the governing body and say: the senior leader and the treasurer are unreachable, the building is closed for three weeks, and payroll is due Friday. Then ask who does what, with which login, from where. Write down every "I am not sure."
Next step: build the continuity file
The workbook holds the function list, the succession and delegation pages, the records index and the return checklist. Then return to the faith community preparedness guide.
Questions leaders ask
Settle these while everyone is still reachable.
What is a continuity plan for a house of worship?
A short plan that says which few functions must keep going and how long each can stop. It also names who takes over when the usual person cannot act, where the essential records are, and where you would operate if the building were closed.
What is an order of succession?
FEMA defines it as a formal, sequential list of positions, not names, identifying who is authorized to take over a leadership role when the person holding it cannot perform. Check it against your governing documents.
How many successors should each role have?
FEMA advises at least three positions for each key leadership role where possible, and suggests one who is geographically distant from the others. In a small congregation one person may appear on more than one list.
Is succession the same as delegation of authority?
No. Succession says who steps into a role. A delegation is a written authorization to do specific things, such as spend money or sign an agreement, with limits and a stated start and end.
Which records should we back up?
What you need to act, such as plans, contacts and floor plans, and what protects the institution, such as governing documents, the insurance policy, payroll, bank details and a property inventory. Keep a copy off site and a copy online.
Where would we meet if the building were unusable?
Arrange it now with a neighboring congregation, school or community hall, in writing, and offer the same in return. Check that the place is accessible to your members.
How do we end emergency arrangements?
Deliberately. The usual leader confirms their return, temporary spending authority ends on a stated date, every emergency payment is reconciled, borrowed keys and logins are returned, and the governing body reviews what was done.
How often should we review the plan?
After any change in leadership, staff, systems or building, and after every exercise or real disruption. FEMA suggests regular self-assessment, for example annually. We suggest the one-hour test on this page, once a year.
Primary sources
Planning references
Each source below was opened and read on October 12, 2026. FEMA's continuity guidance was written for government and other organizations generally, and uses the terms alternate sites and essential records. The priority groups, the example delegation, the one-hour test and the notes about banks, insurers and governing documents are our own and are marked as such.
- FEMA, Continuity Guidance Circular (February 2018, 2024 update). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- FEMA, Continuity Guidance Circular (overview page). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- Ready.gov, Emergency Plans (last updated March 25, 2026). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- FEMA and federal partners, Guide for Developing High-Quality Emergency Operations Plans for Houses of Worship (June 2013). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- FEMA, Engaging Faith-Based and Community Organizations: Planning Considerations for Emergency Managers (April 2025). Accessed October 12, 2026.
This guide is educational. Your governing documents, denominational rules, employment law, banking requirements and local legal review control actual succession and delegation.
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