Transition raises anxiety in any congregation. Then, add more secularization and general uncertainty about the future, and resistance to change surfaces. Some want to revert to a time when all was well. An essential task of the interim pastor, however, is to help a congregation re-set to a future filled with God’s grace and potential, and to re-imagine the church. This webinar led by the Rev. John Throop, D.Min., will give you leadership skills and tools for re-setting the congregation’s current perception, and courage to re-imagine its future ministry. An Episcopal priest and interim veteran for the past 42 years, will share a powerful personal story that brings this process to life.

The Rev. Dr. John R. Throop has been an Episcopal priest for 40 years. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he attended seminary at the School of Theology of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California in organizational development in Christian ministries. He has served parishes in Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, New York, and Wisconsin. In a bi-vocational role for 17 years, Dr. Throop also was a global consultant in strategy, planning, and human resources serving non-profit and governmental agencies. Through the years, he has served as a board member of church and secular groups. He currently is board president for the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer.

Polarity Thinking ^TM, developed by Barry Johnson, is an alternative to traditional problem-solving. A polarity is an interdependent pair of needs, values, or goals. Although the poles seem to be in tension with each other, both are good and true – and they need each other over time. Polarity Thinking is a powerful framework for addressing thorny problems and transforming conflict. It can be applied to congregational life, as well as to our own personal and professional lives. Let’s explore this model together, with a focus on polarities that often present themselves during transitional times. Once you learn the basics, you’ll start seeing polarities everywhere, giving you new insights into how to work through practical and philosophical dilemmas. (A note about language: “polarities” are anything but polarizing!)

 Jan Gartner (she/her) serves as Compensation and Practices Manager at the Unitarian Universalist Association, equipping congregations for excellence as employers in accordance with UU values. Jan oversees the UUA’s congregational compensation program and helps leaders with a variety of personnel-related matters; she works closely with the UUA Transitions Office. Special interests include productive professional transitions, robust staff teams, the economic sustainability of congregations, and emerging staffing models. A former Director of Religious Education, Jan strives to bring all of the skills and sensibilities of an educator to her role.

Jan lives near Rochester, NY, with her husband. She is an avid walker, a lover of word and number puzzles, and an enthusiastic soprano in the First Unitarian Church of Rochester choir.

In an age when demographics are challenging congregations to thrive, we will explore how to help navigate conversations that lead to faithful discernment.  This time will be an opportunity to share experiences, questions, and potential challenges.  Our exploration will include grief, culture, legacy, different options regarding merging, and the use of the 5 c’s (curiosity, creativity, co-operation, collaboration, and courage) to help shift congregations from palliative numbness into a life-giving and viable ministry.   

Helen Prior is an Ordained Interim Minister in the United Church of Canada. Over her 30 years in ministry she has served four pastoral charges as a settled minister, and completed seven intentional interim ministries in Saskatchewan, and southern Ontario.  She has served as faculty since for the Interim Ministry Network since 2017.   Helen has a reputation for using her pastoral skills and sense of humour to invite congregations into dialogue, and helping polarized groups come closer together.  Helen has helped churches discern to amalgamate, disband or close.  Most recently she completed a three way amalgamation where formerly floundering congregations are now thriving.  When away from work Helen enjoys being walked by her pups, being staff to her cats, travel, good music and spending time with friends and family. 

Ashley M. Wilcox is a Quaker minister and the bestselling author of The Women’s Lectionary: Preaching the Women of the Bible throughout the Year (Westminster John Knox Press). She currently serves as the interim pastor of New Garden Friends Meeting.

Ashley is passionate about helping preachers find their voice. She taught preaching to students at Candler School of Theology for five years and now has her own preaching coaching practice, Preaching with Confidence. Ashley also teaches Bible courses for Woodbrooke, a Quaker center in Birmingham, England, and Guilford College.

Ashley is a graduate of Candler School of Theology and Willamette University College of Law. She preaches and speaks across the U.S. and internationally. Her writing has been featured in Geez, Working Preacher, Friends Journal, Fidelia, and Quaker anthologies.

Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, she now lives in Greensboro, North Carolina. You can learn more about Ashley on her website, www.ashleymwilcox.com.

Practitioners, leaders, and faith communities are always intertwined in an organic and dynamic relationship. Picture a great tree with deep and many roots, a robust trunk, powerful limbs and majestic canopy. Picture animals and organisms too, small and large, who create sanctuary and find sanctuary here. The tree and all else are nourished by water, earth, light and air, by organisms and natural processes. All provide home for others and are at home with others. All experience protection, experience growth, and contribute. All manage threat, crisis, and inertia.

This webinar will explore one tool and posture that helps describe and provide for contributing and growing: leadership as “being” and “doing.” The tool and posture? P A E I

Ichak Adizes calls P A E I vitamins for leaders and their organizations. In his lifetime of international work with for and not for profit sectors, cultures, and communities Adizes noticed that when every leader, team, group, governing body, family unit, and organization (to name a few)   produces, administrates, entrepreneurs, and integrates, good things happen.

This webinar will give attention to understanding and functioning from a P A E I posture, and harnessing P A E I for assessing, balancing, and advancing the work of one or many: a small working group, a staff, a unit, the faith community as a whole …

In preparation, give thought to what is yours to do (or your team/group), the work of others, and places of collaboration.

Arlen G. Vernava, Executive Process Consultant, and an ordained American Baptist clergy, has served settled and interim-time faith organizations and congregations, and provided leadership to ecumenical and interfaith groups and organizations. An IMN Faculty member, Team Lead for the IMN Education Team and a Senior Consultant with Design Group International, Arlen’s vocation includes coaching leaders during organizational change and transition, helping congregations and organizations live into their vocation, and serving as embedded strategic interim during a congregation’s seasons of change and transition. Arlen’s certifications include PAEI / Enneagram, through the Madanes School of Enneagram Coaching in Israel and the Work-Place Big Five, through Paradigm Personality Labs.

As a Clergy, most have questions about church finances, budgeting and beyond!

Want to know how to be accountable with God’s money!

Want to know who is an employee and who is not?

Want to know how to stay in good graces with the IRS?

Want to know about accounting automation?

Want to know about separation of duties?

Want to know how not to overstep your involvement in the church finances as pastor?

Come Learn the Meaning of DAL!

AND MORE…..!

Rev. Belinda Sledge, Presenter
Minister of Finance and Church Consulting
Southern Conference United Church OF Christ

Our training in systems dynamics as intentional interim pastors helps us to understand the interrelatedness of pastoral changes and other shifts in a congregation. Before beginning transitional ministry, ELCA Pastor Janet Peterman served one inner city congregation for 24 years. Four of seven of the interim placements she served after have followed long-term settled pastors. Through these combined experiences, Pastor Peterman has perceived a pattern in the core issues facing congregations and their leaders in transitions following long term pastorates. Focusing on these core issues makes transitional work more effective.

In this webinar, we will consider the typical dynamics that occur in the role of the Pastor as pastoral tenures stretch beyond 12-15 years; how that pastoral shift causes a shift in others’ roles around them; and the cluster of issues facing a congregation and its leaders as the Pastor leaves. These include grief, though not simply understood as sadness; difficulty with understanding congregational identity, apart from the departing leader; leadership struggles; boundary issues; special care needed in defining the role of the new pastoral leader sought; and difficulties often experienced when teams choose a new pastor.

The session will be interactive. Tools, best practices, and resources will be shared by the instructor. Participants are also invited to bring resources to share.

Janet S. Peterman is an inner-city ELCA (Lutheran) pastor living with her family in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the eastern US. She has served the last 16 years of her ministry in seven (7) intentional ministry settings in 3 synods. She has reached the Professional Transition Specialist (PTS) level of accreditation through the Interim Ministry Network (IMN). When not in active ministry, she gardens, bikes, hikes and takes joy in friends, family and photography.

