Coaching For Interims
”Wisdom From The Field” are interviews with skilled interim ministers, hosted by Reverend Jim. Coaching For Interims empowers interim ministers to lead with creativity, authenticity and boldness for the thriving of their ministries.
Episodes
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
An important part of the work of an intentional interim minister entering a congregation is to assess its health. In this episode, “Guidance for an Incoming Interim Minister: Assessing the Long-term Health Prospects of a Congregation from the Legacy Perspective” Legacy Church Specialist, Charlie Kuchenbrod, offers helpful parallels with what we’d look for in people: Are there acute life-threatening illnesses? Chronic illnesses? Toxic behaviors? In the absence of any immediate threats to the health of the congregation, Charlie offers additional easy-to-understand parallels between the health of an individual and that of the congregation such as diet, relationships, exercise, social engagement, rest, family history, and mental health, that can used for framing useful conversations with the congregation about its future.
For a transcript of this episode, please visit the Coachingforinterims.com website. In addition, subscribe to this podcast series if you want to be notified when additional podcasts are available.
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Every local church congregation, like the people who comprise it, has a natural life cycle. Some last longer than others, but they all pass through the same stages – formation, adolescence, adulthood and completion. And just like many individual humans, congregations often struggle to come to terms with the end of their natural life. Consequently, people are unfairly burdened, precious resources are wasted, and opportunities for celebration and recognition of faithful ministry are missed. In this episode, Legacy Church Specialist, Charlie Kuchenbrod, shares how when congregations imagine the wider church as a forest and their individual congregation as a tree within that forest, they are better able to embrace the guidance of the Holy Spirit, appreciate a life well lived, and plan for their legacy in ways that bless what is past and what is to come.
For a transcript of this episode, please visit the Coachingforinterims.com website. In addition, subscribe to this podcast series if you want to be notified when additional podcasts are available.
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Congregations, like people, have natural lifecycles, and when they forget this by presuming their local church will last forever, it doesn’t turn out well. People are unfairly burdened, precious resources are wasted, and opportunities for celebration and recognition of faithful ministry are missed. In this episode, Legacy Church Specialist, Charlie Kuchenbrod, shares from his depth experience with congregations facing the likely end of their historic way of doing church, and how the language they use to understand their current reality shapes the options they see – or don’t see – for what’s next. It’s an episode for Interim Ministers and other leaders of transitional ministry to return to again and again for valuable guidance in serving churches in this emotionally charged stage of their lifecycle.
For a transcript of this episode, please visit the Coachingforinterims.com website. In addition, subscribe to this podcast series if you want to be notified when additional podcasts are available.
Wednesday Dec 06, 2023
Wednesday Dec 06, 2023
When congregations get to that point where even a half-time pastor is no longer sustainable, is there any hope? Yes! Actually, there is a lot of hope! But it first requires letting go of being preoccupied with the dream of returning to how things were – the glory days. Once they do that, everything changes and hope and positivity can return. Now they can move forward in a way that's both faithful to the ministry that they have had, and that also respects all the good things they probably still do have – a path which honors the Holy Spirit, and maybe even has some of that initial energy and vision of those very early followers of Jesus! It’s a path that will likely look different from their past, yet still be very faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ and have a real life-giving impact on their community and on themselves.
For a transcript of this episode, please visit the Coachingforinterims.com website. In addition, subscribe to this podcast series if you want to be notified when additional podcasts are available.
It’s not about “saving” the congregation, per se, but about buying the time for serious thinking about what the cong. wants for its future.
Discerning what form of ministry is faithful to the basic values & resources that you have now?
Guidance for how lay leaders can work productively with a very part-time pastor;
A targeted approach that equips and empowers the laity can do themselves:
Specific recommendations for how the laity can create and lead worship, for congregational care, etc.
Helping the congregation to reclaim the church as it was in the first century.
Saturday Oct 28, 2023
Saturday Oct 28, 2023
As an Interim Minister, have you ever wondered about the rest of the story? You know – feedback about the impact of your ministry on the congregation after you left? In this episode, settled ELCA pastor, Rev. Heidi Johnston, expresses her gratitude to the Intentional Interim Minister who preceded her, including specifics of how the IM set her up for success.
Particular things the IM did to set me up for success –
The IM expressed clear boundaries about the number of hours/week she would work & equipped laity to negotiate the use of pastoral time and energy - focusing and prioritizing;
IM didn’t work beyond her stated limit of working hours when temped to do so – and helped the congregation understand why and adapt;
Two, she led leadership through honest sometimes hard conversations about their current reality – and its implications for calling next pastor;
IM presented new limitations as opportunities, not losses, which led to a new joy in opportunities for more hands-on ministry for lay people.
Three - The transition conversations nudged people beyond all the ways the past was more abundant – celebrate the wonderful things of the past, and also name past hurts and conflicts – helped me not to get blindsided by issues the congregation may be sweeping under the rug.
