You're an Interim Pastor - You Just Don't Know It

I just began my fourth year at the church I serve. I am very happy to be returning. It's a great place to be. The pastor before me was an intentional interim. He was sent here for about 18 months after the church hit a really rough stretch. Shortly before my appointment was made I was at a clergy event where he talked to us about his role as an interim pastor. One of the things that struck me is that much of what he was doing as an interim were things that I would do even if I weren't an interim. - Helping the lay people become more responsible for ministry and take "ownership" of the church, casting vision for what God wants the church to be, helping people to understand their past and why they are who they are. He may have emphasized some areas more than I would or been especially intentional about some rather than others, but I honestly couldn't see too much of a difference. The big difference is that my predecessor was an intentional interim pastor and I am an unintentional interim pastor. If you are a pastor, you're probably an unintentional interim pastor too.

Interim means temporary and unless you are the pastor at a church when it closes or when Jesus comes back, you are temporary. There will be another pastor who comes after you. If this is true then along with a responsibility to God and the congregation, pastors also have a responsibility to prepare the congregation for whoever will come next, whether that is one month, one year, one decade or longer. So how do you prepare for the next pastor when you don't know when that will be? Here's a few thoughts - share yours and tell me where mine are wrong:

- Don't stop being the current pastor. Don't live in the future too much, wondering where you will be next or who will follow you. Do the best you can for Christ in the place where you currently serve.

- Remind the people regularly that you are human. It's good to be liked as the pastor, but if people have unrealistic expectations of who you are that will set up the next pastor to fail (and maybe set you up too).

- Help Create a Shared Vision. Even if you have the perfect vision of what God wants for the church if the people of the church don't adopt it for themselves it will leave with you and the next pastor starts over again. How great would it be to walk into a church as the possible next pastor and have the Staff Parish Committee or equivalent say to you, "Here's who we are as a church. Here's what we believe God has called us to be. If you believe this is who God calls us to be and your vision of church is consistent with ours we would love for you to be the pastor that helps us take the next step in that future."?

- Bring in some guest preachers. It's probably good for you to take a break every once in a while and it's good for your congregation to hear some different voices and perspectives. My first year in Burlington I took my four weeks vacation and had guest preachers those weeks but no more. This year I'm planning on vacation plus three guest preachers. Those three weeks that I'm working but not preaching will help me get other things done and remind the congregation that my voice is one of many.

- Work with the congregation to create shared ministries. The pastor doesn't need to do all of the pastoral care, attend all of the meetings, and be at every event.

What would you add or delete?