I have heard that the way to ending a transitional ministry well is to “start well”. Starting Well means that you and the community of faith have a very clear idea about what your transitional time is all about. Having a clear contract or covenant with the congregation is the place to begin.  This workshop will lead transitional pastors to be able to craft a contract/covenant that will help both the leader and the community of faith understand the work of the leader and the expectations of the community of faith. I will suggest important aspects that should be in your contract/covenant, as well as how to personalize it to suit you and your community of faith.  I will provide some contracts for us to look at for strengths and growing edges for discussion. We will also explore the necessity of clear communication from the beginning of the time of transition, along with other first steps that are helpful when beginning a new transitional ministry. Bring your questions and your experiences of beginnings to help all of us learn from each other.  

Rev. Katrina Palan is an ordained minister with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She is in a time of transition having completed her nineth interim position, two of which were judicatory ministry positions. She is currently living in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma close to six of her eleven grandchildren. Katrina is on the Interim Ministry Network Board of Directors and serves on its conference planning team, the hybrid conference task force, the conference meditation site planning team, and the instructional design team. She is also a VSG co-host and a “Chat-With Us” co-host. Katrina is a military veteran and serves on the Moral Injury Institute Board of Directors. She has experience in hospital, police, and sheriff chaplaincy. Katrina is currently a level-3 Chaplain with the Salvation Army Disaster Team. She has extensive experience in working with people in traumatic situations. Katrina is currently working on her Doctorate of Ministry at Brite Divinity in Fort Worth, TX. Her Dissertation title and emphasis is “How Can Spiritual Practices Help to Minimize the Consequences, Responses and Feelings Encountered by Veterans Impacted by Moral Injury”.

This webinar presents an approach to entering and exiting during interim time that uses props such as tissues, a flashlight, a mirror, a compass, binoculars, a stuffed otter, a walking stick and other like items to connect a congregation to, among other things, history, identity, leadership, vision, and connections. Participants need only bring their imaginations to the webinar as the shared discussion will find substance as we engage the power of telling a story through these and other humble items. Who knows what new ideas will unfold!

Participants in this webinar will receive a practical outline of the Entering/Exiting Backpack concept based on the presentation to the 2021 IMN Annual Conference by a Fieldwork Colleague Group facilitated by the webinar presenter.

Bill Thomas is an Episcopal Priest with 33 years experience who is a member of the IMN Faculty and, through WCT.coach, is of use to communities of faith as workshop leader, executive coach, transition consultant / interim rector, and pastor. Bill served in three settled parishes as rector, and worked fulltime while retired as the Interim Rector of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, Wilson NC (12/19-07/20 – during the early days of COVID). Previously he served as the Interim Rector of Christ Church, New Bern NC (08/13-03/15) and in an interim role as Priest-in-Charge of Christ Church, Middletown NJ (05/15-09/18). Bill served as the initial Team Lead for Membership Support for the Interim Ministry Network (2015-2018). He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary.

Even in the healthiest of congregational communities, the interim or transitional pastor must deal with behaviors and norms. Whether healthy or less-than-healthy, these behaviors have an impact on discernment, communication and decision-making. The transitional pastor and team are in a unique position to question the process behind the process. This task becomes critically important when facing a setting of instability, dysfunctional conflict, trauma or hidden issues. In this webinar, you will learn some neutral methods to surface behavioral issues, provide ways to correct or accept the hidden processes at work in the congregation, and learn how to promote transparent norms and behaviors supporting a healthy future for the congregation.

The Rev. John R. Throop has been an Episcopal priest for 41 years. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he attended seminary at the School of Theology of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California in organizational development in Christian ministries. He has served parishes in Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, New York, and Wisconsin. In a bi-vocational role for 17 years, Dr. Throop is currently a consultant and coach assisting churches and nonprofits in change and transition. He also was a global consultant in strategy, planning, and human resources serving non-profit and governmental agencies. Through the years, he has served as a board member of church and secular groups. He currently is board president for the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer and a member of the board of directors of Interior Ministry in the Episcopal Church (IMEC). Rev. Throop presented his workshop; Paradigm Shifts in Transition during the 2021 IMN Annual Conference.

