In a previous blog post, we discussed what your church can expect when it brings in an intentional interim pastor from VitalChurch Ministry. This month, we wanted to flip things around and discuss what will be expected of your church in the process.
As much as we all would like to be able to snap our fingers and turn around a struggling church or bring them instantly through a period of transition, these things take time, effort, and a lot of prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit. Our pastors also aren’t able to make changes on behalf of a church. The church’s leaders and the congregation must commit to certain things in order to reach the targeted outcomes.
Here are the things we ask of every church in which our intentional interim pastors serve:
Take Part in an Honest Evaluation of Your Church
The first step in our process is for your church to complete one of our church assessments. Depending on which level of assessment your church chooses, your congregation will be surveyed, and church leaders may be interviewed one-on-one. It is our goal with this assessment to find out what your church is doing well, as well as what issues it is currently facing.
Providing your interim pastor with thorough and honest information is key at the beginning of the process. When your interim pastor knows going in what areas need addressing, he can get right to work, rather than spending weeks, or even months, trying to find out what those issues are.
Commit the Appropriate Amount of Time to the Process
When our interim pastors come to your church, we ask that your leaders and congregation commit themselves to a process that will likely last 12-24 months. While every church has unique circumstances, our process remains largely the same in every church we serve.
One of the things we do that involves the entire church body is hold a series of “Summits” that are designed to help focus your church by creating or reinforcing your church’s mission, vision, and values. These Summits will delve into your church’s past, its current realities, and discuss what you believe God has for your church’s future. We typically conduct these Summits over the course of several months. While we don’t require that the entire congregation attend these Summits, they are more successful when a large portion attends and participates.
The interim pastor will also address areas such as:
- Discipleship process evaluation and development
- Leadership training
- Conflict resolution
- Other areas, as needed
During your interim pastor’s tenure, he will work with your church leaders on any organizational concerns, which can include evaluating and updating your church’s governance model, staff job descriptions, and/or written policies and procedures.
During the 12-24 months, your intentional interim pastor will also help guide the pastoral search process, if needed.
As you can see, our interim pastors have a lot they hope to accomplish when they come to a church! Therefore, we ask every church we work with to have patience and to not rush the process!
Surrender Fully to God and His Will for Your Church
Finally, we ask that your church agree to humbly surrender before God and be willing to address any of the things that are hindering the health of your church body. Every church we work with must be able to answer “Yes” to the following questions:
- Will we face the real issues?
- Will we own our part of the problems?
- Will we do what is necessary to change?
Prayer is a vital part of the entire process. Our hope is that your entire congregation will commit to praying and seeking God’s will for your church.
Would you like to learn more about bringing an interim pastor from VitalChurch Ministry to your church? Contact us here, and we will get right back to you.