sbc IMPACT!

Strategic Interim Ministries

May 5th, 2008 by Bowden McElroy
Posted in Baptist Life, Bowden McElroy, Church, Uncategorized |

I’ve been reading quite a bit about big churches, small churches, and dying churches. Today, I thought I would add churches in transition. I suppose all churches are in one sort of transition or another; I’m talking about those congregations that choose to be intentional during their time between pastors.

I just got back from a annual meeting of ministers who help churches use the interim time strategically. SBC churches have two options for being strategic during an interim time; Lifeway’s Transitional Pastor approach or an Intentional Interim Minister.

The Arkansas Baptist State Convention utilizes the Intentional Interim Ministry approach for churches in transition. The meeting I went to had about 40 or 50 Intentional Interim ministers, mostly from Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma and mostly retired ministers. We met last week and my presentation was “Understanding the Post-Baby Boomer generations”.

I won’t bore you with details from my presentation; the meat of it was lifted from Len Sweet’s Post-Modern Pilgrims. I did, though, want to share a few thoughts about the conference itself.

My first thought was that for a group of people who are supposed to be catalysts for change, many were very resistant to change. I understand why retired pastors are attracted to a ministry of helping churches in transition. Forty pastors with an average of 50 years on the field means there was about 2000 years of pastoral experience in that room. The advantage is that it’s hard to throw a problem at them they haven’t encountered before. The disadvantage is they are not the most eager group when it comes to seeing things from a new perspective. Yet, they know that about themselves; each year they tell us they want more information about “these kids today”. It’s hard to be mad at someone who recognizes the holes in their knowledge base and wants to change.

One of the biggest complaints voiced was the number of churches that could benefit from a strategic interim (either Intentional Interim or Lifeway’s Transitional Pastor approach) but are uninterested. It would appear that we are a convention of churches who are resistant to self-examination; refusing to learn from our mistakes, we make the same ones over and over again.

Len Sweet (and other authors I read) as well as the young adults from my own church whom I surveyed make the point that post-baby boomer’s crave participation. “Just listen to us” is the refrain I heard from the conversations I had at my church. Wanting to be heard and needing to be in control are two different things; a concept the older pastors had a hard time understanding.

My last thought is simply this: don’t stand in line to go to the bathroom behind a group of octogenarians. You’re better off leaving the building and driving down the street to find the nearest convenience store; it’ll be quicker.