Throughout the summer months, whenever we don't have a main article for The Tidings, we will be digging through our archives and including a Tidings article from a former Pastor of Holy Trinity. Today's article comes from Rev. Paul Lindstrom, who served our congregation as Interim Pastor from 1997-2000. We felt this was an appropriate article to include, as Holy Trinity is currently about to begin a new "time of transition".
INTERIM: A TIME OF TRANSITION
"It is not so much that we're afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it's that place in between that we fear. It's like being between trapezes. It's Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There is nothing to hold onto."
Congregations are in transition when a pastor resigns or retires. Transition is the "process of adjustment" that parishioners must collectively and individually go through in order to come to an acceptance of the changes going on around them.
There is always the danger that folks want to rush thru these transitions and quickly "start over" with a new pastor. You may well be asking why Holy Trinity needs an interim period at all. Why not just call a permanent pastor and be done with it all? An understandable question. Ten or fifteen years ago that would have been the process, with possibly a retired pastor in the area serving as "vacancy pastor." Churches have discovered, sometimes the hard way, then when a parish rushes to fill the position to quickly, the one that is called finds himself or herself mired in conflict and confusion.
I like to think of this interim time as a "windows of opportunity" when we can deal with issues and questions that can be best addressed during the in-between-time. The process of managing transitions is not a short or easy journey, but carefully managed they can provide for healing and growth within the congregation. These transitions, if done well, will enable. parishioners to make a commitment to a new beginning, to doing things in a new way and to seeing themselves as a new people. The Book of Proverbs puts it another way, "Without a vision the people perish."
I began this article with a quote from Marilyn Ferguson, an American Futurist, relative to the fear of transitions. It is a little like having nothing to hold on to. But let me close with one of the promises of God, something we do have to hold on to. It is the word that came to Joshua when the Israelites learned that their beloved leader, Moses, was dead. "I will not leave you nor forsake you." God's word to Joshua is for us as well.
The Rev. Paul T. Lindstrom