Transition News
How’s the Transition?
By The Rev. Susan Murtha
Some of you are beginning to wonder and ask about “The Transition” – What are the steps?, Where are we at?, What’s ahead?, How does it work? and other good questions! In the January Spire I will share an overview, but for now I wanted to let you know about the Transition Team. In November, I focused on forming this group and this week we had our first meeting.
Members of Transition Team:
Fred Cotton
Ed D’Amico
Barbara Colley
Dave Reif
Mark Racine
Kate Dombrowski
What is the Team about?
• While groups in the church – such as Church Council, Search Committee and others – will handle a number of transitional tasks, this Team is charged with the whole of the church’s transition.
What will the Team do?:
• The Team will learn about, monitor, reflect on, ask questions about, discuss and help facilitate broad issues of the church’s transition. These involve practical, organizational, spiritual and mission aspects of the church’s life.
• They will also help with planning and implementing concrete events such as all-church sessions regarding your history, visioning for the future and others.
How often will the Team meet?
• The Team will meet once a month (more or less if/when necessary) through the interim time.
• Subgroups will meet as needed to implement certain events related to the transition.
How will it help the church?
• The Team is a great help to me – listeners, challengers, questioners, …. .
• Individuals and groups in the church can turn to members of the Team for information and support in the interim time.
• Following the interim time, the insight gained by the Transition Team will be a significant resource and asset to the congregation and to new settled minister.
Feel free at anytime to be in touch with anyone on the Team to talk further!
Tell Us About "The Transition"
by the Rev. Susan Murtha
As we take first steps into 2012, some of you are wondering and asking about “The Transition”: What are the steps?, Where are we at?, What’s ahead?, How does it work? and other good questions! While no outline could fairly represent the transition process, some map can be helpful for getting an overview sense of it:
CONNECT/JOINING of Interim Minister and Parish
(being woven into the Body of Christ)
Leaders
Boards and committees
Church members and friends
Transition Team
SELF-STUDY: Questions and Reflection
(living toward the spiritual, organizational and practical life of the wilderness journey)
Where have we been?
What values have been deeply and meaningfully shaped?
How have decisions been made?
How did we handle conflicts?
What parts of the Body grew strong and healthy?
Are there issues that need to be resolved?
Are there relationships that need reconciliation in Christ?
What have we prioritized/neglected?
HOME-WORK
(practicing new ways of being a community of faith)
Prioritizing areas of interim time focus
Getting in spiritual and practical shape
DISCOVERING NEW IDENTITY and DIRECTION
(discerning God’s new life for the church)
Exploration of possibilities, visions, hopes
Needs and context
Prioritizing and commitment to new direction/change/future
SEARCH PROCESS
(seeking a pastor)
Form committee
Create church profile
Candidates
Selection of new settled minister
PROCESS
While some of this process is sequential (step-by-step), much of it is iterative, concurrent and non-linear! This is of course because a church is an organization and not a machine. A car can be assembled in parts, tested in steps, and then run with maintenance. We may wish we would walk through the process as steps, check them off, and get to the final product, but human communities don’t work like that! In a church, everyone is both a part and a whole and all the parts are interconnected. Also, the connections vary from person to person, group to group. And in the midst of ALL THIS, the Holy Spirit is at work as well. SOO, it’s a process, not a to-do list!
PATHWAYS
You may have noticed that the map above does not outline the pathways through which these stages happen. That would be another few pages! For now I’ll just note that the pathways include such things as Russel Room Talks, sermons, all-church series on “Feeding a Hungry Church”, visioning days, and more. As these take shape, you’ll be hearing about them.
The Transition Team had its first meeting in December. It was so good to gather, discuss, and reflect together. Please talk with any member of this group to share thoughts, ask questions, give input, etc. They are ambassadors to all of us in this process!
Fred Cotton, Kate Dombrowski, Ed D’Amico, Barbara Colley, Dave Reif, and Mark Racine.
New Year blessings,
Susan J. Murtha, Interim Senior Minister