surviving the interim period
I am doing an interim again, this time at Westport Road Baptist Church here in Louisville. It is always a humbling experience to be trusted with a group of students, if even for a short period of time. As interims go this one has gone really smooth, and has been a blessing to do. The staff, volunteers and students are fantastic. But it also got me thinking about steps churches can take to have a good interim period.Have realistic time expectations-As the interim minister I am not at the church 40-50 hours a week like the minister I replaced. At Westport and at Cedar Creek, my agreement is/was be here Sunday’s and Wednesday’s and make staff meeting as much as you can. I can do that. But I probably won’t have time to attend ballgames, dance recitals or make hospital visits. It’s not that I don’t want to do these, they are part of the ministry that I really enjoy, I honestly just don’t have the time.
Event planning-I love events, in youth ministry you learn to plan events or you’re not in ministry for long. But know that I am not going to do things just like the last minister did, nor do I need to. Part of my job as the interim is to prepare you for who is coming next. And I can almost guarantee you that they are not going to do things the way the last minister did. So part of my job is to keep things similar enough to be familiar, but different enough to make the next step an okay one. But, I may not have the time to make the event as big or as fancy as the last minister, (see step one).
Use volunteers as much as possible. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe there is a time and place to hire and interim, but I not sure that every vacancy needs to hire someone from outside. The ideal would be to put together lead teams made up of volunteers, parents and students that can see to the ministry during the transition period. You may also need to appoint someone to speak for the ministry at staff, committee and business meetings; and you probably also need someone to serve as interim leader, but that could be a volunteer as well. Volunteers are the key to successful youth ministry.
Don’t settle for holding things together-To many times I think this is the attitude we take during the interim times. I have had this conversation with churches whose mindset is “we just want to be able to hold things together until the new youth minister gets here”. Why? There is no reason to think the ministry will have to suffer. Sure there isn’t just one person giving attention to the ministry, but there also isn’t just one person giving attention to the ministry. Dividing responsibilities can allow each person to take a small piece of the ministry and make it the best it can be and that can lead to growth in the ministry during the interim period.
Process-as much as possible keep the workers and the students “in the know” as to how the process for a replacement is going. There isn’t a need for names and current ministry placements of the ministers you are looking at. But just a general sense of where you are: receiving resumes, narrowing the search, asking for more information, talking to a couple of people, etc. It just lets those involved in leadership and the students in the ministry know that you are being diligent in your duties and will help to calm the uneasiness the students may be feeling.
Pray. Involve the students and the leaders in praying for the search committee and for the next minister. As they pray and ask for God’s guidance the Spirit will begin to turn their hearts towards who is next. I’m not sure there has ever been a time when someone has said, “I wish I hadn’t prayed so much” over that decision. &nb sp;
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posted by: Joe Ball on February 2nd, 2010
