Slideshow image

United Church of Canada Interim Ministry

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

  • disagreements and tension that are blocking a community of faith’s life and effectiveness
  • serious trauma, such as sexual or financial misconduct
  • the departure of a long-tenured (10+ years) minister or the death of a minister
  • inadequate finances for the community of faith’s life and mission
  • major changes in the demographics of the community of faith or its surrounding community
  • the desire of a community of faith to rediscover its identity and mission or to move in a new direction in its ministry

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.

LVUC Next Steps

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:

  1. The board will appoint a small sub-committee to support the next steps needed in the work of the community of faith. Their mandate will be a much smaller and shorter term. Kathy will appoint 2 regional representatives to support the work, one of who will chair the team and act in the role of pastoral charge supervisor until a new minister has been appointed. (The members of the team do not need to be members of the board)
  2. The team will work with the regional reps to determine a ‘listening process’ for healing in the wake of the recent change in pastoral relations. Ideally this process will be facilitated by someone external to the community of faith.
  3. The team will work with Kathy Davies to set up an initial Fresh Start Module for the community of faith and board to participate in. This will also be externally facilitated.
  4. The team will then review where the community of faith is at (hiring process, interim, other needs) and report back to the board with recommendations for next steps.
  5. The team will be appointed by Jan 27th, and Kathy will assign the regional representatives to the team by Jan 27th as well.
  6. Kathy will meet with the team at their initial meeting to set up timelines and process.

The board has reviewed these next steps and is in unanimous agreement.

Updates and Details

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.

 

Comments for this post are now off.