Transition Development Committee Update

Transition Development Committee | September 2, 2024

Greetings Church Family,

We have focused our attentions in the past few months on celebrating Mark Johnson. We are blessed that we were led and loved by him for 19 years.

Now comes the work. Our committee has been working to prepare us for this time using resources from the Center for Congregational Health. This is an organization that specializes in this transitional process and has been recommended by several in our church with experience in these transitions.

Who is on the Transitional Development Committee?

• Isaac Scott, Moderator (outgoing December 2024)
• Christi Gabbard, Moderator (incoming January 2025)
• Pete Grass, Personnel Committee Chair
• Mark Thomas, Treasurer
• Gwen Hart, Deacon Chair

What is the Center for Congregational Health?

The mission of the Center for Congregational Health is to assist congregations in becoming healthier communities of faith. It follows the logic that all congregations can do things that will make them stronger as they strive to keep the gospel message relevant to all generations.

While this process is new to us, the CCH has established many strategies and best practices to help congregations move through these transitions to promote and enhance the spiritual and community life of a congregation in the midst of change. This includes developing a program of intentional reflection and re-visioning.

What exactly is an Intentional Interim Minister (IIM)?

The IIM is an experienced minister who has completed over 85 hours of specialized training and fieldwork experience to develop proficiency in this unique ministry. Performing all the usual pastoral responsibilities, the IIM also will assist the congregation in establishing a Transition Team (separate from the Transitional Development Committee named above), who will lead the congregation through five areas (called Focus Points) of a healthy congregation.

And what are these five Focus Points?

• Heritage: reviewing how the congregation has been shaped and formed
• Mission: defining and redefining sense of purpose and direction
• Leadership: reviewing the congregation’s ways or organizing and developing a new (if needed) and effective clergy and lay leadership structure
• Connections: discovering all the relationships and networks a faith community builds beyond itself, including its relationship to a denomination
• Future: activating and training the pastoral search or call committee and coaching the committee (as requested) to accomplish its work

These are some definitions to help us get started. To learn more about this process, we will have an update held after the church service on Sunday, September 15.

This is a time where we as a congregation can build on our strong relationships and grow together in this exercise of faith. While transitions can sometimes feel stressful, it is also a prayerful time for us to learn about ourselves as a congregation and each other.

Ultimately, and when we are ready, we’ll form a Senior Pastor Search Committee having defined and vetted these key steps to our future.  It is a solid way to ensure we look for a Senior Pastor best suited to Central’s future needs.

You will have other questions and we’ll continue to keep you updated throughout this transition period.