Keeping the Faith in the Interim Time; Thoughts, Views and
Opinions from your Interim Vicar
"Why can’t we just go out and hire a priest?!"
I imagine this question and the following ones have been asked by many of you since Father Martin left here at the end of October. “Why do we have to go through all of this ‘interim stuff’? At my company when somebody leaves there is usually a new person to replace him or her within a few weeks!” “Why will it take over a year until we have our new vicar?” Some of you may already be thinking, “As far as I am concerned all we need to do is hire someone who is just like (or not like) our previous vicar”. I hope to answer these and other questions you may have about our transition time here at St. Philip’s during the coming months in the newsletter articles I will be writing. First, let me give you a little background on how this “process” started in the first place.
Almost thirty years ago, people in the Church (not just the Episcopal Church, but other mainline denominations also) began to notice that many bad matches were occurring between newly-called clergy and the congregations they were serving. Some of the wise people who were aware of this phenomenon began to gather statistics and information from unhappy clergy and unhappy parish leaders as to why the failure rate was so high. One of the facts they uncovered was that parishes who rushed out to find a new pastor were not doing the hard work of determining their own identity as a congregation before calling an ordained person to lead them. Often the new pastor found him or herself being compared unfavorably to the previous pastor or the new pastor found the congregation to be quite different in reality from the very positive spin they had received when they were being considered for the position.
As a result of all this, some clergy and lay leaders began to develop a process for helping parishes to be more successful in calling new pastors. These leaders also found out that it would be a great idea to identify pastors who had a real interest in serving congregations in transition and provide them with the training and skill sets to make the “in-between time” a time for congregational self-awareness, growth (especially spiritual growth) and development.
Out of all this several organizations were born including the Interim Ministry Network, an ecumenical organization dedicated to training competent transitional pastoral leaders for the Church with a capital “C”. The IMN working with professional adult educators and church leaders have trained hundreds of clergy to lead congregations as interim pastors and to help them as they work through the tasks necessary for calling a new clergy person who will stay for more than a few years as the congregation’s pastor and spiritual leader.
There are five developmental tasks which a congregation in transition needs to address in order to make the calling of a new pastor successful for both the pastor and the parish. These developmental tasks are:
1. Coming to Terms with History (“Learning from the Past”)
2. Discovering a New Identity (“How are we different now as a congregation?”)
3. Leadership Changes during the Interim Time (“New tasks often require new duties and new leaders”)
4. Renewing Denominational Ties (“How can our diocese best serve us in our transition and vice-versa?”)
5. Commitment to New Directions in Ministry (“Now that we have clarity on our goals, who can we call to help us get there?”)
The first of these tasks “Learning from the Past” will be addressed during our parish-wide meeting after the 10 am service on March 6. We hope you all can be there to share in our recalling how St. Philip’s got to be who we are as the people of God in this community. Come and join us and let us hear your thoughts and opinions!
Your faithful servant in the Lord,
The Reverend Barry Miller
