TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28
11:00 am – 11:50 am Eastern
Meet the IMN Community
IMN is a diverse community of faith leaders from across the globe. We invite you to join us for a brief introduction to the IMN community. You will connect with several IMN Board Members who possess the passion and commitment to support transitional leaders.
12:30 – 1:00 pm Eastern
Opening/Worship
Join us for the opening of the IMN 45th Annual Conference. We will extend a warm welcome and offer a brief overview of the upcoming three days. Following this introduction, we will guide you to the first keynote session featuring Rev. Cameron Trimble, which will commence with a moment of spiritual centering.
1:00 – 4:00 pm Eastern
Keynote
The Futures Lab: Practicing Faithful Imagination for What’s Next
Rev. Cameron Trimble
In a rapidly changing world, transitional leaders are called not only to manage uncertainty but to actively cultivate imagination, courage, and possibility. The Futures Lab is a proven process that equips leaders to step beyond “what is” and experiment with “what could be.” Together, we will explore emerging social and spiritual trends, imagine multiple futures for congregational life, and discern faithful pathways forward. This session will invite us to see beyond the immediate horizon and claim our role in shaping a more just, loving, and hopeful future.
Rev. Cameron Trimble is the Executive Director and CEO of Convergence (formerly the Center for Progressive Renewal), an organization that supports the reshaping of congregations and leaders engaged in an age of movement from “organized religion” to “organizing religion” driven by the values of an inclusive, progressive theological vision for a more just world for all. She began her ministry as a new church developer and, to pay for her “ministry habit”, also owns a real estate company and a software company.
Rev. Trimble has served an adjunct professor teaching church planting/renewal and leadership with the Pacific School of Religion, Brite Divinity School, Auburn Seminary and Chicago Theological Seminary. She co-authored the book Liberating Hope and most recently published Piloting Church: Helping Your Congregation Take Flight in 2019 and 60 Days of Faith in 2020.
With this wide experience and exposure, Rev. Trimble is convinced that the future of the progressive mainline Church is dependent upon our ability to cultivate the highest quality of leadership in both ordained and lay leadership.
4:25 – 5:40 pm Eastern
Concurrent Workshop
Process Design for Collective Decision-Making during Transitional Times
Rev. Dr. Michelle Collins
This interactive workshop equips transitional ministers with the frameworks and tools needed to design intentional, effective collective decision-making processes within their congregations. Covering how to identify which decisions benefit from structured processes, the workshop explores the needed complexity, essential process elements, and real-world examples drawn from ministry contexts. Participants will engage in hands-on case studies and receive practical templates, while also reflecting on the minister’s unique role as a facilitator of group discernment during times of change.
Rev. Dr. Michelle Collins is a Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) minister and has served a variety of congregations as an interim, contract, senior minister, associate minister, and briefly as a settled minister. She has extensive experience with Soul Matters curriculum development and regional UUA work. Her previous work experience includes being a hospital chaplain and an elementary school teacher. Michelle is committed to anti-oppression work, social justice and social action. She also has training in trauma response, grief recovery, conflict meditation, and serves on the UUA trauma response ministry and is a researcher for a monthly theme-based resource service.
4:25 – 5:40 pm Eastern
Concurrent Workshop
Bullying and Bad Behavior Discussion
Rev. Christina Paradela
Bad behavior seems more prevalent these days. In our heads, we know it is a symptom of an anxious system.
- How have you been able to recognize it as that?
- How have you responded? What’s worked and what hasn’t?
- In your heart, how have you been able to maintain a stance of compassionate connection, while setting appropriate boundaries – or not?
- Where do you get caught?
- In what ways have you been able to work with and through bad behavior toward organizational health and strength?
Rev. Christina Paradela serves in the United Church of Canada in southern Ontario. She was commissioned into the order of ministry within the Diakonia in 2000 and served as a called minister, both in team and in sole paid accountable ministry with five communities of faith. For the last six years, Christina has served as Intentional Interim Minister in three communities; two of which were following very long-term clergy and one where the community was divided and highly conflicted. Personally, she is the proud grandmother of an amazing grandchild who will climb over toys to get to the books!
4:25 – 5:40 pm Eastern
Concurrent Workshop
Transitional Consulting: Creative Approaches to Interim Intervention
Rev. L. Gail Irwin
Some churches are unable to afford, or even find, an Intentional Interim who can embed in their daily ministry. But they still need help navigating change and loss, mergers or sharing a pastor, church closure or addressing conflict.
Transitional Consultants facilitate specific interim tasks like dealing with grief, identifying core values, assessment of viability, and preparation for a search process, but without taking on pastoral roles like weekly preaching and pastoral care.
This kind of work is not for everyone! But if you’re curious about it, let’s gather to brainstorm and share ideas:
- What situations around you might benefit from consulting?
- Pros and cons of consulting versus being embedded in a church
- What skill set is needed for consulting versus being embedded?
This will be a workshop format with idea sharing for anyone interested in exploring a different way of resourcing local churches in transition.
Gail Irwin is an ordained pastor in the Wisconsin Conference UCC and has been doing Intentional Interim ministry for 14 years in both UCC and Presbyterian settings. She is the author of the book “Toward the Better Country: Church Closure and Resurrection” and the blog “From Death to Life: Churches Facing Resurrection”. She was recently trained as a Transitional Consultant by the Center for Congregational Health.
4:25 – 5:40 pm Eastern
Concurrent Workshop
Holding Ourselves and Our Leaders to Task
Rabbi Dennis Ross
The excitement and energy of the initial interim phase often wanes as the months roll by, making it a challenge to hold to focus, sustain momentum, and achieve goals. This interactive workshop will turn to the Social Work skills of Holding to Task to offer practical and immediately applicable ways to keep work on track.
Rabbi Dennis S. Ross is an Intentional Interim Rabbi and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. He has served over 12 synagogues, and is now with Temple Shaaray Tefila in Bedford Hills, N. Y. He has served the Central Conference of American Rabbis as an interim program specialist and continues to lead their training for interim rabbis. He is the author of six books, including Pastor to the Body of the Congregation: A Companion Guide to Congregational Clergy (Wipf and Stock) to be released this winter. His most recent book is A Year with Martin Buber: Wisdom on the Weekly Torah Portion (Jewish Publication Society). Rabbi Ross has written for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and other publications.
6:30 – 7:30 pm Eastern
Social Time
Coaches’ Corner
We will establish a “conversation pit” designed to facilitate engagement between participants and seasoned professionals in interim ministry. Attendees will have the opportunity to interact, pose specific questions, and gain insights as coaches showcase their areas of experience. Subsequently, participants will be invited into designated conversation (breakout) rooms to explore emerging topics in greater depth.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29
11:00 am – 12:00 pm Eastern
Open Conversation
Open Conversation sessions have been active since 2020, providing a platform for connection and sharing. We invite you to engage in an open dialogue with fellow transitional leaders. You are encouraged to bring your questions, concerns, or celebrations. Alternatively, you are welcome to attend simply to listen and learn from your colleagues’ experiences.
12:30 – 12:45 pm Eastern
Announcements/Spiritual Gathering
Join in to hear of the days events and stay for a Spirit let gathering to start our afternoon.
12:45 – 2:00 pm Eastern
Concurrent Workshop
Finding Courage to Deal with Conflict
Rev. Dr. John Beck
IMN has placed a priority on self-awareness as the crucial entry point to the work of the transitional leader. Additionally, transitional leaders need facility orchestrating and regulating conflict as a central tool for growth in individuals and organizations. The ability to engage effectively with conflict is not natural for many practitioners but requires development through practice.
Work with conflict requires courage to be done well, and a greater awareness of how to strengthen our own capacity for courage is vital. I recently watched a show that explored in vivid detail the preparation that cavers undertake before they head underground, including strategies for staying calm when things get scary. I believe exploring our capacity for courage is foundational for transitional leaders as we engage in challenging interpersonal and organizational dynamics.
