What Is an Interim Consultant and How Might One Help Us? – Transcript
Jim Latimer
Welcome to Coaching for Interims. We are about empowerment for transitional ministry, best practices and quick help – wisdom from the field. I am your host, Reverend Jim Latimer, and today we have Reverend Dr. Ruth Shaver with us. Ruth is a United Church of Christ minister with depth experience as both a settled pastor and as a transitional pastor. I am particularly impressed with the innovative and creative ways that she practices transitional ministry. In particular, she’s a leading practitioner and thought leader in the emerging field of Interim Consulting. As fewer congregations are able to afford a full-time trained, Intentional Interim Minister, working with an interim consultant on a part-time basis is proving to be an effective way that congregations in transition can have access to the change leadership skills and knowledge that an Intentional Interim Minister would bring. I so appreciate that Ruth is willing to share her practical wisdom with us today. And in this first podcast, Ruth offered to speak about why a congregation might need an interim consultant. Great question, Ruth. So welcome. And thank you.
Ruth Shaver
You’re very welcome, Jim. It’s a pleasure to be here. So, we know that churches face all kinds of constraints in terms of finding interim leadership or transitional leadership, not least of which is that there aren’t that many of us doing this kind of work who are trained to do the work and do it well. So, there’s a few different reasons that a church might go for an Interim Consultant. For instance, the congregation may find itself in a situation where it just can’t afford a full-time trained interim. They’ve realized that the model that they were using with their previous settled minister is unsustainable. And so, they’re looking to change some ways that they’re functioning. They may be cutting back on pastoral staff, they may need to finesse some things, they may not be able to hold that full-time position open. So that would be one reason why you might have, for example, a Supply Pastor who’s there and then an Interim Consultant who’s working to help a church even figure out what model of sustainable ministry it has as part of the transitional work.
The second model happens sometimes when there’s a full-time interim pastor who’s doing the pastoral work, but isn’t trained as an interim or isn’t perhaps interested in receiving interim training. And that might be somebody who’s serving in retirement, somebody who is more than happy to do the day-to-day pastoral work, but doesn’t have the skill set, the energy, the interest in serving as the Interim Transitional Specialist. And so working hand in hand with the pastor and Interim Consultant can work with the leadership of the church to do the transitional work. That has been one of the models that I’ve actually participated in, and that was very effective.
The third model is one that harkens back to a time earlier in church life when it was common for a church to seek a successor pastor, after a pastor has announced that they’re retiring or leaving, while the pastor was still in place. Now we often saw that when there was an Associate who would become the Settled Senior Pastor, but now with fewer Associate Pastors in place, churches that are healthy, and that know that they have a sustainable model in their ministry, might want to use an Interim Consultant to work through that process while the settled pastor is still in place. And I have actually worked in that model as well. And between the time that the profile went live, the Senior Pastor might retire and leave, and so there might be a Bridge Interim who then doesn’t really need to do a lot of the interim work because the search is already in progress. So those are the three major models right now. We always know that God is doing a new thing, so who knows there could be a new model around the corner.
Jim Latimer
If I may just jump in here just to clarify what you said because you just said a lot right there. So, we’re distinguishing between an Intentional Interim Minister – and by Intentional Interim Minister, we mean that this Interim Minister has this specialized interim training, right? They have the change leadership skills and the knowledge needed to guide a transition time. And so, the three models then, that you said, were first, if a congregation can’t afford a trained a full-time trained Intentional Interim Minister, then they might need an Interim Consultant. The Interim Consultant, by definition, brings this change leadership skill, right?
Ruth Shaver
Yes. Yes.
Jim Latimer
And then the second model, was the congregation does have a full-time Interim Minister, but the Interim Minister isn’t an Intentional Interim Minister. In other words, they don’t have those special extra skills. And that might be a pastor perhaps who has had a great career and they’re retired, and they’re kind of back in the game, but they don’t have that special interim training, if you will. That was the second model. And then the third model was, if in a congregation where the pastor is retiring, and the congregation knows that well in advance, and they want to get started with the transitional work before this person leaves, so they may hire an Interim Consultant. That was the third model.
Ruth Shaver
Yes. Absolutely. And I liked the way that you say Intentional Interim, because I think that’s where sometimes people get a little lost in this is that those of us who are trained, and of course, the Interim Ministry Network is one of the big trainers, although there are other groups that do the training as well to do this kind of transitional work, have that expertise, and we have those resources to call upon. For you know, when something comes up, and we’re like, Oh, okay, let me go research. Ooo, this is a new thing! Or Oh, let me tap into the network of Intentional Interims and see who’s had experience doing this and what I might learn that I can help you with this particular situation.
Jim Latimer
The Interim Ministry Network, and you’re on their faculty, I believe, right?
Ruth Shaver
Yes, I am.
Jim Latimer
That’s great. That’s where I’ve got my training a while ago. I am a big believer in the IMN and their work. So, one other thing that we just kind of pull out for people here, is that when we talked before, you had pointed out that the work of congregation leadership has several components on an ongoing basis. There’s the pastoral leadership – pastoral care and that part of it – and then there’s administrative leadership, right? That’s that piece of it. And then there’s, of course, the worship leadership. And then there’s the transitional work itself, which we’re calling the intentional part of Intentional Interim Ministry – the change leadership, that piece. So, there are those four pieces for a congregation in transition, four categories of needs that need to be attended to. Is that an accurate way to say it?
Ruth Shaver
Yes, absolutely. And, it’s always lovely to be an Intentional Interim on staff when you have other pastoral staff to do some of that work, because then more of the time can be focused on that transitional piece. But that isn’t always the case. And so sometimes, not only are we serving as the full-time, Interim Pastor, we’re also the Intentional Interim doing the transitional work on top of the other work. And so that can be a challenge, because trying to balance those things out and making sure that the congregation knows where the boundaries are in terms of, you know, if I’m doing this work, then these things may need to be taken up by other people. Or, you know, somehow it all comes out, so that the bigger picture is taken care of. That’s one of the reasons I like the consulting model, because I have one job. And there are ways as a consultant, I can work with the pastor or whomever is there to incorporate what I’m doing into worship, for example, or into faith formation pieces, or into relationship building as the case may be. But as the Interim Consultant I’m focused on that transition.
Jim Latimer
And because that’s part-time, you can work with two or three congregations at the same time, right?
Ruth Shaver
Ideally, yes. Absolutely. I have a dream….
Jim Latimer
Right. This field is very much emerging and that’s kind of another piece there. But, let’s wrap up this section now, if you are good with this first podcast and then we’ll do another one where I want to ask you specifically more about, So what does an interim result actually do? Is this good for now, Ruth?
Ruth Shaver
This is great! This is fantastic! Thanks Jim.
Jim Latimer
Thank you!