The In-Between Time: Minister Gone, Now What?

The UU Church in Eugene, OR lost several members a few years ago when it experienced a painful separation from its minister. In the weeks following the separation, members of the congregation made a decision to help them heal. Knowing they probably weren't in the right frame of mind to call another permanent minister, they brought in an "interim" minister, Rev. Betty Pingel, to help them work through their loss and prepare for the future.

Rev. Pingel helped the congregation recover. She also helped it revise its bylaws and policies and improve church services. She instituted regular evaluations of whole-church ministry. A second interim, Rev. Heather Lynn Hanson, spent a year with the congregation continuing the process, including starting a second Sunday service. Three years ago back on track again, the congregation called the Rev. Carolyn Colbert to a permanent ministry.

When a minister leaves one of our congregations for any reason, it has become standard practice to hire an interim minister to lead the congregation and help it prepare to call its next minister. The interim helps a congregation revitalize its operations and resolve major issues before the next called minister arrives. In the past two years all but two congregations that lost a minister have hired an interim as part of the process leading up to calling a new minister. Most serve one year, a few two.

The use of interims is a recent trend, due to increasing mobility of ministers. The average length of a UU called ministry is nine years. Twenty years ago, seven of our congregations had interims. Now, in a given year, 80 to 100 do. Hiring an interim has become a necessity.

Interims have included new seminary graduates as well as veterans. But because of the complexities inherent in the interim period (interims are regularly called upon to enter churches in crisis and respond to problems that called ministers confront only infrequently), the UUA Department of Ministry has implemented a three-step training and accreditation program for interims. The Accredited Interim Ministry Program is administered by the Ministry Department's Settlement Office. Those who complete all the requirements become AIMS;those still in training are AIMITs (Accredited Interim Minister in Training).

The first step in the training program, required of ministers at all experience levels who are about to conduct their first interim ministry, is attendance at a two-day summer seminar. Many stop there if they plan to conduct only one or two interim ministries.

Ministers who want to make a career, or at least part of a career, of conducting interim ministries, go further. The AIM designation is awarded after the minister has performed three years of successful interim ministry, undergone an additional two weeks of residential training including disciplined reflection under the guidance of an experienced interim minister, and demonstrated experience in assisting congregations.

Twice as many congregations need interims as there are interims who have completed the accreditation program, says the Rev. John Weston, director of the Settlement Office. Congregations that apply early (April 1 for an August start) and offer at least the same compensation as given the departing minister, are more likely to secure a trained interim.

Congregations should take the following steps in the interim year, Weston says: hire a skilled interim minister, achieve closure with the departing minister, work with the interim on transitional issues, assemble the best ministerial search committee possible, and be responsive to it by filling out surveys, attending focus groups, etc.

Weston says, "Congregations that do not hire an intentional interim minister for the year between settled ministers will later find out that they called an unintentional interim minister instead. It is unlikely the minister will last."

Gail Collins-Ranadive has been interim minister at the UU Congregation of Las Vegas (100 members), for the past year. The congregation, which had previously had an extension minister, called its first settled minister in June. She prepared by taking the summer seminar, and plans to complete the program. The course gave her a faster start, she believes. "Without it I would have floundered more. It helped me hit the ground running."

"She was so good at seeing our weaknesses and turning them into strengths," says Peggy Evans-Couch, membership chair. Her husband, Bob Couch, adds, "She outlined our problems in a soft hammer way that made us want to resolve them."

Rev. Marge Keip, at the UU Congregation of Marin, San Rafael, CA (197), is in her fifth year of interim ministry work and has completed the interim training program. "It's given me a conceptual understanding of interim ministry that I didn't have before and a framework through which to see congregational systems better," she says.

At Eugene, membership dropped to 175 during the turmoil. Now, with Rev. Colbert in her third year, it's up to 250. "A lot of our growth stems from the work the interims did, and now Carolyn is carrying that on," says Gil Osgood, former board chair. Hanson completed interim basic training before Eugene and has since taken the complete course. She says it's made her "more observant of the dynamics of leadership and power in a congregation. I've learned analytic tools to help me decide what to nudge and what to ignore. I have a raft of resources I didn't have before."

RESOURCES

When a minister announces his or her departure, contact your district office. Then visit the UUA Web site www.uua.org/ministry/settlement. The Settlement Office's on-line publication, In the Interim, is the best single source of comprehensive information. A new free video, The Interim Opportunity, helps congregations get the most from an interim year. Contact the office at settlement@uua.org or (617) 948-6408.

Temporary Shepherds: A Congregational Handbook for Interim Ministry, edited by Roger Nicholson (1998, Alban Institute), to help lay leaders understand what to expect from the minister and themselves. UUA Bookstore (800) 215-9076   #7215   $17.95