The Covid pandemic has changed much in our churches. But stewardship needs to continue to be founded on Biblical principles. As stewards we are to use wisely what we have been given by God. The three gifts God gives us are our time, our talents or abilities, and the money earned using our time and abilities that allows us to purchase our possessions. How will we use these things as we seek to honor God and do the work God hopes we will do?

No longer will the six-week Stewardship Program, raise enough to fund your mission and ministries. Come and learn how to develop a year-round program of connecting people’s giving of time, talent and treasure with the vision or mission and the ministries of the congregation where you are serving. This work is changing lives and making a difference in our world.

We need to consider several things: your congregation’s website, live-streaming worship through Facebook, Zoom or YouTube on Sunday, online giving, giving through a text message, and Electronic Fund Transfer. How should you now do the offertory?

In teaching generosity, the six most important words are, “Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.” Then through building personal relationships, you will be able to grow generous givers. No one has left a congregation during an interim period because they felt thanked and appreciated.

The Rev. Charles Cloughen, Jr. has conducted 44 Stewardship Campaigns as an interim and as a pastor. He is the author of One Minute Stewardship: Creative Ways to Talk about Money in Church, Church Publishing, Inc., 2018

In this webinar, you will learn about the basics of sacred storytelling and how to use storytelling as a tool in transitional ministry. You can expect to come away from the webinar with a story that you can tell, and some potential applications for that telling. You can expect to learn tools for learning a story by heart.

Rev. Dr. Madelyn Campbell is a Unitarian Universalist Interim Minister. She has been serving transitional ministries since 2014, and is currently serving as Interim Minister in Stony Brook, NY. She completed her Doctor of Ministry degree in 2022. Her doctoral project explored the use of sacred storytelling as a tool in transitional ministry. Madelyn is also a Certified Master Biblical Storyteller through the Academy for Biblical Storytelling. She has been a frequent workshop leader at the Network of Biblical Storytellers, International Festival Gathering. Madelyn loves a good whodunnit and is a massive Doctor Who fan.

There are lots of reasons to change your bylaws and the urgency of this work is pressing harder upon us than ever before. The most compelling reason to undertake this work is that most of the systems our bylaws were built on predate the glory days of the 1950’s. While many churches have since revised their bylaws most have only amended a preexisting definition of church. I believe these models to be ill equipped to handle the complexity of ministry in the twenty-first century. The premises our structures were built around have shifted so dramatically that we need to reimagine how to organize for ministry so we can thrive in the future. BUT HOW do we approach such a task. During our time together we will highlight why the work is critical to effective ministry and approaches to undertake the task, participant will get both an overview and practical skills for the task.

Pastor Chris is a poet, storyteller,  process theologian, Professional Transition Specialist, consultant, revitalization pastor, artist and a frisky fusion of science and faith. He is committed to helping the church of today emerge into the twenty second century. Pastor Chris is dedicated to the excellent Transitional Ministry and is a faculty member with the Interim Ministry Network.  He uses an empowering and adaptive leadership style to help communities of faith to grow, and change. He is passionate about worship that is fresh, creative, engaging, and participatory.

Consider the various ways that we preach as interim ministers. This workshop will look at such questions as: What are your goals for preaching? How does your preaching fit with your goals for interim ministry at a church? To what extent do you use the Revised Common Lectionary? How do you use preaching to address the three questions (Who are we? Who is our neighbor? Who is God calling us to be?) and the five focus points (heritage, leadership, identity, connections, future)? How do you feel about your preaching? How do you prepare and present your sermons? How would you like to improve your preaching? We will discuss these questions in both large group and small group contexts and devise ways in which we can be supportive of one another in the preaching task.

