Navigating the Transition
I knew that Marc would be retiring in June 2014 before I accepted the job as Assistant Minister in April 2012. I knew it wasn't going to be easy to walk with this congregation through the transition, and yet I felt it was my call - my sense of where my skills and gifts would best be used.
Because I knew so early about Marc's retirement, the "transition" started for me right from the beginning. As I said in my sermon in March 2014: we tend to imagine life is what happens between transitions -but really, transition is life!
Leading up to our interim time, I reached out to colleagues to help me discern how I should understand my role. I knew I needed to get clear so that I could remain focused and grounded. From these conversations, I realized that I needed to keep calling people to a larger vision, offer rich programming and meaningful opportunities for connection, and to preach and teach in a way that felt connected to life's greater meaning and purpose.
Over the past 18 months, I have been a consistent presence with the lay leaders, staff team, and whole congregation, carrying forward the stories of the past, bearing witness to the challenges and opportunities of the present, and lifting up those dreams for the future. I have offered support and training for leaders on navigating change, leading through anxiety, and emotional systems. I have worked with staff to make the transition from Marc's style and expectations to a new mode. I have been a consistent pastoral presence with many of our members one-on-one as they experienced life transitions, losses, and celebrations. And, I have advocated for and initiated programming that would allow our congregation to experience a positive new vision for our faith and our community and that would allow healthy ways for our personal sorrows to be heard and healed.
Along the way, through articles and sermons and many, many personal conversations, I tried to name what we were experiencing authentically, while still holding out that larger vision, all while trying to balance the constraints inherent to my role. In our July debrief about the first year of interim, one of our lay leaders expressed his unmet expectation that I would be able to keep our congregation "on track" through the interim. I know that there are others that share this sentiment, in that they imagined that I would lead and direct the interim minister's activities - rather than the other way around. However, that simply was not our roles, and it would have been unprofessional, inappropriate, and unsuccessful to try to extend my authority beyond its reality. I know that those closest to the interim process understand and respect this, and I hope and believe that over time, the whole of our community will come to a similar understanding and peace.
Foothills is a resilient, healthy, creative, engaged and powerful congregation. When I arrived here, this was so clear. The challenge and opportunity has always been to help this congregation know and claim this story for themselves, and to act out of this story as we create the future. As the senior minister, I will work with the lay leaders and staff in our communication plan, programming and planning in a way that allows this congregation to know and understand its own incredible story, and to claim its own power and potential - during this time of transition, and far beyond.
Because I knew so early about Marc's retirement, the "transition" started for me right from the beginning. As I said in my sermon in March 2014: we tend to imagine life is what happens between transitions -but really, transition is life!
Leading up to our interim time, I reached out to colleagues to help me discern how I should understand my role. I knew I needed to get clear so that I could remain focused and grounded. From these conversations, I realized that I needed to keep calling people to a larger vision, offer rich programming and meaningful opportunities for connection, and to preach and teach in a way that felt connected to life's greater meaning and purpose.
Over the past 18 months, I have been a consistent presence with the lay leaders, staff team, and whole congregation, carrying forward the stories of the past, bearing witness to the challenges and opportunities of the present, and lifting up those dreams for the future. I have offered support and training for leaders on navigating change, leading through anxiety, and emotional systems. I have worked with staff to make the transition from Marc's style and expectations to a new mode. I have been a consistent pastoral presence with many of our members one-on-one as they experienced life transitions, losses, and celebrations. And, I have advocated for and initiated programming that would allow our congregation to experience a positive new vision for our faith and our community and that would allow healthy ways for our personal sorrows to be heard and healed.
Along the way, through articles and sermons and many, many personal conversations, I tried to name what we were experiencing authentically, while still holding out that larger vision, all while trying to balance the constraints inherent to my role. In our July debrief about the first year of interim, one of our lay leaders expressed his unmet expectation that I would be able to keep our congregation "on track" through the interim. I know that there are others that share this sentiment, in that they imagined that I would lead and direct the interim minister's activities - rather than the other way around. However, that simply was not our roles, and it would have been unprofessional, inappropriate, and unsuccessful to try to extend my authority beyond its reality. I know that those closest to the interim process understand and respect this, and I hope and believe that over time, the whole of our community will come to a similar understanding and peace.
Foothills is a resilient, healthy, creative, engaged and powerful congregation. When I arrived here, this was so clear. The challenge and opportunity has always been to help this congregation know and claim this story for themselves, and to act out of this story as we create the future. As the senior minister, I will work with the lay leaders and staff in our communication plan, programming and planning in a way that allows this congregation to know and understand its own incredible story, and to claim its own power and potential - during this time of transition, and far beyond.