Rev. Dr. John Beck is a student of congregational and leadership dynamics and an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) pastor with 30 plus years of experience who has also served as a chaplain, counselor, and seminary professor. John is an Associate of the Kaleidoscope Institute and is a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). His MA in journalism strengthens his communication skills; his PhD in Marital and Family Therapy helps his understanding of family systems; his experiences teaching in several seminaries broadens his appreciation for a diversity of theological perspectives. He is finishing his certification as a trainer with the Stanford Forgiveness Project.
12:45 – 2:00 pm Eastern
Concurrent Workshop
Empowering Laity to Lead New Visions
Rev. Dr. Ruth Shaver
Engaged and empowered lay leadership is vital to the health of congregations engaged in partnership building, merging, or legacy and closure. These lay leaders’ ability to grasp and communicate the vision for the new beginning often starts with difficult conversations that address the reality of the church’s finances and physical assets and moves through exploration of available options, engagement with outside partners and consultants, and continuous dialogue with the stakeholders: the members of the congregation. Clergy guidance through this process, including deep listening, resourcing, and preaching, can be the difference between success and failure of the work.
Rev. Dr. Ruth Shaver is the Interim Pastor of Seekonk, Congregational Church UCC in Seekonk, Massachusetts and an Interim Consultant in the Southeast Region of the Southern New England Conference UCC. Her previous interim parishes were Lakeville United Church of Christ and North Congregational Church UCC (as covenant partnership developer), The Congregational Church of Mansfield, UCC, in Mansfield, MA, and First Church of Christ Congregational, UCC, in North Conway, NH. She previously served as settled pastoral staff in congregations in Attleboro, MA, and Schellsburg, PA.
She serves as the Moderator of the Old Colony Association of the Southern New England Conference. Rev. Dr. Shaver is deeply committed to clergy excellence through lifelong education as a member of the Interim Ministry Network faculty and to non-seminary ministerial and lay leadership education through PATHWAYS Theological Education, Inc., where she is Academic Dean. Her Doctor of Ministry is from Lancaster Theological Seminary (2016), with work focused on intergenerational education at the intersection of faith and science. Rev. Dr. Shaver holds a BA in Soviet and Eastern European Studies from the Pardee School of International Relations (then College of Liberal Arts) and an M.Div. from the School of Theology, both at Boston University.
12:45 – 2:00 pm Eastern
Concurrent Workshop
Imagining Faith through Spiritual Emotional Intelligence
Judy Joseph Mc Sween and Antoine Johnson
Participants in this workshop can look forward to the real time exploration of how their emotions impact their ability to create a lasting legacy of positive change for future generations.
They will have the opportunity to tune into their Spiritual Emotional Intelligence.
(Spiritual Emotional Intelligence is the awareness that our emotions are not just reactions—they are sacred messengers from your soul.) Come discover what your emotions are saying about your openness to bringing Faith and Imagination to your ministry.
Judy Joseph Mc Sween is a Certified Coach, specializing in the areas of Emotional Intelligence, Spiritual Intelligence, Conversational Intelligence® and the Frameworks Coaching Process. She is a trained Organization Development Consultant and holds an MBA in Export Management and International Business and a BSc in Industrial Chemistry. Her theoretical background, 30 years of practical experience at executive level in the corporate sector and her highly intuitive skills, provide an exciting diverse resource as she engages her corporate and faith-based clients in transformational experiences.
She is a former Member and Trainer with the US based Center for Emotional Intelligence and Human Relations (EQHR) for faith-based organizations, a member of the Human Formation Team at the Seminary of St John Vianney and the Ugandan Martyrs and a Trainer and former board member at the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science USA.
Antoine Johnson, CEO and Principal Consultant at the Johnson TOD Group LLC, is a results-oriented Organization Development professional with broad industry experience in Organization Effectiveness, Talent Management, Leadership and Workforce Development, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Consulting and Executive Coaching. He has done extensive design and facilitation in Emotional Intelligence and Human Relations/Social Competency development.