Rev. Michael Newheart has served interim pastorates in Wisconsin, New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island after retiring from divinity school teaching. He is an Interim Ministry Specialist with Transition Ministries of American Baptist Churches USA (TM-ABCUSA). He has a BA from William Jewell College (MO) and an MDiv and a PhD from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (KY). Michael is Professor Emeritus of New Testament Language and Literature at Howard University School of Divinity (DC), where he taught for 26 years. His home is in College Park, MD, with wife Joy and younger daughter Miranda. Their elder daughter Anastasia lives in Boulder, CO. [email protected]

Many congregations face the financial reality that compensating a pastor for full-time ministry is unsustainable. This could be the “beginning of the end” for a church. Or, with careful and creative discernment, it could be a moment of resurrection for the entire congregation as lay members are empowered to use their gifts alongside a part-time pastor to continue and enhance vital ministries without the anxiety provoked by unsurmountable budget challenges. In this webinar, we will discuss resources and tips for the conversations with leadership groups and the congregation as well as pros and cons, examples of part-time models, and concerns to address during the planning process.

Helpful resources for attendees are “Part-Time is Plenty: Thriving Without Full-Time Clergy” by G. Jeffrey MacDonald (2020, Westminster John Knox) and denominational guidelines for compensation and work expectations.

Rev. Dr. Ruth Shaver is a United Church of Christ (UCC) pastor who has made transitional ministry her specialty after discovering that much of her life has been about transitions and problem solving for businesses and congregations. She is currently the ¾ time Interim Pastor and Teacher at The Congregational Church of Mansfield, UCC, in Mansfield, Massachusetts, where she worked with the transition/profile team to create a part-time profile for the new settled pastor search, which is ongoing. Previously, she served as Interim Pastor and Teacher at First Church of Christ, Congregational, UCC, in North Conway, New Hampshire; and as pastor in Schellsburg, Pennsylvania and as associate in Attleboro, Massachusetts, in both cases doing work similar to that of an interim at the beginning of the calls. Between seminary and ordination, she was known as the “system fix-it woman” in two different temporary placement agencies for her ability to assess and correct office operational systems and dynamics that led to rapid turnover in administrative personnel. Rev. Shaver earner her M.Div. at Boston University School of Theology and her D.Min. at Lancaster Theological Seminary. She resides in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and fills the other quarter of her work time with course writing and course facilitation for PATHWAYS Theological Education, Inc., a non-seminary program for lay education, ministry preparation, and clergy continuing education.

Interim ministers can find themselves leading congregations with a reality gap: the congregation is not facing reality for the present and/or the future. Congregations in denial about the current state of their congregation can have identity issues. What they see in themselves fails to match today’s reality. This occurs, for example, when a clergyperson enters a congregation and realizes they can’t afford to be staffed at their current level. When congregations do face their current reality, they can still have a reality gap as they think about their future. Struggling congregations can suffer from “wishful thinking” where they pin their hopes on a magical “turn-around” future. These congregations in numerical decline create unrealistic expectations for their next pastor. Others approach the future more realistically but they feel hopeless and don’t know what to do next. The congregation waffles between “positive thinking” (wishfulness) and “negative thinking” (hopelessness) – and in either case, they don’t feel they have any agency over their future. This webinar will make the case that perpetuating wishful thinking is a betrayal of the theological claim of hope.

Ministers who suspect that closure, merger, or other major changes could be in their congregation’s future must hold up a mirror to the congregation, help them to face reality, and move from wishful thinking to the hope grounded in their sacred stories. They will need to equip congregations with the spiritual practices that will sustain them through massive upheaval. Some interim ministers will be laying the groundwork for the next settled pastor to lead changes like closing, merging, restarting, or relocating. Other interim ministers, however, may need to lead an intentional discernment process and guide the congregation through dissolution. There is a continuum of possible responses. Regardless of where they find themselves on this continuum, interim ministers who enter these conversations must expand the concept of “healthy farewell” from the exit of one clergyperson to facilitating healthy farewells for an entire congregation and its institutional identity.

Rev. Diane Kenaston is a United Methodist elder with ten years of experience pastoring churches in West Virginia and Missouri in the United States. She is now a clergy coach based out of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and a founding member of the Good Friday Collaborative, a ministry supporting congregational leaders whose churches are faithfully concluding existing ministry.