Staying Sane While Serving a High Maintenance Congregation
10 min 20 s
Rev. Dr. Jill H. Small
- How the pastor / physician analogy can help
- How I deal with ultimatums and criticisms from parishioners
Category: Stewardship
What Does Your Building Say about Who You Are?
8 min 18 s
Rev. Dr. Jill H. Small
- I was encountering a lot of aging congregations in aging buildings…
- The science of Place Identity
- Helping a congregation have a conversation about their “stuff”
How to Talk About Our Buildings
10 min 28 s
Rev. Dr. Jill H. Small
To the 3 standard questions of the interim period, consider adding a 4th one: “What do our buildings say about who we are as God’s people in our community?”
- Plus an “Identity & Facility Discussion Guide” (5 questions to engage parishioners’ conversation around the “4th” question.)
What to Do When Your Buildings No Longer Meet Your Needs
7 min 53 s
Rev. Dr. Jill H. Small
- The unique role an interim minister can play here
- “How fast do you want to know what I see?”
Handling Difficult Financial Conversations with a Congregation
8 min 16 s
Rev. Dr. Laura Barnes
- What their financial documents reveal about the condition of the congregation – what to look for
- Here’s when and how I ask for their financial documents and what I do with them
- What if I don’t have any financial training? Should I just leave all that to others?
Getting Started: My Priorities and Activities for the First Few Weeks and Months
12 min 26 s
Rev. Dr. Laura Barnes
- Creating a Covenant of Agreement with the staff
- Why I make a point of spending time with the top financial donors
- How I use my perceived objectivity as an outsider to advantage
Buildings: How I Think About This Major Resource
9 min 24 s
Rev. Philomena Hare
- Using them to further God’s kingdom
- How they free up or tie up our telling the Jesus story
- Dealing with idolatry of the building
A Guiding Question for Churches in Threshold Liminal Space
12 min 41 s
Rev. Lindsey Peterson
Questions to direct us from a spirit-lead, and justice lead-perspective around how we are being nudged to use or give away material assets and resources;
Parsing the question of What is ours to give away, now?
What is ours?
What is ours?
What is ours to give away?
What is ours to give away now?
How to know when you’ve really released something – given it away?
- there’s space in you;
- there’s a lightening of your load;
- you breathe deeper;
- you feel a little lighter…
The opening of emotional space created by the release can breed hope;
You can never lose a thing if it belongs to you.
Listen or Read Now!The Holy No! can Clarify What Is Ours to Do at This Time – and What Is Not
12 min 48 s
Rev. Lindsey Peterson
Is your church in that anxious place of diminished vitality where folks are throwing out ideas left and right in a desperate effort to right the ship – “We ought to do this?” or, “We could attract young families again if we just did that!” etc.?
If so, the Holy No! can help clarify what is ours to do at this time – and what is not. In this episode, Rev. Lindsey Peterson takes us inside her own congregation and how they are using the Holy No! to focus and to empower.
Questions to direct us from a spirit-lead, and justice lead-perspective around how we are being nudged to use or give away material assets and resources;
Parsing the question of What is ours to give away, now?
What is ours?
What is ours?
What is ours to give away?
What is ours to give away now?
How to know when you’ve really released something – given it away?
- there’s space in you;
- there’s a lightening of your load;
- you breathe deeper;
- you feel a little lighter…
The opening of emotional space created by the release can breed hope;
You can never lose a thing if it belongs to you.
Listen or Read Now!Your Church Property Has a Mission Too
16 min 07 s
Rev. Dr. Rochelle (Shelly) Stackhouse
- Does your church have more property than it needs? Is much of your building unused most of the time? If so, you have lots of company! Many churches have significant real estate that’s fallow – unused – and yet they continue to pay for its upkeep. Of course, no one likes this situation or planned for this reality, yet churches often have difficulty moving forward. Put differently, churches often struggle to incorporate their property into a realistic understanding of their current mission and purpose as a faith community. Rev. Dr. Shelly Stackhouse, a long-experienced interim minister and now the Senior Director of Programs for the non-profit, “Partners for Sacred Places,” offers some key questions and a process to help such churches move forward in this episode titled, “Your Church Property Has a Mission Too.”
Does Your Church Have a Mission Statement for Its Property?
Interim ministers have the opportunity (obligation?) to help a congregation begin to assess their situation with their property;
- How is our property being used?
- How often?
- Who’s using it?
- What spaces could be used more fully?
- What property should we offload? How and to whom?
Developing a mission statement for your property;
Understanding property as part of your mission – start by going room to room…
There are people in the wider community who are stakeholders in your property;
Honoring the grief in letting go of unused property;
It’s in the telling of stories that people come to feel the past has been honored, and then are open to a different future;
Listen or Read Now!