There seem to be a lot of similarities among churches who suddenly lose their lead pastor. In the early days, many churches will bring in guest pastors or utilize associate pastors or other church leaders to preach the Sunday sermons. However, they soon realize that their church needs more than just people to “fill the pulpit,” and they start to feel the leadership void. From there, many churches start to look for a temporary solution and will typically look at people like retired pastors who may be willing to come out of retirement for a season, or someone in the church who can take on the lead pastor role in a part-time capacity.
Sometimes this solution will work out, but in many cases, the retired pastor will decide he wasn’t prepared to go back to full-time ministry, or the person who has other vocational responsibilities will realize he just doesn’t have the time or energy that the lead pastor role requires.
It is then that churches start to consider bringing in a full-time interim pastor and will contact an organization like VitalChurch Ministry to ask about what the process entails.
When a church has gone through multiple options already trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy for their congregation, they can be wary of making yet another change. If your church is in that situation, we want to reassure you that bringing in a full-time interim pastor can be one of the best things you can do! Here are just some of the benefits that a full-time interim pastor from VitalChurch Ministry can provide:
An Interim Pastor Can Help Refocus Your Church
When an interim pastor from VitalChurch Ministry goes to a new church, one of his goals is to help refocus the church. When there has been a bit of a shake-up—without a true leader in place and with different people preaching from week to week—churches can tend to lose their focus. Or, the church may have lost their focus over the course of many years.
Our interim pastors take each church through a “Focusing the Church” process. This is a process that is rooted in prayer and seeks to answer questions such as, “Where have we been?,” “Where are we going?,” and, “How do we get there?”
The entire congregation is invited to give their input. Out of this process, we have seen churches discern a clear sense of God’s vision for their body of believers, and from that, new discipleship programs have been developed, renewed commitments to mission and evangelism in the community have been made, and more clearly defined values have been established to help guide future decision making.
Going through this process also helps churches determine what type of pastor will be best suited to guide their congregation toward that vision. The search committee can then tailor the lead pastor job description so the right types of candidates will be led to apply. One of the best ways to ensure that a new lead pastor is unsuccessful is to bring in someone whose values don’t match the values of the congregation. However, when a church knows who they are and what their values are, and can communicate them clearly, it goes a long way toward helping them find a lead pastor who will be a good long-term fit.
An Interim Pastor Can Help Make Much-Needed Organizational Changes
Many of the churches we work with are long overdue to take a good, hard look at their policies and procedures. They may have created them when their church was founded, and then never made any changes since. The organizational structure of the church may also need some realigning, or staff job descriptions may need to be revisited. These are all things that the interim pastors at VitalChurch Ministry are equipped to help churches with.
When you bring in a full-time interim pastor from VitalChurch Ministry, you don’t just get someone who will preach on Sundays (although our interim pastors are gifted, gospel-centered teachers of the Word). You also get someone who can make changes to the organizational side of your church so the next lead pastor can come into a situation that is set up well to carry out ministry effectively. This is one of the best gifts a church can give an incoming lead pastor!
Contact VitalChurch Ministry for a Full-time Interim Pastor
To be clear, not all interim pastors are equipped to do what the pastors at VitalChurch Ministry do. Many interim pastors focus mainly on teaching, and if that’s all your church needs, then you will do well to find a gifted teacher who can fill the gap until you call a new lead pastor. However, if your church could benefit from an interim pastor who will help make some needed changes and prepare your church for its next phase of ministry while still providing gospel-centered teaching, contact us at VitalChurch Ministry.