Category: Managing Expectations

Posted in Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, Governance, Leadership Development, Managing Expectations, Mission and Vision, Spiritual Formation, Volunteers Tagged with

14 min 30 s

Rev. Jeff MacDonald

  • How the pastor can overcome resistance by the laity;
  • How can a pastor help a congregation move beyond the resistance that just comes up when, when change is in the air;
  • Being intentional rather than reactionary in the move to a part-time pastorate;
  • Questions to help the laity get clear about their roles in the move to a part-time  pastorate;
  • Key questions to ask yourself to understand how your pastorate is structured now;
  • Formal vs. unspoken expectations and their consequences;
  • Allowing the laity to do what they’ve long been authorized to do but don’t realize it;
  • Helping the laity to see that there’s actually very little that is doable only by the pastor;
  • Seeing the pastor as a strategic resource to advance the mission of the congregation;
  • Why being clear about the congregation’s mission is so essential to a successful part-time

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Posted in Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, Governance, Leadership Development, Managing Expectations, Mission and Vision, Volunteers Tagged with

14 min 03 s

Rev. Jeff MacDonald

  • How a part-time pastorate can actually be more empowering for lay people;
  • How part-time ministry can be a career boon for creative types who have other streams of income;
  • How a part-time pastorate can be life-giving for both the pastor and the congregation;
  • How a part-time pastorate can create a grounding and stable life for the creative gig worker;

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Posted in Change Management, Church Growth & Vitality, Contracting and Negotiating Before Beginning, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Is Interim Ministry for Me?, Managing Expectations Tagged with

12 min 09 s

Rev. Dr. Todd Grant Yonkman

  • Why setting expectations is critical & how to do it
  • How the metaphor of “Midwife” for the transition pastor can clarify roles and responsibilities
  • The church you were is not the church you are going to be…
  • What are you willing to let go of to get what you most want?
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Posted in Buildings and Property, Change Management, Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, Contracting and Negotiating Before Beginning, External Relations, Faith Formation, Healing / Grief Work, Managing Expectations, Self-Care Tagged with

10 min 59 s

Rev. Dr. Rochelle (Shelly) Stackhouse

  • Is the church over?
  • Is this great experiment that was started by Jesus – this experiment that the Holy Spirit exploded on Pentecost – is it really over?
  • Perhaps we’re asking the wrong question….
  • If our role isn’t to preserve the Church, what is it?
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Posted in Boundaries, Contracting and Negotiating Before Beginning, Governance, Leadership Development, Managing Expectations, Staff, Team Building Tagged with

10 min 19 s

Rev. Holly MillerShank

  • Some routine things the interim minister can do to create containers for the challenging staff conversations that will likely come;
  • The plusses and minuses of having a staff person report to a committee versus reporting to an individual person;
  • Recommended staff practices to put in place as the Interim;
  • Some difficult conversations that interims need to have with staff;
  • Tips for teambuilding among the staff;
  • Creating accountability relationships with staff;
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Posted in Boundaries, Conflict Management, Contracting and Negotiating Before Beginning, Governance, Managing Expectations, Pastoral Care, Staff Tagged with

12 min 51 s

Rev. Holly MillerShank

  • How to have good conversations around boundaries with staff who are also members of the congregation;
  • Navigating the tension between the need for job performance by staff and the need for compassionate pastoral care to them;
  • What obligation – or responsibility – do interim ministers have to initiate those difficult conversations with staff?
  • What options do we have as the interim, when a staff member, who is also a congregation member, is no longer able to perform their staff duties?
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Posted in Managing Expectations, Pastoral Care, Self-Care Tagged with

12 min 27 s

Rev. Arlen Vernava

The 3 components of Body Budget: adequate sleep, nutritious food, exercise;

What to do when your Body Budget is in deficit, but don’t have time to attend to it;

How to advance the work of the church when Body Budget is in deficit;

Body Budget applies at the congregational level too;

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Posted in Change Management, Church Decline, Church Mergers, Death and Dying, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Financial Management, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Managing Expectations, Pastoral Care Tagged with

13 min 49 s

Rev. Diane Kenaston

How we were able to tell the truth about our reality without also predicting gloom and doom;

My own process from being one of the people in denial about the congregation’s reality, to embracing it and moving forward;

How we were able to build the trust necessary for people to listen to the truth of their reality and move forward;

What I did when I realized that the church was not going to have another full-time pastor after me.

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Posted in Change Management, Church Decline, Church Mergers, Death and Dying, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Financial Management, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Managing Expectations, Pastoral Care Tagged with

13 min 37 s

Rev. Diane Kenaston

Simultaneously raising and lowering anxiety in the process of change;

A copy of the letter we sent to the congregation laying out our reasons and reality….

The details of our deliberative and thoughtful approach to ….

The specific steps we took to reduce the congregation’s anxiety level to allow a constructive conversation about our future;

How we named the options we had for the future;

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Posted in Assessments and Evaluations, Change Management, Church Growth & Vitality, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Governance, Leadership Development, Managing Expectations, Team Building Tagged with

18 min 49 s

Rev. Peter Ilgenfritz & Rev. Todd Weir

How church leaders learned to see the bigger picture – from the balcony rather than just the dance floor;

Equipping lay leaders to be able to lead collaboratively with the next settled pastor…

Tips for the interim minister when following a strong successful settled pastorate (it’s not as easy as it sounds);

How to effect change at the cultural level, not just the program level – with examples;

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