Just because a church has agreed to an intentional interim process does not mean they are ready for all that goes with it. 

It takes wise and thoughtful leadership to navigate the transitional process. Healthy transitions don’t just happen but require spiritual discernment, competency and wise leadership to navigate. 

As you and I work with congregations in transition, we need to keep in mind some basics. For many of you, these ideas are not new but if you’re like me, I need reminding because I forget things.

This is your reminder of some basic principles to keep standing on as you lead and work with congregations in transition. Please send me yours to add to this list.    

Five Enduring Principles that Help Us Navigate Transition and Change

1. Communicate a Compelling Transitional Vision

 Vision comes in all sizes. There is the long term overarching vision a church needs. There’s also the shorter term transitional vision.  This is the vision you need to help get you through the ...

John Wayne once said, “You're short on ears and long on mouth.” I’m not sure who John was talking to but it could certainly have been me.

How about you? Do you ever find yourself short on ears and long on mouth?

Listening is one of the most loving things you and I can do at home, with our friends, and in the places where we lead and seek to make a kingdom difference. Paul Tillich agrees: “The first duty of love is to listen.”

Paul said, “Love cares more for others than for self…[love] doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always me first…”

What gets in the way of effective listening

1. We have our own interests (Phil. 2)
2. It’s hard work
3. We’re too busy to take the time required to really listen
4. We have unresolved issues of our own lives that get in the way (ie. hurt, stress, insecurity, the need to be listened to)
5. We feel like the person only wants to talk and isn’t open to my input
6. We loose control of the conversation when we listen (or so we think)

There was a ninety-year-o...

Are you more like a soldier or a scout?

A soldier’s job is to protect and defend a position. A scout’s job is to seek out and explore new possibilities. Two distinct approaches with very different outcomes.

In his book, The Book of Beautiful Questions, Warren Berger suggests that scout like behavior gives a leader a definite advantage.

During times of change and transition, this is especially true. We need flexibility and approach situations as scouts who are on the look out for new possibilities, new ideas, and new ways forward.

The Intellectual Humility of a Scout

“The mindset of a scout is rooted in curiosity. Scouts are more likely to say they feel pleasure when they learn new information or solve a puzzle. They’re more likely to feel intrigued when they encounter something that contradicts their expectations.”*

Leaders with scout-like behavior have what’s called intellectual humility.

Intellectual humility is “a state of openness to new ideas, a willingness to be recept...

“Yesterday’s solutions and procedures may not provide an adequate or appropriate response to the present challenges. Hence, the biggest hurdles facing long-time leaders may not be in learning new insights and skills, but in unlearning what they consider to be tried and true and what thus provides them with a false sense of security.”
— Eddie Gibbs in Leadership Next

Your biggest challenge in working with a congregation in transition, may not be to simply find the right map to follow but in helping them unlearn what might be holding them captive to past solutions.

An analogy I've found helpful in thinking about the role of a traveling companion and coach to congregations in transition (of any kind) is to see our role not as map readers but as navigators. I give credit to Leonard Hjalmarson in his book, Broken Futures, for reminding me of this way of framing the work we do (a book I recommend you add to your reading list).

Eddie Gibbs says further, “The church needs navigators tun...