For 20 years Antoine has been a member of NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Sciences serving as Interim President, Board Member, Core Lab Steering Committee Member and Trainer. He has been an associate of The Center for Emotional Intelligence and Human Relations Skills (EQ-HR Center) for 5 years. He holds an Executive Certificate in Strategic Diversity and Inclusion Management, an MS in Organization Development, BSc in Management, and Coaching Certification from The Executive Coaching Academy.
12:45 – 2:00 pm Eastern
Concurrent Workshop
Contracts and Agreements in Ministry
Rev. Dave Clements
Good ministry grows from trust and clear communication—and that includes the agreements we make. This workshop will explore how ministers and congregations can create contracts and covenants that are fair, transparent, and supportive of healthy relationships. Together, we’ll look at what makes agreements strong, how to avoid common pitfalls, and how to keep a covenant at the heart of ministry.
Reverend Dave Clements is an Ordained Minister in the Unitarian Universalist Faith and served as an Interim Minister at the Cape Town, South Africa Unitarian Church. He is a graduate of Meadville Lombard Theological School. Prior to his call to ministry, he worked as an organizational development consultant overseeing strategic planning, entrepreneurship and fundraising, held several management and director positions, and owned his own consulting business. He is currently serving as the accredited Developmental Minister for the Unitarian church in Alexandria VA Dave has served with distinction as IMN’s Annual Conference Team Lead for several years, including guiding its transition to a virtual Conference during and after the pandemic.
2:45 – 4:15 pm Eastern
Keynote
Faithful Reimagining: Hope Beyond the End
Rev. Diane Kenaston
Attendance is down. Money is short. The future is uncertain. In a shifting religious landscape, congregations must ask fundamental questions about their very identity. These existential questions can be terrifying—or they can become opportunities for envisioning new life beyond our current existence.
Drawing from experience with congregations who concluded existing ministry, Faithful Reimagining: Hope Beyond the End will inspire faith leaders to face unknown futures. Whether you serve thriving congregations or those in numerical decline, interim and transitional leaders must tell the truth about the present and (re)imagine future possibilities.
Even when facing uncertain futures, congregations can cultivate hope beyond their current existence. This is the kind of hope that inspires brave action. Faithful Reimagining provides the spiritual framework for congregations to act on their hope—hope even beyond the end.
Rev. Diane Kenaston is a pastor, writer, coach, and co-founder of the Good Friday Collaborative. She specializes in adaptive change and cultivating communities of justice and peace.
After a decade of pastoring United Methodist churches, Rev. Kenaston led a church merger. Earlier she facilitated the sale of two parsonages and helped two yoked churches discern that it was time to separate. She believes in courageously adapting to changing circumstances.
Rev. Kenaston has previously been published in the books Speaking Truth, We Pray With Her, and Holy Contradictions.
Rev. Kenaston is passionate about ecumenical work. She is the chairperson of Young Clergy Women International. She previously worked as the County Ecumenical Officer for Churches Together in Cambridgeshire in Cambridge, England.
4:30 pm Eastern
Denominational Gatherings
Attention all denominations! We invite you to gather your respective groups to discuss the transitional and interim activities within your community. The IMN will provide a dedicated Zoom link to facilitate sharing with colleagues, whether they are attending the conference or not.
6:00 – 7:00 pm Eastern
Social Time
BINGO!
Get ready to dab those cards, because we’re diving into five thrilling rounds of bingo—time permitting, of course! We’ll be using the magic of myfreebingocards.com to keep things spicy. Each round’s champion will snag a fabulous IMN prize! Let the bingo bonanza begin!
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30
11:00 am – 12:00 pm Eastern
Open Conversation
Open Conversation sessions have been active since 2020, providing a platform for connection and sharing. We invite you to engage in an open dialogue with fellow transitional leaders. You are encouraged to bring your questions, concerns, or celebrations. Alternatively, you are welcome to attend simply to listen and learn from your colleagues’ experiences.
