Interim Ministry became a specialty after ministers and congregations realized that when a settled ministry ends, the next minister will most likely be either 1) an intentional interim, or 2) an unintentional interim. It just takes time for a congregation to adjust to its changes.
And in those unsettled moments, congregations also have opportunities. Congregations have a chance to understand themselves in new ways, to enhance their strengths and better understand their weaknesses. And from new ways of knowing come opportunities to change to new ways of doing.
Interim ministries have an inherent level of discomfort in them. Change is discomforting, of course, but an intentional interim ministry puts a return to comfort behind the goals of new understandings and building a congregational consensus on how to change. There’s a payoff for enduring the added discomfort, too: congregations get better at being uncomfortable, and that makes them more resilient and, ironically, makes them places that become, overall, a lot more comfortable and comforting.
There are some predictable aspects of interim ministries. Newsletters, in every congregation I have served, are costly to produce even as the information in them is out of date before it can be published. And the format reflects a pre-internet technology that chokes-off good communication in these times. The few congregations still issuing newsletters have, I’ve observed, hefty endowments. I’m trying out this Quarterly Connection with you since I believe it allows for more reading and thought and is more cost-effective and flexible for communicating about the larger and deeper issues of congregational life.
And, predictable as the sunrise and sunset, it takes two years for a Unitarian Universalist congregation to mount a search for its next called minister. First a congregation must develop more self-awareness about itself. Ministers are wary of congregations lacking self-awareness.
But as an interim I strongly prefer to help a congregation build awareness by building on its strengths – I’ve found long discussions of problems never fix them. As a congregation builds on its strengths, a strong Ministerial Search Committee (MSC) also must be formed (see my other article in this issue of the Quarterly Connection). It takes time for all the shifting of leadership as a congregation forms a strong MSC but must replace leaders in other parts of congregational life.
And then the search itself begins with the MSC talking with the congregation and putting together a portfolio that will attract great ministers. Then the MSC begins the interviews and research of interested ministers, and if the MSC finds a great match, presents that “ministerial candidate” to the congregation just about a year after being elected and two years after it entered its interim.
But some things about interim ministry can’t be pre-planned. Congregations that are truly growing are usually surprised by their new ways of knowing themselves, and because I have a deep faith in the power of congregations to discover their meaning and direction, that requires we share an open heartedness and a sense of adventure. Such discoveries just can’t be planned. They can only be shared together.
I also believe in the power of love, and congregations need to be loved by their minister(s). I believe congregations, like humans and other living beings, have inherent worth and dignity.
And I believe that our congregations can and should serve the many, many people wanting a UU community but who have been pushed away by congregational prejudices. There may be no better time than an interim time to get uncomfortable and look at and change those prejudices.
I’m pleased to be with you in this interim time, and I look forward to learning more about MUUF and helping you discover more about your congregation and what you are called to be together.