We’re back to our series on “Questions our Intentional Interim Pastors Ask.” (You can read the first two posts in the series here and here.) This time, we’re addressing the question, “Who is God calling to lead this church?”
More often than not, our intentional interim pastors serve in churches that are without a lead pastor. While they are there, our pastors are working with the church to discover who God is calling to lead the church in their next season of ministry. Should the church promote an internal associate pastor to the lead pastor position? Should they conduct a full pastoral search?
Deciding who should be your church’s next lead pastor should be a lengthy and prayerful process. Even if you think the person is already in your congregation or on your staff, your church should take the time to seek God to find out if He is truly calling that person to the position.
In a previous blog post about hiring from within, we talked about the benefit of going through an official search process, even if everyone is sure that it will end with hiring an internal candidate. We said, “If the internal candidate is, in fact, the man God is calling to shepherd your church, this will be solidified in the search process. If he isn’t, that will also be revealed in the process. Going through an official search will also give your congregation more confidence in the final decision, knowing that other options were explored.” In other words, going through the pastoral search process only to hire from within should never be considered time wasted. The process itself is valuable.
When our pastors coach churches through the pastoral search process, we help them discover what their church needs in a lead pastor, not just what the congregation thinks they want. We take them through a “Focusing the Church” process to help the church identify their calling as a congregation. When a congregation knows what they are called by God to do, they are better equipped to identify the person who can lead them.
Throughout the entire pastoral search process, a congregation needs to be diligent in prayer—prayer for the person who God is calling to lead the church, and prayer for themselves as a congregation to accept God’s will. The pastoral search process is, after all, a spiritual discernment process, rather than one that focuses on filling a position with the candidate who checks all the right boxes. Your church’s interim pastor from VitalChurch Ministry will pray fervently right alongside your congregation for God’s will to be revealed in the process.
Contact us to learn more about how our intentional interim pastors can work with your church through a season of transition.