If you attend a church that is entering the transition period that begins when your pastor leaves, please consider these danger signs. If you are a leader in such a church, please guard against uttering those five dangerous words without first giving serious thought to what you stand to lose if you don’t retain the services of an intentional interim pastor and what you stand to gain if you do.

What’s your first move after your pastor tells you he’s resigning?

You’ve got to get this right because you’re setting up the next ten years of the church’s future.

It’s Thursday morning. Your pastor of nine years just dropped a bomb in the Diner. You’ve suddenly lost interest in polishing off breakfast. That silence before the waitress comes to top off the coffee and clear the table is deafening, stultifying.

You’re the Chairman of the Board. The game has just been put in your hands.

What’s your first move?

The first thing a church must do when its pastor resigns is retain an intentional interim pastor, especially if the church meets any of these criteria:

1. The pastor is leaving after a lengthy tenure (experts differ over”lengthy tenure”, with figures from 7 to 15 years).
2. The church churns pastors (calling a new one more often than Congress calls for tax reform).
3. The pastor leaves under duress for any reason.
4. The church’s leaders can’t state or agree on the church’s mission.
5. It has been three years since the last ministry audit (everything reviewed for “mission fit” and amended as needed).
6. It is a “commuter church” (members are very different from those who live near the church).
7. Attendance has plateaued (people coming in offset those who leave).
8. The church faces financial challenges.
9. There’s significant difference between the “official membership” roster and attendance figures.
10. A large percentage of the congregation expresses interest in switching denominations.
11. It been more than ten years since you remodeled property.
12. Facilities seem to worn and tired to the unbiased observer.

Any church entering transition between settled pastors should pay careful, prayerful attention to these criteria. If not, there is a danger the leadership team could utter five perilous words. If they become a mantra they will inflict damage that could take years to repair.

Five words church leaders must avoid

1. we
2. can
3. do
4. it
5. ourselves

Those words must never be spoken nor thought in a church that meets any of the 12 criteria. It might be an appropriate sentiment for those with the rare good fortune of leading a robust, vigorous congregation. Most church leaders utter these five deadly words because they don’t know what they don’t know.

What don’t they know?

They don’t know what an intentional interim pastor does, the training he has acquired and what skills he brings to the church. So let’s explore that briefly.

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