Religious Journey

Intentional Interim Ministry

Bridging the Interim Between Pastors

Congregations have unique opportunities and unique challenges in the interim between pastors. Intentional Interim Ministry is a congregational self-study process designed to take advantage of those opportunities and to meet those challenges successfully. Some congregations see no need for a self-study and call another permanent pastor as quickly as possible. Some call an interim to do the preaching only.

The IIM self-study focuses on five points: heritage, mission, leadership, connections, and future. While different IIM Ministers and different congregations study these points in differing ways, these five focus points are the backbone of every Intentional Ministry process.

It is a process rather than a program. Ideally the congregation conducts the study. The congregation is led by the Transition Team ("TTeam"), which is led by the IIM pastor. Taking the heritage focus point for example, the goal is for the congregation to arrive at a healthy outlook concerning the church's past, both recent and further back. The IIM pastor and the TTeam consider what activities and events will best accomplish this goal, what issues need to be raised or avoided, and how to proceed. The dynamic may be compared to that of a daughter choosing someone to marry in that parents can guide her to choose responsibly, but the choice must be hers. An IIM pastor succeeds when the choices that are made, are made decently and in order by the congregation.

Since it is a process of self-study, IIM is used by congregations of several different denominations.

Intentional Interim Ministers are trained by the Center for Congregational Health in connection with North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. IIM pastors must complete a course of 60 hours of class room training plus a six month supervised ministry. Annual continuing education is required for continued approval.

Many individual ministers have designed their own interim ministry procedures, and a few other organizations train interim ministers. Any of these ministers may serve your congregation well. The important understanding is that you do well to ask a lot of people a lot of questions so that you will know what you're choosing to do.