12:30 – 1:00 pm Eastern
Announcements/Spiritual Gathering
Join in to hear of the day’s events and stay for a Spirit let gathering to start our afternoon.
12:45 to 2:00 pm Eastern
Concurrent Workshop
Judicatory FTL Conversation
Host: Margret O’Neall Arlen Vernava, Neil Parker, Chris Hart Ruth Shaver
Join the IMN Curriculum Review Team for an engaging discussion on how modular training at various levels can empower both clergy and lay leaders to better support congregations navigating a widening horizon of transformation. This is a great opportunity to address your questions about the curriculum and other IMN offerings. We also seek to gather your valuable insights on what is essential and how IMN can enhance congregations’ ability to thrive in these times.
12:45 to 2:00 pm Eastern
Concurrent Workshop
AI-Powered Tools & Automations for Ministry: Revised Webinar Outline
Rev. Dr. Michelle Collins
This hands-on webinar takes ministers beyond text generation to showcase a suite of AI-powered tools and custom automations that can dramatically improve ministry efficiency and creativity. Highlights include setting up custom GPTs that mimic a minister’s own style, leveraging tools like Fathom for real-time meeting transcription (with live demo), generating worship and outreach graphics with free AI resources, and demonstrating personalized automation sequences for sermon deliverables and email management. Without relying on paid services, the workshop emphasizes accessible, ministry-ready solutions, provides clear how-to guides, and leaves participants inspired by the real-world “wow factor” of current AI technology and with some new tools and ideas to use on their own.
Rev. Dr. Michelle Collins is a Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) minister and has served a variety of congregations as an interim, contract, senior minister, associate minister, and briefly as a settled minister. She has extensive experience with Soul Matters curriculum development and regional UUA work. Her previous work experience includes being a hospital chaplain and an elementary school teacher. Michelle is committed to anti-oppression work, social justice and social action. She also has training in trauma response, grief recovery, conflict meditation, and serves on her denomination’s trauma response ministry and is a researcher for a monthly theme-based resource service.
12:45 to 2:00 pm Eastern
Concurrent Workshop
Small Churches Dream Big
Rev. Dr. Todd Yonkman
Albert Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” In this workshop participants will learn practical approaches for cultivating congregational imagination. Together we will begin to dream God’s dream for our congregations and imagine together concrete next steps. We will share tools for assessing congregational readiness and talk about strategies for encountering road blocks. We will share real life examples of small ideas that grew to have large impacts.
Rev. Dr. Todd Yonkman is a 26-year ordained UCC pastor currently serving as the Interim Senior Minister at the First Church of Christ in Simsbury, Connecticut. For the past 30 years he has served churches in the Midwest and New England, large, small, and in between, rural, suburban, and urban. Rev. Yonkman is a Professional Transition Specialist with the Interim Ministry Network, a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation, and an Assistant Teacher at Boundless Way Zen Temple in Worcester, MA. He is an author of Reconstructing Church: Tools for Turning Your Church Around. Bloomsbury, 2014 and Multiple Religious Belonging and Community Leadership, Journal for Buddhist Christian Studies, 2025 Rev. Yonkman is married to Rev. Nicole Yonkman. They have two grown daughters, three house rabbits and a black lab named Willow.
12:45 to 2:00 pm Eastern
Concurrent Workshop
The Perfect Clergy and the Perfect Congregation
Rabbi Dennis Ross
Just as our congregants have differing ideals of the “perfect” clergy, interim clergy hold an ideal image of the “perfect” congregation as a yardstick for crafting goals for the interim tenure. Problems occur when these personal ideals are unrealistic and go unexamined. This interactive workshop will present one model of a healthy congregation and encourage participants to examine their own ideals.
