What about taking on Significant Projects During the Interim Time, Such as a Capital Campaign? – 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. My name is Jim Latimer and I have the pleasure of having with us Reverend Dr. Jonathan New. Jonathan is a savvy interim minister with much wisdom to share. I wanted to ask about the idea of taking on significant projects during the interim time. Is that something that we should engage with as interim ministers? Jonathan, if you could speak to that it would certainly help me and others too I’m sure.

Jonathan New
This is a great question. As we know, there are colleagues who have differing perspectives on this. I will just say that for me, my thinking has really changed on this over the six interims that I’ve been in. Conventional wisdom when I was first starting out, was certainly that the interim time was not a time to take up major issues such as an Open and Affirming process, or new projects, such as a capital campaign, or new missional efforts, such as a transitional housing ministry or something like that. But I have seen many examples of churches that have done these kinds of things during the interim period and moved into their next chapter together as a congregation, stronger and more purpose filled, and frankly, more inspirited. So I think it is helpful to remember that one of the things that we are doing during the interim time is testing out who the congregation is apart from the previous pastor.
We want the congregation to have that self-understanding. So these big issues, these projects, these initiatives provide really excellent opportunities to test those things out. And there’s what the congregation finds out about itself in the process of taking up these major things, providing insight and satisfaction, and a kind of healthy pride as well. The extent to which it actually holds these values that it says that it has, for example. Or just how it might live into these commitments that it says it holds, or the depth of its lay leader bench, or whether it has and holds a sense of the congregation’s ministry, or whether it’s simply employing a pastor to conduct ministry on its behalf. So you’re testing those things out with some of these big things.
And additionally, just taking these things up, frankly, sends a message to prospective pastoral candidates. It sends the message, We’re looking for a pastor, to join us in ministry. And that is a different message from, We’re looking for a pastor to come and solve our problems, fix whatever needs fixing, and cast all the vision and take us where that pastor wants us to go.

Jim Latimer
Or just to fill a vacancy.

Jonathan New
Right. I just want to be really clear about this. There are definitely times not to take up these new projects, issues or initiatives during the interim time. For example, when they distract from the main goals of asking and answering those key questions about who are we, and who is our neighbor, and what is God calling us to be and to do. Or when they get in the way of actually conducting a pastoral search. Or when they become obstacles to dealing with other issues that really do need to be tended to, such as conflict in the church, or grief following a beloved pastor’s departure. So it isn’t always the right time to do it, but I think it can be when the church is overall relatively healthy. And especially if there’s a reasonable amount of trust in the lay leadership of the church, and a history of a reasonable amount of trust with the pastoral leader.

Jim Latimer
Yes. And where there’s enough lay leadership capacity to carry it after the interim leaves, right? If they’re looking for you – the interim minister – to really lead it, then that’s definitely a sign that it is not appropriate.

Jonathan New
Yes, absolutely. Right. And again, none of these would be things that I as the interim would be initiating, but rather that any new initiative would come from them.

Jim Latimer
That’s a really important point: they would initiate it.

Jonathan New
Yes, absolutely.

Jim Latimer
That’s sweet. And I also heard you saying, Jonathan, how when the time is right, then a significant project – whether it’s ONA, a capital campaign, a housing project in the community or something – could actually not only not distract, it could actually support and magnify the interim questions and goals and process.

Jonathan New
Absolutely. A quick example. I’m currently serving a church that during the interim time called me as an interim to help them in support of a capital campaign that they really needed to run. It had been deferred for too long, and that was endangering its financial health. So taking this on in the midst of the interim time was really important to them. We had a series of sustained conversations about this before I arrived. I will just say that the congregation did vote to embark on the capital campaign. And to your point, Jim, what’s happening is that the process of self-discovery that must accompany a capital campaign – the relationship, for example, between building projects and those core governing principles of a congregation, its commitments, its values, its beliefs, how it wants to relate to the community, how and understands its role in the world – all of those are coming right to the fore. And so it’s a wonderful opportunity to very naturally be in this process of their self-discovery.

Jim Latimer
Nice. It’s not just because well, it’s the interim time to do this self-discovery. They’ve got a more concrete reason for doing it that they’ve chosen and that they’re motivated to do. And its results around identity, around values, and purpose that the interim process needs just comes out anyway. It may be under a different label, but it’s the same stuff that’s valuable. Wow. Neat. That’s really good. So where are you now? How long have you been at this church?

Jonathan New
In the church I’m currently serving, let’s see, I started a week before pandemic lockdown started. So it is one of the reasons why I think trust is a very important component here in terms of whether we take on these big projects. If there weren’t trust, a reasonable amount of trust in previous pastoral leadership, if there weren’t current trust in the lay leadership of the church, these things wouldn’t be possible. So I’ve been with this church a year and a half now. It’s been a wonderful and terribly frightening pandemic roller coaster ride as so many of us have experienced.

Jim Latimer
But the capital campaign that you’ve been in a year and a half now, that’s really solid?

Jonathan New
Yes, absolutely.

Jim Latimer
That’s good to know! I love the layers that you helped me and our listeners to think about when they are with a church that might need a significant project such as who should initiate it, leadership capacity, and thinking about all that. That’s great. So thank you very much, Jonathan, for sharing that.

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