Interim Ministry

by Will Jewsbury

When I was considering interim ministry, colleagues suggested that I explore training to become an Intentional Interim.  After more than 35 years of pastoral ministry I felt I had an expansive skill set, but I was intrigued to discover what else might be possible.  I signed up for training with the Interim Ministry Network. In the initial three-day event “The Work of the Leader,” and the subsequent five-day event titled “The Work of the Congregation”, I gathered new tools and resources to use in serving congregations in transition.  And, equally as important, reflected on what it would mean to step into a congregation for just 12 – 18 months rather than multiple years, bringing both my experience and this new information into the process of congregational transition.  

Could I have done interim work without training?  Of course!  My experience as a pastor would have been welcomed in any number of congregations.  Would I have been as effective without training?  I don’t think so!  I had served two ministries of fifteen years each before “retiring” from settled ministry.  My mindset was for the long haul.  The training I sought out helped me to look at processes that might help a congregation claim their past and view their future in new ways.  I discovered how to focus on what was needed.  

Disciple Interims will be offering training for prospective interims beginning in 2021.  While not as wide-ranging as IMN or other such programs, it will be a good introduction to the work of interim ministry and will also be both cost-effective and easily accessed.  In addition to the learning that will take place, we will continue building a network of pastors committed to the health of congregations across the Disciples.  

Join us!  

Ministerial Profile for Intentional Interim Ministers 

As an intentional interim minister, your ministerial profile and length of time documents work differently than a minister who is searching for a “settled” position. 

First, I encourage you to contact the Search and Call office as quickly as possible upon accepting a new call to determine what areas of your ministerial profile need to be update as they could include: 

1. Profile: 

1.  Contact Information: address, phone number, email address. 
   
2. Service History: end date of previous position, name and begin date of new position. 
   
3. Availability Date: available to relocate for next position. 
   
4. Standing: if you moved regions you will need to contact new region for transfer of Standing. 

2. References: 

1. Regional Staff Reference Form: if you moved regions you will be required to update your regional staff reference form. 
   
2. Other three reference forms: you welcome to keep those the same unless they are at/close to the three year mark – you will need to update at the three year mark. You are encouraged to consider updating one or more of these references to a member of the last congregation you served but that is NOT required.  

3. Disclosure Form: 

1. Your Disclosure Form is valid for 3 years if your form is older than 2.5 years please update. 
    

4. Criminal Background Check (CBC): 

1. Your CBC is valid for 3 years if you form is older than 2.5 years, and you want to remain in circulation please update. 

If you don’t update your profile it will be removed from circulation as “no longer current.” 

If your current interim position will be your last (i.e. retirement) you should withdraw your profile from circulation by logging into the Web MinPro System and clicking on the “orange” withdraw profile button. 

If at anytime you have questions or concerns please contact the Search and Call Office at amoyars@dhm.disciples.org or 317.713.2664. 

By Hank Anderson 

A few years back, my journey through ministry took an unexpected turn. For some 30 years, my wife and I served a series of churches as co-pastors. Our ministry together had been fulfilling. Our gifts and interests were complimentary, and we enjoyed working with one another. But, my wife began sensing that God was calling her into hospital chaplaincy. Preparing for that shift, however, required a year-long CPE residency. So, the question became what was I going to do for a year? Complicating the issue was that we didn’t know where we would end up after her residency. 

To that point, I had never considered interim ministry as an option. It simply didn’t have much attraction. But in this case, it seemed to fulfill a need. I was blessed to receive a call to serve as the interim minister at First Christian Church in Pekin, IL. While there, I discovered interim ministry as a calling. 

I discovered that as an interim minister I could help congregations re-envision their future, and that was tremendously energizing. My focus in ministry has always been centered around helping long-established congregations experience renewal. Working with congregations in transition allows me to live out that ministry in a compact and focused period of time. Fortunately, the congregations I have served have been seeking new direction and a renewed sense of vitality. As a result, they have been very welcoming of the leadership I have been able to provide. 

Including my student churches, I have now been in ministry for over 40 years. While I still have a few years before retirement, I know that the end of my career is near. What started a few years ago as a stop-gap effort to tide me over until my wife finished residency, has become a fulfilling season of ministry. In fact, I cannot think of another more exciting and fulfilling season in my career. 

As I was considering the possibility of taking on that first interim, someone far smarter and wiser than I, told me that interim ministry “is where the action is.” He was right. And I am thankful that I stumbled into this specialty in pastoral ministry. 

By Steve Welker  

In 2011, I had the chance to attend a UCC History & Polity Class. Being a Disciples of Christ pastor for many years, I sought answers to what was next in my life and ministry. Enter a discussion about interim ministry at that class, and in 2012, I took the Interim Ministry Network training, resigned from my senior pastor’s position, and entered the world of Interim Ministry. So, my response was to the question posed, “To be or not to be… [an interim pastor?]” The response was a resounding “yes!”  

I served as an interim pastor since 2012. In February of this year, I “retired” from full-time interim ministries. Yet, the joy I have shared in being an interim pastor has kept me from saying “no” to part-time interims, and I have served one since “retiring!”  

What is the joy that interim ministry brings to me that, perhaps, a settled position as pastor did not? Well, I am not there to “fix” anything in the congregation.  

1. journey with them during a transition time, to seek an understanding of who they are as a community of faith with a non-anxious presence;   
   
2. Seek and confirm their vision and mission and evaluate if their programming is meeting both;   
   
3. Reflecting on their model of leadership to see if it is still the most efficient at the current time ;
   
4. Maintain contact with association and conference ties in as many ways as possible;   
   
5. And finally, to help the congregation and search team to prepare for life after the transition, and help their search team in any initial questions they have concerning the search process   

My joy in interim ministry comes from helping the congregation through those five “tasks” moving them from where they were to where they will be when a settled pastor is called.   

Of course, there will be times when a congregation will need to spend more time in one of those areas due to previous issues of hurt, loss, or grief. However, if the congregation responds openly and honestly to the questions I present to them concerning previous issues, we find common ground and a place to “begin again” in the life of that community of faith!  

By: Terry Foland  

Congregations have times after a pastor has left, for whatever reason, before they have been able to engage a new minister for a new call agreement. In the church today we call this an interim time. Interim by dictionary definition means “temporary” or “provisional”. It may also mean “the intervening time”. When the Interim Ministry Network was early in its founding, we often used the phrase “The In-Between Time”.  

The word intentional was then added to the term to give us the phrase, “Intentional Interim Minister” to describe the pastor/minister who serves in a congregation in the period between the “no longer and the not yet.” One minister is gone, and the next one is not yet called. Intentional is used to define that the interim minister is intentionally not a candidate for the long term or installed pastor. Through experience we have learned that once an interim minister decides he/she wants to stay in a church for the long term, they are no longer able to be help the congregation confront and address the issues necessary prior to calling the next pastor. They will not want to offend any of the people who are responsible for securing the next pastor. When a congregation decides it wants to “keep” the interim, they have cut off the possibility of working on what may strengthen the congregation and the field of candidates to consider for their next chapter of ministry and mission.  

Intentional also means the Interim Minister makes clear to the governing body of the congregation they are there to help bridge the time between called pastors only. An intentional interim minister does the usual duties of a minister (leading worship, administration, pastoral care, etc.) but their main goal is to help prepare the congregation to be as strong as possible when they do move to calling the next minister.  

So, an interim ministry time is an especially important time in the life of a congregation. Resolve issues, determine a vision for the next chapter of its life and get its house for working together with a new minister/pastor for a new future.