Annual Conference is just around the corner and so is the season of pastoral transition. While there are resources available for pastors on the move, the Conference offers guidance for churches in transition, too. Use these resources in your local church to help leadership teams and parishioners adapt and change.
Rev. Nate Berneking, Rev. Bruce Baxter and Conference Lay Leader Amy Thompson share specifics for PPRCs during a pastoral transition as part of the
Leaving Well Webinar series, examining how pastors and churches can best navigate pastoral transition.
The Passing the Baton handbook isn’t just for pastors in transition. The PPR guide offers transition tips for lay leadership, ways to welcome a new pastor and guidance for setting expectations.
This series is designed as three 45-60 minute training sessions or they can be combined for a 3-hour training session for church leaders. Based on the book,
Saying No to Say Yes: Everyday Boundaries and Pastoral Excellence by David Olsen and Nancy G. Devor, it is great for use with lay leadership and paid and unpaid church staff.
A two-part session on
Boundaries in Anxious Congregational Settings (scroll down page to Live from Eden Seminary Part 1 and Part 2) walks through questions like, “Is your congregation having trouble playing nice?” “Is there a tendency to scapegoat?” “Does triangulation or parking lot processing happen a lot in your church?” “How do we learn as clergy and lay leaders to recognize anxiety in our congregational systems and keep communication above ground?”
Visit
www.moumethodist.org/mentalhealth to view resources related to mental health, such as guidance for choosing a therapist, how to use your healthcare benefits and video stories from Missouri pastors who have sought counseling.
This article shares research around the stress of pastoral transition and strategies for coping with the change.
In this guide from Just Moved Ministry, founder Susan Miller offers tips for pastors and churches alike.