Rabbi Dennis S. Ross is an Intentional Interim Rabbi and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. He has served over 12 synagogues, and is now with Temple Shaaray Tefila in Bedford Hills, N. Y. He has served the Central Conference of American Rabbis as an interim program specialist and continues to lead their training for interim rabbis. He is the author of six books, including Pastor to the Body of the Congregation: A Companion Guide to Congregational Clergy (Wipf and Stock) to be released this winter. His most recent book is A Year with Martin Buber: Wisdom on the Weekly Torah Portion (Jewish Publication Society). Rabbi Ross has written for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and other publications.
2:15 – 5:15 pm Eastern
Keynote
The Great Unveiling: Congregations Responding with Courage and Creativity in the Age of Collapse
Rev. Cameron Trimble
Across the country, congregations are discovering new ways of embodying faith in the midst of disruption. Some are cultivating partnerships for justice, others are reimagining worship and community life, and many are finding creative expressions of care that meet the needs of their neighbors. In this session, we will explore the major shifts shaping congregational life today and take a guided tour of inspiring examples of communities responding with vision and imagination. Through presentation, storytelling, and small group conversations, we will reflect on how these lessons might inform our own ministries. Together, we will ask: What is being born among us? How do we nurture it faithfully? And what legacy of hope might we leave for those who come after us?
Rev. Cameron Trimble is the Executive Director and CEO of Convergence (formerly the Center for Progressive Renewal), an organization that supports the reshaping of congregations and leaders engaged in an age of movement from “organized religion” to “organizing religion” driven by the values of an inclusive, progressive theological vision for a more just world for all. She began her ministry as a new church developer and, to pay for her “ministry habit”, also owns a real estate company and a software company.
Rev. Trimble has served an adjunct professor teaching church planting/renewal and leadership with the Pacific School of Religion, Brite Divinity School, Auburn Seminary and Chicago Theological Seminary. She co-authored the book Liberating Hope and most recently published Piloting Church: Helping Your Congregation Take Flight in 2019 and 60 Days of Faith in 2020.
With this wide experience and exposure, Rev. Trimble is convinced that the future of the progressive mainline Church is dependent upon our ability to cultivate the highest quality of leadership in both ordained and lay leadership.
5:15 – 5:45 pm Eastern
Closing and Spiritual Sending
The IMN 45th Annual Conference closing announcements and ending with a unique Spiritual sending.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
- Tuesday, October 28
11:00 – 11:50 am – Meet the IMN Community
12:30 – 1:00 pm – Opening/Worship
1:00 – 2:30 pm – Rev. Cameron Trimble
2:30 – 3:00 pm – Break
3:00 – 4:00 pm- Rev. Cameron Trimble
4:00 – 4:25 pm – Break
4:25 – 5:40 pm – Workshops
6:30 – 7:30 pm – Coaches Corner - Wednesday, October 29
11:00 am – 12:00 pm – Open Conversation
12:30 – 12:45 pm – Housekeeping//Worship
12:45 – 2:00 pm – Workshops
2:45 – 4:15 pm – Rev. Diane Kenaston
4:30 pm – Denominational Meetings
6:00 – 7:00 pm – Bingo - Thursday, October 30
11:00 am – 12:00 pm – Open Conversations
12:30 – 12:45 pm – Housekeeping/Worship
12:45 – 2:00 pm – Workshops
2:00 – 2:30 pm – Break
2:30 – 4:00 pm – Rev. Cameron Trimble
4:00 – 4:15 pm – Break
4:15 – 5:15 pm – Rev. Cameron Trimble
5:15 – 5:45 pm -Closing/Spiritual Sending
REGISTRATION OPTIONS:
Please review the registration options listed below. Choose your preferred type and add it to your cart. We recognize that the US dollar rate may pose difficulties for our international attendees, so we have created a specific registration type for those outside the United States. Keep in mind that all amounts are in US dollars. Additionally, we offer three methods to secure your spot:
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- Pay in Full
- Make a $75.00 Deposit (non-refundable)
- Pay the Balance (which must be settled by October 15, 2025)