My 4 Or 5 Key Questions To Help Congregations Discern Their Future – 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’m Reverend Jim Latimer and I have the good fortune to have with us today, Reverend Chris Mereschuk. Chris is an experienced Designated Term Minister. It’s another flavor of intentional transitional ministry. One of the many things that has impressed me about him is that he really values a good question and uses them artfully. So, I wanted him to speak a little bit about just what are some of the key questions that he keeps close to him when he’s working with a congregation in a in a transitional mode. Chris, we’d love to hear anything you could offer on that.
Chris Mereschuk
Thank you. Thanks again for having me here on this really critical podcast. Yes, I think we all practice discernment in our congregations, whether we are there in a transitional role – be it a Designated Term Pastor or Interim Pastor. And even as settled pastors, we need to do times of discernment to figure out who we are as a congregation, where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going.
And I think particularly when starting out with a congregation, there are a couple of key questions to really build those relationships, get to know people, get to know the setting, and start to get some ideas of what is important to people, and what things you might want to pin or flag, or what are the things folks don’t want to talk about, but really do need to talk about. And I always just start with basic things like, tell me about your church. And it’s nice and open ended. And, you might hear from one person about all the lovely things that used to happen, and that they used to be involved in and they raised their kids there, they got married there or, you know, celebrated the life of a loved one there. Then you might hear from another person about the frustrations or gripes that they have about their church. And then yet another one of: what the church could be. And then of course, moving a bit more personal. Why did you come to this church? And again, you’ll hear a wide variety of stories. And then, Why do you continue to be involved in this church, in this congregation? And you’ll hear more stories there.
And when you’re looking at discernment, and planning, or visioning, or what have you, and you’re working toward some sort of renewal or relaunch or just figuring out the whole “why” of the congregation, I recall a recent experience. When I was going through the process of legacy and closure with Faith United Church in Springfield, Mass, there were two key questions that others introduced me to, that were really not only clarifying, but frankly, sobering. One came from Reverend Jonathan New, who I know has done a couple of these interviews with you. Rev. New’s question was, What would have to be true for dot dot dot? And so, when I was working with this congregation that was considering, What’s our future? Do we re-form in a smaller building, in a smaller group? Do we merge? Do we pursue legacy or closure? I pitched it as, What would have to be true for this congregation to continue as its own independent, so to speak, congregation with a clergy person and owning a building and all of that? It really gets people thinking about the current reality and what would need to change? What would need to happen? What would need to transform?
And then once you have that, the other question that came to me from Reverend Jill Graham, who had been the Area Conference Minister, is, What is the capacity for the congregation to do this work? We often think of capacity in terms of financial terms and that’s not unimportant. However, my experience is what’s more important is your people power capacity. What is the people power capacity to do these things that would have to be true in order for dot dot dot? So, let’s say the congregation says, In order for our congregation to continue as is, we would need, 20 more members, or we would need such and such a committee to really reform. We would need such and such programs. Okay. Do we have the capacity to staff those committees? Do we have the capacity to really start up these programs and have them thrive? Or explore this relationship or that relationship? Or do we have the capacity for evangelism and membership growth? And to really take candid looks at those responses. And then, of course, the follow up question on that is, If the things that would have to be true, if we do not have the capacity for them, then what do we do? What do we have the capacity for?
Jim Latimer
I love it! What do we have the capacity for?
Chris Mereschuk
What do we have the capacity for? Do we have that demonstrated capacity? Of course, we don’t want to say that, Well, you know, we tried something x number of years ago, and it failed, so we never tried again. However, is there a pattern of, We tried this thing 10 times and each time here’s what went wrong, or it just didn’t work? So, maybe it’s not so likely. Or what’s different now that might prime us for success a little more. All of this is undergirded by perhaps the biggest question, which is, Why? Getting to your Why. Reverend Don Remick talked about that some years ago, at a Super Saturday event, What is your Why? I often call it toddler brain. You need to go into toddler brain and continually ask, Why? until people get really annoyed with you. We want to have this program. Why? Well, because it will draw more people. Well, why do we want more people? Because we want the church to grow. Why do we want the church to grow? Just push it and push it and push it. I don’t know if there’s necessarily a satisfactory answer to, Why? But it’s important to ask and really interrogate and investigate what is at the heart of this congregation. And its purpose? Its mission? Its Call, really. What is the congregation’s Call? So that’s sort of the series of questions, just starting with a basic building the relationship out of genuine curiosity, but also listening for what is coming up for people? What’s on their hearts? What’s on their minds, when it comes to their beloved community?
Jim Latimer
Wow, Chris! That was really, really rich, what you said. And I loved how you summed up nicely the flow: It begins with initial questions when you engage with the congregation, questions of simple curiosity. Right? Just simple curiosity. What do you love about your church? Why do you continue to stay? And none of these questions are “yes” “no” questions. That’s part of the power of them. They’re all open-ended, right? In other words, none of them begin with, Do you? Or the word “do.” Right? They begin with a what, a how, or a why, or something. And the ones that came from Jonathan New and Jill Graham: What would have to be true for x….? They honor a dream that might be on the table, or grand vision. They honor it. They don’t diss it. They bring it down to the earth and try to anchor it in a practical way – to see if it has legs. Because if it doesn’t have legs, you don’t want to try to build on it, or get that pony to run. But if it does, now you have something, right?
Chris Mereschuk
Yes.
Jim Latimer
So, I love the practicality of those without dissing division, right? Sometimes people try to get practical in a way that is undercutting. But it doesn’t undercut.
Chris Mereschuk
Right. And the initial, What would have to be true? is very much like the Question Burst model. It doesn’t require that you find a solution right then. You’re looking for responses to that question. You don’t have to figure it out right then.
Jim Latimer
It keeps the conversation going in a fruitful direction that continues to reveal what the reality is, and what our purpose is – which a lot of people and churches don’t really know. We kind of do, but often what we think our purpose is one that’s kind of outdated and doesn’t fit our context anymore. That’s a whole separate podcast, right? Chris, thank you so much. I think this is probably a good place to wrap this one up. These four or five key questions for discernment by leaders in a transition mode are really useful and helpful. Thank you for that gift, Chris.
Chris Mereschuk
Thank you so much.
Jim Latimer
Okay. Bye.
Chris Mereschuk
Bye now.
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