Who are Interim Pastors?

Many Interim Pastors have answered a call from God to enter this work. That calling is as unique as each individual involved. Some Interim Pastors have been engaged in Intentional Interim Ministry for an entire career, while others slip into and out of interim positions from time to time. Still others do interim ministry as a retirement option. Some are married, others are single. They are male and female, young and old. Often, Interims are commuters. They maintain a single, permanent residence, and commute to their various interim ministries over the course of time based out of that one residence.

I knew an Interim Minister who served my home church in Iowa. He commuted by air – he was the pilot of his own single-engine airplane, commuting to an adjacent state.

Their Ordination, Licensure, and Certification

Interim Pastors are usually ordained or licensed clergy with credentials on file with the denomination, judicatory, governing body, or local congregation. In the mainline denominations they usually hold at least a Master’s degree, such as a Master of Divinity, from an accredited professional graduate school / theological seminary

Their Training

Intentional Interim Ministers attend training courses to equip them for interim ministry. Two common sources of training kin my tradition are the Interim Ministry Network and the Association of Presbyterian Interim Ministry Specialists. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has a training program. Other denominations may have training for Intentional Interim Ministry. Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Louisville, KY, offers a Doctor of Ministry track in Interim Ministry.

The Interim Ministry Network, Inc, lists the following as key components of interim training:

The Congregation as an Emotional System
The Development Tasks of an Interim Congregation
The Process Tasks of an Administrator during Transitions
Interim Ministry Core Competencies
Designing a Self-Care Plan
Competent Congregational Analysis
The Nature and Resolution of Conflict

What Do Interim Pastors Do?

Interim Pastors serve congregations in-between Pastors. Many (not all) of the same activities and ministries seen in the Installed Pastor are carried out by the Interim Pastor. These include preaching; administering rites, sacraments, and ordinances; worship leadership; religious instruction and teaching; emergency, hospital, and care center visitation; congregational administration; governing board, staff and volunteer leadership.

They also assist the congregation in what are called the five developmental tasks of the interim congregation. Those are:

Coming to terms with history

Discovering a new identity

Facilitating leadership shifts

Renewing denominational linkages

Commitment to a new future

Interim Pastors do not foster long-term relationships with their congregations. Interim Pastors do not apply for the Installed Pastor position.

I believe Interim Pastors have a choice to make. They can help congregations with the five developmental tasks (above) and just generally carry out their interim ministries utilizing management as the central organizing principle, or they can use spiritual guidance as the central organizing principle. Management is the classic approach. Spiritual guidance is a new approach. I choose spiritual guidance (spirituality) as the central organizing principle for interim ministry.

Why Spirituality in Interim Ministry?

I am an Interim Minister now, and have been since 1998. I am well acquainted with the interim ministry model, and I use it in all I do in interim congregations. It works, and it works well to meet the needs of interim congregations.

The congregations I serve are in a denomination with declining numbers. Attendance as a trend is down. Many congregations are slowly dwindling. At the same time, as I look out over the cultural horizon, I know there are a lot of people who are not affiliated with organized religion, but who claim a personal spirituality. Where those two groups meet is an exciting place, and I want to be there. I want to be among those in organized religion who are reaching out to those outside the walls of the congregation who claim a personal spirituality. I want to be among those in organized religion, even interim ministry, who are speaking the language of spirituality, who are speaking the language of the post-modern, spiritually aware, spiritually eclectic crowd.

I call myself an interim spiritual guide. I seek to assist people in the congregations I serve to go deeper into their spiritual life with the living God. Practicing and teaching the spiritual disciplines, and living daily in a conscious awareness of connection with Sacred Presence, happens to be an excellent way to remain differentiated and non-anxious in ministry. To be differentiated means that although the congregation I serve may be stressed and anxious about the changes happening in congregational life, I will not join them in their anxiety. I will understand them. I will listen to them. But I will remain non-anxious as much as I can.

Ministry as interim spiritual guide happens to be an excellent way to remain non-anxious during stressful times and situations. If I can remain non-anxious, it may assist others in doing the same. If I can remain in touch with who I am and Whose I am (and Whose they are), perhaps that awareness will lessen their burden, reduce their anxiety, and calm their souls enough to focus on their tasks, to focus on God’s will, and to do as the scriptures teach, to look “… to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith …” (Hebrews 12).

I use every available opportunity to include spirituality in interim ministry. I do that through story telling, sermons, teaching, leadership in small groups and in boards. I do that in the Pastor’s Study, in counseling / spiritual direction, and in casual conversation. I do that in written and electronic communication including weekly e-votionals sent out to the church family.