By Pastor John Hulden
At our Minneapolis Area Synod Assembly this past weekend, the 500+ voting members elected a new bishop to begin serving in August. Good work y’all! We are church together.
Full disclosure, I’m writing this before our synod assembly. Most of our synod staff have Monday off, after a busy synod assembly week, and I didn’t want to write a blog on my bonus day off. 😊
“In my work with congregations in transition, the beginning and ending of the transition is not the same for everyone.”
As a synod staff, we’ve had May 2-4 on our calendars for a year. We also knew this assembly meant electing a new bishop. Besides ramping up, planning, and organizing all things for the assembly – in tandem with the Bishop Election Committee – we’ve been feeling the weight of the looming transition.
I suppose one could say we’ve now officially started the transition. But in my work with congregations in transition, the beginning and ending of the transition is not the same for everyone. In a congregation, often the church staff and a few lay leaders know in advance of a pastor’s retirement date, or that their pastor asked them to be a reference for their mobility papers as they make plans to leave town for an interview.
FOR THE LAST ten plus years, I’ve been blessed to work with experts in transitions. Interim pastors in our synod bring leadership to a congregation during that in-between time of a pastoral transition. The second Thursday of most every month, I meet with the interim pastors for prayer, for learning, and for connecting. Those two hours a month have been enriching for me, and that sentiment is echoed by the interims who show up.
When we get together, we look at church work through the lens of transition. When an interim pastor begins their ministry at a congregation after the previous pastor has moved on, the work often centers on the five developmental tasks of interim ministry.
- Coming to terms with history
- Discovering a new identity
- Shifts of power and leadership change
- Rethinking the linkage to the larger church
- Commitment to new leadership and new future
Hanging out with the interim pastors has reminded me that these tasks could also apply to the change in our synod leadership.
“Interim pastors in our synod bring leadership to a congregation during that in-between time of a pastoral transition.”
As I look at those five developmental tasks, some of this transition work has already begun in the months leading up to our assembly. The history and identity of our synod have been addressed in listening sessions, conference assemblies to nominate potential candidates, and candidate forums. The brave and passionate pastors who stepped up to be in the election process have already helped us envision leadership change and how best to connect with the larger church. Now it is our job to support our new bishop-elect as this transition continues.
Take a moment and say a prayer for our next bishop, as well as for all the congregations in leadership transition. The synod staff can plan an assembly and walk along with congregational leadership, but all of us in our 130-plus congregations are “the synod.” May God bless us and guide us as enter a new chapter doing our church-together work.