Working as an Interim Across Denominational Lines – Transcript

Jim Latimer
Welcome to Coaching for Interims. We are about empowerment for interim ministers: best practices and quick help from interims for interims – wisdom from the field. I am your host today, Reverend Jim Latimer, and I have with me as our guest, Reverend Lynn Carman Bodden. Lynn is a much experienced and wise interim minister. Lynn, what would you like to speak to us about In this segment?

Lynn Carman Bodden
I want to encourage people to consider looking for jobs that cross their denominational lines, to make themselves available more broadly than just within their own denominational family. I have been super blessed over the years to cross denominational lines in a variety of ways. I am UCC. I served first in churches that were blended United Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ. But then living in one area for a long time – if you’re lucky enough to be tethered and centered and get known in an area, that can make it easier – I then served in the Presbyterian USA church. I served in two of those. And then I lived in New York for that long period of time – western New York state – and then moved to North Carolina. There I was lucky to serve in the Friends United Meeting, which is a Quaker denomination that has pastors, which for me was just a riot!

Jim Latimer
I never heard of such a thing!

Lynn Carman Bodden
They are there! It was nice for me, because I had some experience in Quaker Meetings in a non-pastored Meeting. And now I live in eastern New York state where I have served in three churches in the Reformed Church in America, because there are more of them than there are of the UCC in my region, and more larger churches. So to cross those denominational, and then also those geographical lines, has been good. I consider the job of interim, in part to be a denominational job. So it means learning the polity of another denomination. It means learning how things work, and what the role of the pastor is, because that has varied for me from from church to church, and what the role of the judicatory is in a time of transition – and with the pastoral search – and what their role is not, because that has also varied. And so our job is denominational. And it’s to understand and shepherd a congregation through these search questions and things like that.

Jim Latimer
Can I just pause you here a minute? Because I’m what I’m picking up from you is a lot of well, frankly, joy, and gratitude for having worked across denominational lines in particular. Can you speak to how has that made you a better interim Minister?

Lynn Carman Bodden
I majored in German in college. And I think that learning other languages makes your brain work better. I also think, just like learning another language, you understand where you come from when you see it over against another denomination. And I’ve also been lucky to be on the faculty of the Interim Ministry Network, so I’ve had exposure to the wide variety of denominations that we teach. And the other thing that I would say is, for me, you’ll hear that I worked with the denominations that are close to the United Church of Christ – the Disciples (D.O.C.) – and we have a good partnership. Most of the other ones I’ve served are part of the Formula of Agreement. So I think that that affords not just us as a pastors, but also the churches as congregations, exposure within the Formula of Agreement, so that they might consider pastors from outside their denomination who might be the appropriate people to serve them as Pastor.

Jim Latimer
Nice! So there’s a linking that there are other congregations around of a different denomination that we can actually have relationships with! I think that the average person doesn’t know that we have this Formula of Agreement linking us with other denominations. So that expands their minds, which could pave the way perhaps to consider their next settled pastor from some other denomination. And that could be what the Spirit has queued up for them that they would not otherwise see.

Lynn Carman Bodden
Right. And they may not do it this time, but may in the future. I started as an interim when I was young and had a baby, and so I always considered it to be a time where the church could try on something that they might not have necessarily considered and do that for a short time. Or I can try on something and see what that’s like to be somewhere else. And it doesn’t have to go on forever in the interim period. But then our toe is in the water. And we know that it can be done and that it can be successful, God willing. So I would encourage people. It can be very challenging to learn and fit the polity of another church. I mean, I will be honest, I have very much appreciated the support of the people in the RCA. And the role of the pastor would not be something I would probably do long term just because it is much more powerful than it is in the UCC, and I really like the way the congregation works. But I understand it better now having done it. And, frankly, to the people who are listening, expanding your marketability and employment opportunities is a really important thing, for interims to do. Because when things break, you need to know where you can look and it is good to be known beyond your immediate circle.

Jim Latimer
That’s a really helpful tip there. A friend of mine in California just got a job. She’s UCC, but she got a job in a Presbyterian Church USA and United Methodist federated church. That possibility is there! And I think, especially as interims, judicatory people in different denominations are very open to talking to people outside of their denomination if you’ve got a skill set and they have a need.

Lynn Carman Bodden
Right. And if you know people outside of your denomination and can advocate for them within your denomination because they might be good candidates, it can help to enhance the pool for your judicatory people. So it’s a way that we work together.

Jim Latimer
I’m loving the ecumenical part of this conversation, not only for the sake of the congregation, but also for the sake of us as interim ministers, that expands our notion of how the body of Christ works at the congregational level. It’s beautiful. Thank you so much, Lynn.

Lynn Carman Bodden
Thank you, Jim.

More Bits Of Wisdom from Rev. Lynn Carman Bodden
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