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...]
VitalChurch Ministry - Blog Posts by Author
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...]
Meet VitalChurch’s Newest Intentional Interim Pastor: Steve Ignash
The VitalChurch team of interim pastors is growing! We are pleased to announce that Pastor Steve Ignash has joined our team as an Associate and will be serving as an intentional interim pastor in churches throughout the country who are experiencing a season of transition or crisis. It has always been one of the goals at VitalChurch to raise up the next generation of church leaders who can carry on the legacy of the organization’s founders. This means training new intentional interim pastors … [Read more...]
Serving as Intentional Interim Pastors from San Diego to San Francisco, California
Many people don’t think of California as an overly “Christian” state, but even though it’s not anywhere near the Bible Belt, it definitely has it share of Christians and Christian churches. It’s hard to say exactly how many churches are in the state, but it’s estimated that there are more than 15 million Christians in California, according to the U.S. Religion Census. There are plenty of denominational churches in California, but the state also has a large amount of independent, … [Read more...]
VitalChurch Interim Pastor Finishes Up Successful Intentional Interim Period in Massachusetts Church
Another intentional interim period just came to an end for one of our VitalChurch interim pastors. Gregg Caruso, VitalChurch Managing Partner, spent 20 months at Christ Community Church (CCC) in East Taunton, Massachusetts. CCC was experiencing a time of transition following the departure of the Lead Pastor. CCC had also experienced significant staff turnover and there was mounting conflict within the elder board. CCC contacted VitalChurch and after a few months of vetting various transitional … [Read more...]
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