As our team travels the country working with churches, we’ve found that not everyone has the same idea of what an interim pastor is and does. Of course, they have a general idea, just based on the name, but there are some variations on the types of pastors who serve in churches without a permanent lead pastor. We thought we’d take some time in this blog post to clear up some of the confusion surrounding phrases such as “interim pastor,” “intentional interim pastor,” “transitional pastor,” and … [Read more...]
VitalChurch Ministry - Blog Posts by Author
Year-End Giving Campaign for VitalChurch Ministry’s Compassion Grant Fund
DONATE VitalChurch Ministry is excited to announce the launch of our 2020 year-end giving campaign! As a nonprofit organization, we rely on the generosity of donors to help fund our organization and ask that you prayerfully consider a year-end donation to VitalChurch. The majority of the recurring charitable donations we receive throughout the year go to funding the salaries for our interim pastors when they’re in between assignments—when they’re either on sabbatical, spending their time … [Read more...]
Interim Pastors Gregg Caruso and Dave Miles Interviewed for Vanderbloemen Podcast
Recently, two of our interim pastors, Gregg Caruso and Dave Miles, appeared on the Vanderbloemen Leadership podcast. They were interviewed by Sarah Robins, VP of Sales and Client Relations at Vanderbloemen. Vanderbloemen is an organization based in Houston, Texas that works with churches around the country on succession planning and executive staffing. Over the years, the work of VitalChurch Ministry and Vanderbloemen have overlapped more than once. On several occasions, Vanderbloemen has … [Read more...]
New Survey Helps Churches Navigate the COVID-19 Situation
As your church navigates the legalities related the COVID-19 crisis, there are also concerns about how your congregation is faring and how you as a church can support those who are struggling. We hate to use the overused phrase, “These are unprecedented times,” but they truly are. None of us in church leadership has likely dealt with anything like this. Church leaders and staff members are all doing the best they can to navigate this crisis, but in the absence of face-to-face interactions and … [Read more...]
Interim Pastors That Help Churches Make Hard but Necessary Changes
One of the things we hear over and over from church leaders and congregation members at the churches in which we’ve served is that the VitalChurch process is not an easy one. However, that is almost always immediately followed by them saying something like, “But it was what we needed to do and we are a better church for having gone through the process.” Very few people like change—churches are no different. Change can be hard, especially when there are people within the church who are … [Read more...]
Rochester Church Reflects on Their Time with VitalChurch Interim Pastors
Last month, VitalChurch interim pastor Dave Miles concluded his time at Christ Community Church (CCC) in Rochester, Minnesota. When VitalChurch arrived, the church was still reeling from the loss of their longtime lead pastor. There was a lot of grief and conflict associated with his resignation, and the 1,000-plus-member church was having a difficult time discerning how to move forward. After going through VitalChurch’s diagnostic assessment, which revealed the issues the church was facing, … [Read more...]
Do We Need an Interim Pastor if We Have Someone We Can Promote from Within?
This is a question that should be asked much more often than it actually is. Churches often mistakenly think that the best route after a lead pastor leaves is to promote a pastor who is already on staff to the vacant position. On the surface, this seems to make sense. There will be little or no “downtime” from one lead pastor to the next. The congregation is likely already familiar and comfortable with the current staff member. He can hit the ground running, since he will already have an … [Read more...]
Why an Intentional Interim Pastor Is Key When Transitioning to a New Pastor
Many (but not all) of the churches we work with are in a crisis situation when one of our interim pastors arrives on the scene. Some churches have the luxury of knowing ahead of time that their lead pastor will be vacating his position. It may be that the lead pastor has decided that it’s time for him to retire. Or he may be moving on to a position at another church or leaving the ministry in favor of another career path. In these cases, the pastor will ideally give his church plenty of notice … [Read more...]
The Benefits of Working with VitalChurch Interim Pastors from the Church’s Perspective
We talk a lot in this blog and on our website about how we help churches in transition or crisis. We outline our three-phase process and how it helps revitalize churches. But in this blog post, instead of us telling you how our work benefits churches, we thought you might like to hear from some of the people we’ve worked with recently in churches around the country. So, we reached out and got some great feedback! The Diagnostic Analysis is a Key Part of the Process Even before we send an … [Read more...]
VitalChurch Aids California Churches with Interim Pastors and Church Health Assessments
With headquarters in California, and several of our interim pastors using the state as their home base, we find ourselves doing a lot of work in California churches. If you know anything about the state, you could probably conclude that there are a diverse set of churches in California—and you’d be right! You’ll find traditional, denominational churches, non-denominational community churches, megachurches, and just about any other type of church you can think of. Experienced Intentional Interim … [Read more...]