My WHY For Interim Ministry & Thoughts For Those Thinking Of Entering Interim Ministry – 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. Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Reverend Dr. Laura Barnes. Laura has served a number of interims both in United Church of Christ, as well as in the Presbyterian Church USA. Laura, what best practice, or what wisdom, would you like to share with us in this segment?

Well, first of all, Jim, thank you for inviting me into this conversation. I love how you’re lifting up the concept of wisdom, because we have a lot of knowledge which resides in our brains. We have a lot of emotions and feelings which tend to reside in our hearts and our souls. And I look at wisdom as the weaving of the knowledge and feelings and experiences that we’ve had. So when you ask a “WHY” question like this, I really try hard to drop into my heart, because a sense of Call for me first comes from that place of passion, that deep rooted soul knowledge that we all have and sometimes we don’t trust. So why I chose interim ministry is because the world is a very broken place, and I still believe in the church. And you know, she’s not a perfect organization. She’s hard to work for. But I do believe that spiritual community still offers a path towards healing, and I hold up so much hope. Hope anchors the soul.

So, as we come out of this pandemic, to be really specific about this time and place that we’re in, we have become much more aware of the racial divides in our country, and we’re really being called on, I think, to collectively grieve as a nation. I don’t think we’ve even touched on that yet – natural disasters, pandemic, racial distress and divide. The world needs and will need healthy thriving churches.

I think a lot of us are going to go back to our childhood roots. We’re going to return to really wanting to study scripture, to look at the reassurance and hope of our Gospel message, but also to help each other. I think there are a lot of people looking for constructive ways to make a difference in our world, because we have seen so much devastation this past year. And so I think interim ministry is really a way that we can serve God and the Church, that is unique and vital and will help move us towards healthier institutions.

And I love a good challenge! It’s really exciting when you begin working with a new congregation. That honeymoon period is just so ripe and delicious, and it often draws the best out of your counsel and your church leadership. It gives them a new vitality. It personally has sharpened my preaching and teaching because, since I know I’m only going to be there a few months, I really hone in on what I think is specifically impactful and important for them to hear from the scripture text and the Holy Spirit as she guides me.

And to be really specific, since I have a business background, along with this ministerial calling, I feel like that combination of gifts can be used in this unique way to serve the Church. I can spend 12 to 18 months with a congregation and preach and teach and offer pastoral care, but I can also help them shore up their balance sheet – review their property and liability insurance, maybe even saving some money. To consider their endowment, or start one, and to better manage their assets, because churches often defer maintenance, for example. Is that the best way to be good stewards of the facilities that have been entrusted to us?

And I have to say I’m a bit of a wanderer. I don’t mind moving across the country and starting something new. I moved across the country during the pandemic. This is an aspect of my personality that I learned to embrace from my mentor, the Reverend Phil Hart, who’s one of the conference ministers in Michigan right now. When I met him, he was an interim Conference Minister here in California. I learned so much from changing venues and letting go of what I perceived to be my roots. If I’m encouraging churches not to be stuck, so I also need not to be stuck in one place. And when I explore new areas of the country, I feel like my theology is more well informed. Certainly when I moved from the west coast and served in the middle of the country, specifically in Texas, I got to listen to a balance of voices, both from the conservative and progressive sides, and it really helped me grow as a bridge builder.

I also feel like interim ministry helps keep my sense of Call very fresh. For some reason I don’t feel overwhelmed as I did in long-term settled ministry. There’s so much to do, and you kind of carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. And with interim ministry, you offer them these gifts and if they choose to pick them up great and if they don’t, you know you’ve done your best. So it’s a lighter way of doing impactful ministry. So I think that is how I would articulate my WHY.

Jim Latimer: That’s beautiful, Laura. You held up how for you, interim ministry is a good fit for your skill set – you get to use change management, the financial piece and the preaching piece. Of course, those are all relevant even in a settled pastorate, but in an interim pastorate, because it’s so focused and so short a time, perhaps they’re even more intensely needed. And the other piece around why interim industry suits you that I heard was that it suits your temperament and your personality. You like to move around; you’re not so much one to plant yourself in one place for 20 years and stay there. You like to move around. You used the term wander. I can identify with that too.

Thank you very much, Laura. I know our listeners will benefit from from hearing your wisdom. I sure did. Thank you.

Laura Barnes (She/Her): Thank you.

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