By Ken Bechtel

Henrietta Mears of Gospel Light Publications fame is remembered for her flamboyant hats, for her creative Sunday School Bible teaching, and for inspiring leaders like Richard Halverson and Billy Graham.  She once quipped that “It is difficult to steer a parked car.  So get moving!”  Those of us in Intentional Interim or Transition Ministries have the God given privilege of joining congregations who can no longer stay parked, who are about to move.

Kurt Lewin, the grandfather of current change theory, used to talk about periods of freezing and unfreezing.  Unfrozen moments were opportunities for helpful change.  During those months or years between settled pastorates, a congregation is no longer comfortably “in park.”  At the end of its long term or troubled pastorate, the congregation may be restless, uncertain, stuck, relieved, grieving or conflicted.  That change in leadership unleashes energies that God yearns to use.  Sometimes that energy is positive, an excitement about the new era and new opportunities.  Sometimes that energy is negative – old or recent unresolved conflicts, struggles over direction, fear of the unknown road ahead.  But energy, whether positive or negative, is energy.  And no parking brake can return such a congregation to yesterday’s familiar comfort.

As a Transition Pastor I have worked in a congregation that would describe itself as severely conflicted and in another that would describe itself as stable, peaceable and “stuck.”  In both, there was a restlessness, a dissatisfaction with the status quo, an underlying sense that God would call them toward something more.  That was the source of creative energy.  Even the inevitable resistance could be viewed as “information,” invitations for further conversation or nuancing.

In recent years, several church leaders have tried to describe the life cycle of a congregation.  One diagram used by Robert Dale (To Dream Again, Broadman,1981) and Gil Rendle (Leading Change in the Congregation, Alban, 1998) describes the progress from the original dreams through the structures and goals that foster creative ministries.  Inevitably, however, there comes a time when those dreams and memories degenerate into nostalgia, questioning, polarization and dropout.  Inevitably, that is, unless we find a way to open ourselves to fresh visions!  When those “young … see visions” and the “old … dream dreams”, that cycle of renewal starts over again as God calls us toward new ministries.

My three interim congregational assignments have convinced me that God has placed within each congregation a divine restlessness, nudging them (and me) toward “the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4)  It is my role as a Transition Pastor to help create listening processes and practices that help them listen deeply to themselves, to one another and to the Spirit.  As we invite people to share their pain and express their hopes, somehow we get onto the table the gifts, the goodies as well as the stuff under the carpet.  Then we sit on the same side of the table.  Together we seek God’s direction.  What should we do with all this?  Someone remembers another goodie, someone else the lump they stumbled over on the way in.  Yet another recalls a Scriptural account of God’s people facing similar challenges.  Finally we sense more clearly what it is that God is calling us toward.  And once again we begin to dream, to plan, to point ourselves toward God’s new activity.

You can’t steer a parked car!  But we as Intentional Interims or Transition Pastors have the privilege of joining congregations whose parking brake has been released.  It is our privilege to join them for those holy moments as they seek divine connection and direction for the next stages of their journey.

Biography:

Ken Bechtel is currently serving as Interim Conference Minister for Mennonite Church Saskatchewan.   Ken received his MDiv from the Mennonite Seminaries in Elkhart Indiana.  After 14 years of pastoring in Ontario, Ken did his Basic and some further training with the Interim Ministry Network.   Since 1997 Ken has enjoyed interim assignments in Calgary (Alberta), in Baden and in Breslau (Ontario) before assuming his current responsibilities in April 2003.