From the Desk of Pastor Marsha

What’s Happening 4.4.24

Our synod has many resources for congregations such as our that are going through a transition of pastoral leadership.  As we get closer to that process of calling a new pastor, we will begin to use more of those resources. One of the first ones they share though is “The 5 Tasks of Interim Ministry”. 

To be honest, this is not a resource I have not focused on too much because we have had a lot of other rebuilding and healing work we have been addressing and will continue to address. But it is perhaps a good thing to know what the normal expectations of an Interim Pastor are. Over the next few weeks, I will cover those 5 key tasks and explore how they can apply to Zion.

The first is “Coming to Terms with History”, “It is important for congregations to know their history so that they can appreciate their heritage and at the same time be aware of the issues and concerns that need to be resolved in order to move freely into the future.”

Congregations are, in many ways, like people.  Your past affects your future.  What experiences we have had in the past, how we handled them at the time, and how we processed them following the event, all affect how we deal with the present and the future. 

Often an interim pastor will assist the congregation in a conversation about their past.  You start with key dates and events in the life of the congregation on a timeline of sorts, and then ask people to add their memories of those events to the timeline. It might not even be that people were around during those times, but how do they hear those stories re-told? Are they good memories, are they difficult, are they told with pride or with remorse, is there more than one telling of the memory? 

In addition one of the things I still hear from numerous church members is that they don’t quite grasp all that went on through covid, the loss of Pastor Debner and multiple staff members, the Personnel Report, etc. Due to some issues of privacy, as well as the shut-down due to Covid protocols, leadership could not be as transparent as perhaps they normally could have.

It might be good for us to consider having a congregational conversation about the recent past as well.  What I have also noticed is that people may have been told something at some point, but it is easy to forget.  Particularly during the time of Covid.  It appears due to the significant change in our lifestyles, time seemed to have slowed down, and we can’t quite remember when things happened, in what order they happened, how the stories went in the first place. 

Let me know if you think these would be helpful conversations to have.  Next week I will cover, “Discovering a New Identity.”