Interim ministry

I didn't blog yesterday: I waa taking the first day of training for interim ministry. It's a familier thing in the USA but only just being explored here. For those not in the know: interim ministry is like having a 'caretaker mnanger' in soccer teams after one manager has left and before the next comes. So for churches, instead of the vacancy simply being left with a rag bag of provisions for cover etc, an interim minister is apointed simply to accompany the church through its 'interregnum' [horrible word which we CofE Anglicans should ditch asap]. The idea isn't that such a person should be a mere locum, holding the fort till the calvalry arrive in the form of a new minister, rather that the interim minister coahes the church through the bereavement process and a process of self-discovery or rediscovery and helps it to be in a better position to both search for a new minister and simply to be the body of Christ better with or without a minister, to use the opportunity to do things that might not otherwise happen in terms of self-knowledge and mobilisation.

For various personal reasons which I won't go into just now, I feel quite drawn to exploring this ministry and so was delighted to discover Newcastle and Durham dioceses have recently begun jointly talking about it.

One of the points I made about its imporatnce at the day yesterday was that Bob Jackson in Hope for the Church says that for every year of vacancy a church loses on average 10% of the congregation irretrievably. We should at least experiment with the possibility that interim ministry could help with that. The USA experience, I beleive is that churches can grow in interim periods with an interim minister, not only spiritually but numerically too ... that should surely make us take the ministry seriously.

So I would value your praying for me in this respect as I explore whether this might be something that is part of my future journey through life and ministry.
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary