My Beloved –
In the strong name of our Risen Lord & Savior, greetings! I want you to know how happy I am to finally be here and to be serving as your Interim Pas-tor. I have been looking forward to this for weeks and am thrilled that the time has finally come. You have been, and will be, in my prayers every day. I ask that you will also pray for me.
As you saw from my bio that ran in the last week’s News & Notes, I have been an intentional interim pastor for almost 11 years. You are the 10th con-gregation I have served in this capacity. I am experienced, though by no means perfect. In fact, I learn from every church I serve, and I am looking for-ward to learning from you.
There are many ways to describe the interim time between installed pas-tors. I like to think of it as a time of introspection guided by a handful of im-portant questions: where have we been, where are we now, where do we think God wants us to go, and what skills and abilities will our next installed pastor need to lead us there?
There’s more to it than that, of course. In due course, our session will be sharing the details of the process with you. In the meantime, it’s reasonable to expect the process to take 18-24 months. Maybe less, we’ll have to see. Much of the interim work is about making the journey from the head to the heart, which can always take longer than we think.
The biggest mistake I have seen churches make is trying to rush the pro-cess or cut it short. Like a tree growing, the process is organic. With the right conditions we may make a tree grow faster, but generally it takes as long as it takes. We can’t rush it.
So instead of trying to rush the process, I encourage congregations to treat the interim time as a sacred season of thoughtful reflection; a time for getting to know ourselves and for coalescing around a shared vision of who God wants us to be.
This doesn’t mean everything grinds to a halt. Of course not. We will still do ministry. We will worship God. Teachers will teach Sunday School lessons. Mission activities will continue. We will continue praying with and for each other. The life of our congregation will keep on keeping on. But we will also make a point of listening to the Holy Spirit preparing us for the next season of our ministry.
My part in all this is not to do the work. I can’t. If my fingerprints are all over your vision it has no validity.
My calling is to shepherd and guide the process. And I promise you that I will do so to the best of my ability.
We are a good church. We are doing good ministry. I am excited about being with you during this holy season in your life and ministry. May God continue guiding our steps as we walk along this new path.
God’s peace to one and all,
Pastor Ken.
