We at LVUC are presently entering into what is called an Interim Ministry process. You may wonder what this is. From the United Church of Canada Interim Minister website the following information on Interim Ministry was taken.
Intentional interim ministry (often referred to simply as interim ministry) is an opportunity for a community of faith to take an intentional time out to seek spiritual and organizational renewal, to rediscover its identity, and to revitalize its mission.
Interim ministry assists with transitions of all kinds. Some of the primary ones are
Interim ministry is essential for communities of faith that are in crisis. Trained ministry personnel will lead the community of faith through its feelings of anxiety, struggle, pain, and grief to a place of healing and readiness for the next stages.
Interim ministry is also of benefit to any community of faith that wishes to manage change intentionally for a stronger, healthier ministry and future.
The Office of Vocation (opens in a new tab) is responsible for the designation of intentional interim ministers. Communities of faith create a transition team to manage the process of interim ministry, with the support of their regional council. The resources (opens in a new tab) below explain interim ministry in greater detail.
As part of the Interim Ministry process our community of faith needed to assemble a transition team to lead the interim ministry process. We experienced some difficulty in assembling a Transition Team due to availability of community members to support this effort.
Kathy Davies, Regional Minister of the Pacific Mountain Regional Council Office provided us with the following comments and next steps for the process.
Given the challenges faced by the community of faith, where all the volunteer leaders are already offering all they can, and it has been difficult to assemble a transition team to lead the full interim ministry process, we agreed that the process, mandate, and structure needs to be simplified into manageable next steps:
The board has reviewed these next steps and is in unanimous agreement.
The Board has 3 members of LVUC that have agreed to be on the transition team. Kathy Davies is still working on getting the 2 regional representatives in place. As soon as this transition team is complete, we will let you know.
As we move through the interim ministry process here at LVUC I will be posting updates on our progress. I will also be providing more details on specific parts of the process. Should you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me or any board member. Your input is critical to this process being successful.