Category: Leadership Development

Posted in Church Growth & Vitality, Governance, Leadership Development, Self-Care, Staff, Team Building, Volunteers Tagged with

11 min 25s

Rev. Joe Graumann

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.

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Posted in Church Growth & Vitality, Leadership Development, Music, Staff, Team Building, Volunteers, Worship Tagged with

14 min 23s

Rev. Joe Graumann

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.”

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Posted in Church Growth & Vitality, Faith Formation, Governance, Leadership Development, Mission and Vision, Spiritual Formation, Team Building, Volunteers Tagged with

12 min 2s

Rev. thom bower

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 to Faith Formation.”

It’s in committee work that adult faith takes its life;

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;

  1. What? (the event)
  2. What was it? (the debriefing)
  3. What about it? (getting more info)
  4. So what? (with that info, what do we change?
  5. What’s next? (Preparing for the next thing)

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Posted in Church Growth & Vitality, Faith Formation, Governance, Leadership Development, Mission and Vision, Spiritual Formation, Team Building, Volunteers Tagged with

12 min 2s

Rev. Dr. thom bower

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 –

  1. What are the issues you’re facing?
  2. What do you see are the qualities of community?
  3. What are the main actions of being community in this congregation?
  4. Who facilitates it and what’s their role?

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Posted in Children and Youth, Church Growth & Vitality, Evangelism, External Relations, Faith Formation, Leadership Development, Music, Volunteers, Worship Tagged with

10min 12 s

Rev. Anna Tew

Have you found your church caught in a pattern where worship is seen as a show performed by the pastor with the congregation being the audience? If so, you have a lot of company. The good news, however, is that worship services can be created that have that added spiritual crackle and energy that often results when more people are involved in leading worship. In this episode, Rev. Anna Tew shares some specifics of how her congregation has intentionally evolved in this direction. 

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Posted in Boundaries, Church Decline, Contracting and Negotiating Before Beginning, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Finishing and Exiting, Leadership Development, Self-Care, Team Building, Volunteers Tagged with

15 min 06 s

Rev. Heidi Johnston

As an Interim Minister, have you ever wondered about the rest of the story? You know – feedback about the impact of your ministry on the congregation after you left? In this episode, settled ELCA pastor, Rev. Heidi Johnston, expresses her gratitude to the Intentional Interim Minister who preceded her, including specifics of how the IM set her up for success.

Particular things IM did to set me up for success –

The IM expressed clear boundaries about the number of hours/week she would work & equipped laity to negotiate the use of pastoral time and energy – focusing and prioritizing;

IM didn’t work beyond her stated limit of working hours when temped to do so – and helped the congregation understand why and adapt;

Two, she led leadership through honest sometimes hard conversations about their current reality – and its implications for calling next pastor;

IM presented new limitations as opportunities, not losses, which led to a new joy in opportunities for more hands-on ministry for lay people.

Three – The transition conversations nudged people beyond all the ways the past was more abundant – celebrate the wonderful things of the past, and also name past hurts and conflicts – helped me not to get blindsided by issues the congregation may be sweeping under the rug.

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Posted in Change Management, Church Decline, Faith Formation, Healing / Grief Work, Leadership Development, Managing Expectations, Mission and Vision, Pastoral Care, Staff, Worship Tagged with

15 min 50s

It’s not about “saving” the congregation, per se, but about buying the time for serious thinking about what the cong. wants for its future.

Discerning what form of ministry is faithful to the basic values & resources that you have now?

Guidance for how lay leaders can work productively with a very part-time pastor;

A targeted approach that equips and empowers the laity can do themselves:

Specific recommendations for how the laity can create and lead worship, for congregational care, etc.

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Posted in Boundaries, Change Management, Church Decline, Contracting and Negotiating Before Beginning, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Interviewing for an Interim Position, Leadership Development, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Managing Expectations, Self-Care Tagged with

12 min 07s

Book came out of my experiments, failures & successes of a more laid-back approach to ministry;

Laidback means pastoring from the sidelines rather than from center court.

My Aha! moment after season of being burned out came when I wasn’t insisting on being in the center of everything & the church was still doing just fine;

I know I’ve done well equipping them when they own the ideas, not saying “Pastor Liz said we should…” As a transition pastor, key to be able to very quickly say: This is who I am. This is what you will experience working with me.

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Posted in Boundaries, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Leadership Development, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Managing Expectations, Self-Care Tagged with

For a pastor who admits having been burned out early in ministry, embracing the bonfire metaphor for her ministry now seems dicey. Yet, Rev. Liz Miller offers this bonfire metaphor to describe a vibrant new stance and perspective for her ministry where she’s close to the heat of things, but no longer consumed by it; paying full attention, yet not holding tightly to particular outcomes. Listen to her lessons learned and new wisdom in this episode titled, “Moving from Burnout to Bonfire.”

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.

I moved from burnout in ministry 5 years in, to bonfire now – bonfires require constant tending, yet don’t want to over tend; find a rhythm that works;

And for me that’s what ministry feels like in the local church, keeping a close enough eye on things that you are connected and can respond when something needs you, but not being so close to it that you’re totally consumed and absorbed by what’s happening that you can’t respond when there’s a change.

Yet, it’s not about balance, per se; it’s more about having an awareness, a willingness to be off kilter a little bit and to just accept that you have to come and go and move in and move out as needed.

Laidback is very different from not paying attention. You are paying attention very much in the moment, yet laidback in the sense of not holding on tightly to a particular outcome;

The laidback approach is about being more attuned to the people and their gifts and their possibilities, rather than being attuned to expectations of a certain outcomes.

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Posted in Boundaries, Change Management, Church Decline, Contracting and Negotiating Before Beginning, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Interviewing for an Interim Position, Leadership Development, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Managing Expectations, Self-Care Tagged with

12 min 28s

I’ve come to realize that transitional ministry in a church in transition feels very similar to a settled position, but it’s a lot more honest about the transitions that are happening there at the forefront, rather than in the background;

Avoid giving in to the sense of urgency by doing too much myself; rather, staying on the sidelines for equipping and empowering people;

A lot of helping the congregation reframe ownership for existing things or new ideas so it’s really coming from them, not just what a pastor said they should do;

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