You are a priest; will yours be a hard act to follow? It's an important question for me. I am the interim minister who will come to look after your parish for a few months while it searches for your successor. I am part of the "float" or part-time clergy who make up the interim ministry team of the diocese of Edmonton. I have been doing this kind of work for 11 years now. The other half of my working life is spent in my law practice, which gives me a useful flexibility in my comings and goings and allows, often on short notice, to fill holes in the diocesan ministry structure.
What problems are you likely to leave for me?
Here, based on my experiences, are some likely possibilities.
Did you have yourself on a pedestal? Have you made yourself the one and only connection between God and your congregation? If so, I will discover a group of lost sheep who believe that the world has come to an end with your departure, and who may be too upset, or too perfectionist, to get down seriously to finding your replacement. My first lesson to them will have to be that "the Holy Spirit can speak to you just as well as he can to me."
It is going to be harder on your congregation to deal with the grief of losing you if you have created a father/child relationship with them, rather than that of coach and team? Coaches, after all, are fired regularly while the team moves on. Fathers are unique. My job is to be a coach.
Did you think you were going to stay forever? Read through the Gospel of John, and you will be surprised to see that one-third of it (chapters 11 to 17) deals with Jesus preparing his disciples for the time when he would be gone. Similarly, that great missionary of the church, Saint Paul, rarely stayed to minister in one place, but moved from city to city founding new churches, handing them over quickly to local management, keeping in touch thereafter by prayer and correspondence. A sound church is one that keeps going even when its minister has moved on. No one is indispensable!
How orthodox was your worship? The interim minister is unwise to make changes in worship patterns. The permanent priest who will follow should do that. My first task will be to quickly find out how things are done, and to adapt, no matter how strange I may find this.
This calls for somewhat of a chameleon act, which is made more difficult the more unorthodox you were. I regard it as a duty to proceed very slowly in making any changes from your established routine. There are Anglican ways of doing things, and it is easier for us all if you keep to the middle of the road when it comes to liturgical practice.
What is the state of your office records and procedures and your parish finances? Fortunately, because I come half-time and am reasonably generous in my giving, I can be a lighter load on your weekly cash flow, and this is the difference between survival and disaster in a marginal situation.
A healthy parish is one where the congregation has a responsible attitude towards church finances, and members gear their offerings to the degree that the Lord has blessed them. Is there a realistic and current congregational list? Do you have a system for welcoming and incorporating new parishioners? Is your bulletin and/or church newspaper an attractive and effective means of communication? When did you last have a stewardship canvass? Do you have adequate rosters and training for sides persons, altar guild, readers, administrants and the like? Are you involving young people in all of these duties? If not, why not? Do services start on time? Is your preaching a faithful exposition of the Gospel story, connecting it to the circumstances of the congregation? If the answer to any of these questions is "no," then you have set me a pile of catching up to do, and I will find my job more difficult.
A congregation is a body, and a body has different parts. When I come to your parish, I will have a checklist that I use, centred on the letters of the word WORSHIP.
W: The backbone of any congregation is its common Worship. What services do you have? How are they attended? Do they satisfy congregational needs?
O: The limbs of a body are its means of Outreach. Do its feet travel to the places of need in the community? Are its arms effective in helping?
R: The digestive system of the body deals with Recruitment. People, like food, come into the body, are processed, and give the body energy and strength. How do we handle newcomers? What about teaching programs, Sunday schools and social activities to ground people, old and young, in Anglican faith and practice and make them feel at home in our church?
S: is for Spirituality, the lungs of the parish. Do you have some inner circle of prayer warriors, covering the activities and people of the parish with prayer, and looking for guidance on the programs it should follow? It makes a difference, and can be a wonderful ministry for those who, because of age or sickness, cannot participate in many other parish activities.
H: Housekeeping is the outer skin and appearance of your parish. What is the physical state of your buildings, furnishings and finances? The cleanliness and tidiness of your plant, including your washrooms? Do your corporation and vestry meetings effectively carry out the will of your congregation?
I: is for Intercommunication, your parish's nervous system. Do parish members have the opportunity to know each other? To know what's going on in the parish? In the diocese, national and world churches? Are they aware of each other's needs, and can they spot when a regular worshipper is missing from the congregation? Do you have a social time after services?
P: Pastoral ministry is the bloodstream and heart of your ministry. Are shut-ins and the sick visited, ministered to and prayed for? Is help available for those in spiritual, mental, emotional and economic distress? How serious is your preparation for baptism, marriage and funeral services?
If all the above matters have been well taken care of in your parish, you can be proud of yourself. It is likely also that it is time for you to move on to do more good work in some other deserving location. In such a case, it will be my pleasure to follow you - on an interim basis, of course. You will have made my work a delight
