Coaching For Interims

Your Church Property Has a Mission Too - Rev. Dr. Shelly Stackhouse. Episode 92

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;

Learning to Be Community As a Spiritual Discipline - Rev. Dr. thom bower. Episode 91

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.

Transforming the Work of Committees for Faith Formation - Rev. Dr. thom bower. Episode 90

When thom said that committee work can be an essential means of faith formation, it gave me pause. After all, serving on committees is what many people try to avoid. But what he said made sense: when committees practice intentional reflection on their work, it can be faith forming. Put differently, committee work is faith forming when it builds up the beloved community by probing and affirming shared values, purpose and goals. Rev. Dr. thom bower elaborates on this concept and offers a simple 5-step process to guide committee work in this episode titled, “Transforming the Work of Committees for Faith Formation.”
Need to approach committee work in a way that recognizes that management itself is faith formation;
A 5-step process to make committee work a community building practice;
What? (the event)
What was it? (the debriefing)
What about it? (getting more info)
So what? (with that info, what do we change?
What’s next? (Preparing for the next thing)
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.

Music Ministry - Shifting from Expert Musician to a Collaborative Format that Promotes Congregational Participation - Rev. Joe Graumann. Episode 89

As worship styles evolve, many congregations find themselves at a crossroads: do we continue with our traditional music ministry model featuring an expert musician – the Minister of Music – who performs the music expertly for the congregation to receive, or do we shift to an emerging collaborative model of music leadership favoring a minister of music with leadership skills that encourage congregational participation in the worship music?
Rev. Joe Graumann, a young clergy person with musical gifts himself, shares how his congregation navigated this crossroads in this episode titled, “Music Ministry - Shifting from Expert Musician to a Collaborative Format That Promotes Congregational Participation.”
Shifting from doership to leadership by the music director;
Gaining congregational buy-in;
Maximizing the congregation’s musical “light”;
Aligning how we do music with our theology;
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.

How I Enable My Parishioners to Support Me in Using My Time & Energy Wisely As Their Pastor - Rev. Joe Graumann. Episode 88

In smaller churches, pastors often spend lots of time on things that parishioners aren’t even aware they are spending their time on – especially things that others could do as well. This, of course, takes time and energy away from things pastors are specifically trained to do and people are expecting them to do. Consequently, the pastor feels overworked and exhausted, leading to resentment by the pastor and upset by parishioners when the pastor isn’t available to do what is expected of them – what they have been trained to do and is in their job description.
In this episode titled, “How I Enable My Parishioners to Support Me in Using My Time & Energy Wisely As Their Pastor,” Rev. Joe Graumann shares how he manages this challenge in a way that all parties feel respected, the pastor’s time and energies are employed well, and the needs of the church are met too.
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.

Flipping and Equipping the Church Council for Fun (enjoyable) and Productive Meetings - Rev. Joe Graumann. Episode 87

Are your Church Council meetings a drag? You know – people come because they have to, persevering through a meeting that’s bogged down in procedures and run with a lack of imagination. Boring! Lots of time and energy is wasted. When can I go home?! If so, Rev. Joe Graumann offers some simple changes that can make Council meetings more fun and productive – ones that people will actually looking forward to attending - in this episode titled, “Flipping and Equipping the Church Council for Fun (enjoyable) and Productive Meetings”
Using the Relational Model for Council meetings – put cool stuff up front and
reports submitted in advance;
Tapping into the flexibility offered by Roberts’ Rules;
Moving New & Old Business before the committee reports;
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.

Are You Wired for Interim Ministry? My Why for Interim Ministry & Thoughts for Those Thinking of Entering Interim Ministry - Rev. Dr. Jill Small. Episode 86

As the need for skilled interim ministers continues to grow, more and more settled ministers as well as those new to ministry, are wondering if interim ministry is for them – if they are perhaps being Called to this specialized type of ministry. Long-time interim minister and Bible wonk, Rev. Dr. Jill Small, brings a fun perspective to this conversation by examining the connection between biblical exegesis and interim ministry.
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.

How a Part-time Pastorate Can Be Practical and Life-giving for Creative Gig Workers - Rev. Jeff MacDonald. Episode 85

More and more congregations find themselves facing the reality that they can only afford a part-time minister. Often, they see this as a negative – a failure of sorts. And yet, for creative gig workers such as independent contractors, freelance writers and the like, who also feel called to pastoral ministry - a part-time pastorate can create a grounded and stable life! It can also be empowering for the parishioners. In other words, this arrangement can be life-giving for both pastor and congregation. As a freelance and accomplished journalist and part-time ordained minister, Rev. Jeff MacDonald speaks to the details of this emerging ministry option in this episode titled, “How a Part-Time Pastorate Can Be Practical and Life-Giving for Creative Gig Workers.”
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.

Know Your Options for a Future with Hope - Rev. Dr. Todd Yonkman. Episode 84.

When the energy, resources of a congregation have declined to a critical point, shame and blame often rear their ugly heads and morale sinks. People often think their only option is to cease operations – to close their doors. However, these conditions can hinder them from seeing other options – creative options. Hopeful options. Options in line with their purpose and mission as a community of faith.
In this episode titled, “Know Your Options for a Future with Hope,” Rev. Dr. Todd Yonkman, shares wisdom from his own experience about the details of some of these options and how they give authentic hope.
When the energy gets low, churches often don’t know there are other options to closing;
Thoughts on various options: merger restart, adoption, consolidation, redevelopment…;
Barrier for vitality is shame and blame;
Avoiding the “Twin Titanic” model (throwing a rope from one sinking congregation to another);
Key to church mergers: learn to love other things together;
The challenge of trying to do vitality work and consolidation work at the same time;

Overcoming Resistance to Thriving in a Part-Time Pastorate - Rev. Jeff MacDonald. Episode 83

Although counterintuitive, the move from a full-time pastorate to a part-time one can release untapped vitality within the congregation when resistance is recognized and creatively engaged. Jeff MacDonald, an accomplished freelance journalist and committed part-time interim minister, speaks to this challenge in this episode titled, “Overcoming Resistance to Thriving in a Part-Time Pastorate.”
How the pastor can overcome resistance by the laity;
How can a pastor help a congregation move beyond the resistance that just comes up when, when change is in the air;
Being intentional rather than reactionary in the move to a part-time pastorate;
Questions to help the laity get clear about their roles in the move to a part-time  pastorate;
Key questions to ask yourself to understand how your pastorate is structured now;
Formal vs. unspoken expectations and their consequences;
Allowing the laity to do what they’ve long been authorized to do but don’t realize it;
Helping the laity to see that there’s actually very little that is doable only by the pastor;
Seeing the pastor as a strategic resource to advance the mission of the congregation;
Why being clear about the congregation’s mission is so essential to a successful part-time pastorate;