Guest commentary by Laura Viau “So… how many churches have you served?” I can understand why I get this question. If I’d gone straight from college to seminary to ordination, I might have several churches listed on my résumé.  Instead, I’ve had several careers.  Right out of college, I spent five years teaching and coaching in public high schools.  I detoured into positions comprised of technical writing and project management work. And then: God called me to start preparing for congregational ministry. My seminary years overlapped with a job in fund development for a global mission organization, writing everything from grant proposals to multi-day program scripts. When I graduated with my M.Div. from the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in 2012, I was moving into a broader communications role with executive level responsibilities. That serpentine road toward answering a long-delayed call to congregational ministry did more than add mileage and a variety of … [Read more...]

Guest commentary by Nicole Farley In 2017 the Presbytery of Milwaukee received a grant, which made possible new ways of attending to church vitality within our congregations. One branch of this support has been to make Holy Cow! Consulting (an assessment tool for churches) affordable for any congregation in the presbytery. And one way that’s been done is to train leaders in the presbytery to serve as volunteer interpreters of the Congregation Assessment Tool (CAT) report. I was trained to be one of the presbytery’s team of Holy Cow! interpreters, and have since walked alongside six of the 18 churches who have engaged Holy Cow! so far to consider how they might make themselves more vital. Below are some reasons you might consider engaging in such an assessment, especially in a time of transition (but, really, any time is good to learn more about a congregation). One of the things I say in opening any interpretation is that knowing where you want to go, but not knowing where you … [Read more...]

Guest commentary by Jihyun Oh Transitional ministry can happen at any time. It can happen in a 10-year pastoral call when key members of the congregation move away or die. It can happen in a 22-year pastoral call when the neighborhood around a congregation begins to change. It should happen when the congregation finds itself older and less energetic and unable to support the vision and mission that the members discerned 30 or 40 years ago. It can happen when the congregation experiences a transition in pastoral leadership. I want to focus on this last instance of transitional ministry and how it relates to something else I’ve been pondering a lot lately: cultural competence or cultural proficiency. Cultural proficiency is one of the competencies that call seekers can select on Personal Information Forms to describe the gifts they offer as church leaders. It is listed among the Organizational Leadership qualities, and is described as the competence of having a “solid … [Read more...]

Guest commentary by Susan Krummel When I was first trained as an interim minister in the 1990s, there was a clear path for congregations and interim pastors. We were seen as the bridge between one stable time in the life of a congregation and the next stable time. Interim pastors were to provide all of the services of an installed pastor and to help a congregation think about its past and open itself up to new ways of doing things. A success as an interim pastor was being followed by an installed pastor who had a fruitful and long ministry at the church. Most churches were fairly steady in their membership (or growing a little) and the future would look much like the past with a few tweaks. My, how times have changed! Interim ministry training is now often called “the art of transitional ministry.” Pastors attend the educational week even if they are not thinking about being an interim because every congregation is going through transition of one kind or another. Some are … [Read more...]