For a transcript of this episode, please visit the Coachingforinterims.com website. In addition, subscribe to this podcast series if you want to be notified when additional podcasts are available.
Monday Oct 09, 2023
Monday Oct 09, 2023
Have you found your church caught in a pattern where worship is seen as a show performed by the pastor with the congregation being the audience? If so, you have a lot of company. The good news, however, is that worship services can be created that have that added spiritual crackle and energy that often results when more people are involved in leading worship. In this episode, Rev. Anna Tew shares some specifics of how her congregation has intentionally evolved in this direction.
Examples of how creative worship components can resonate with the particularities a congregation;
Shifting from worship as just clergy-led to really being the work of the people;
Thinking about worship structurally as individual “Sundays” or “Seasons”;
Examples that tie the sacrament of Baptism and worship services to your own locale;
For a transcript of this episode, please visit the Coachingforinterims.com website. In addition, subscribe to this podcast series if you want to be notified when additional podcasts are available.
Monday Oct 09, 2023
Monday Oct 09, 2023
As a pastor, having a part-time secular job on the side can bring added joy and satisfaction to your life. It can also provide an economic buffer in a changing church world. But where to start looking? What skills does a pastor have that would be valued in a secular job? In this episode, ELCA pastor Rev. Anna Tew tells how she came into a part-time coaching job at her CrossFit gym that is blessing her, and them, on multiple fronts!
For a transcript of this episode, please visit the Coachingforinterims.com website. In addition, subscribe to this podcast series if you want to be notified when additional podcasts are available.
Monday Oct 09, 2023
Monday Oct 09, 2023
As pastor, does it sometimes feel like everyone in the congregation is your boss? Are you struggling to get back more time for yourself and feeling pretty exhausted? If so, you are not alone. Listen here as Rev. Anna Tew tells how she recovered from such a place by using the flexibility of pastoral ministry to her advantage.
For a transcript of this episode, please visit the Coachingforinterims.com website. In addition, subscribe to this podcast series if you want to be notified when additional podcasts are available.
Wednesday Aug 30, 2023
Your Church Property Has a Mission Too - Rev. Dr. Shelly Stackhouse. Episode 92
Wednesday Aug 30, 2023
Wednesday Aug 30, 2023
Does your church have more property than it needs? Is much of your building unused most of the time? If so, you have lots of company! Many churches have significant real estate that’s fallow – unused – and yet they continue to pay for its upkeep. Of course, no one likes this situation or planned for this reality, yet churches often have difficulty moving forward. Put differently, churches often struggle to incorporate their property into a realistic understanding of their current mission and purpose as a faith community. Rev. Dr. Shelly Stackhouse, a long-experienced interim minister and now the Senior Director of Programs for the non-profit, “Partners for Sacred Places,” offers some key questions and a process to help such churches move forward in this episode titled, “Your Church Property Has a Mission Too.”
Does Your Church Have a Mission Statement for Its Property?
Interim ministers have the opportunity (obligation?) to help a congregation begin to assess their situation with their property:
How is our property being used?
How often?
Who’s using it?
What spaces could be used more fully?
What property should we offload? How and to whom?
Developing a mission statement for your property;
Understanding property as part of your mission – start by going room to room…
There are people in the wider community who are stakeholders in your property;
Honoring the grief in letting go of unused property;
It’s in the telling of stories that people come to feel the past has been honored, and then are open to a different future;
Saturday Aug 19, 2023
Learning to Be Community As a Spiritual Discipline - Rev. Dr. thom bower. Episode 91
Saturday Aug 19, 2023
Saturday Aug 19, 2023
The word “community” is used a lot when talking about church life, yet it’s often a vague notion. But if we frame it as a spiritual discipline – that is, creating community as a spiritual disciple – we get much more traction: What does it mean to be a community now? What does it mean to create community as a Jesus follower? What does it mean to be a Jesus follower in this congregation? At this time and in this neighborhood? How do we keep what is essential and yet lean into the future where things are changing for us? Rev. Dr. thom bower speaks to these questions and more in this episode titled, “Learning to Be Community As a Spiritual Discipline.”
“What does it mean for you to be a community?” – essential question for a congregation;
What does it mean to have a spiritual discipline?
What does that look like as a community activity? (Community as a verb)
Community as the content of faith formation, as the process of faith formation and as the outcome of faith formation;
What does it mean to be a community now? In our context?
Four questions –
What are the issues you’re facing?
What do you see are the qualities of community?
What are the main actions of being community in this congregation?
Who facilitates it and what’s their role?
For a transcript of this podcast, please visit the CoachingforInterims.com website. In addition, subscribe to this podcast series if you want to be notified when additional podcasts are available.
Coaching For Interims
Coaching For Interims provides best practices and quick help. "Wisdom From The Field" are interviews with skilled interim ministers, hosted by Reverend Jim. The mission of Coaching For Interims is to Empower interim ministers to lead with creativity, authenticity and boldness for the thriving of their ministries.