An Interim Pastor's Gift: A Guide Raising a Congregation's Awareness Regarding the Health of Clergy. This item is unavailable.An Interim Pastor's Gift: A Guide Raising a Congregation's Awareness Regarding the Health of Clergy

INTERIMS CAN SHAPE HEALTHY CHURCHES

Churches without pastors face uncertain futures. Congregations feel like they are treading water.

How do we stay afloat?

Where do we look?

How do we make sure we make the right choice?

It is a time filled with anxiety and hope.

An Interim pastor can offer a creative possibility for how the congregation can make use of this transition time to encourage their next chapter of ministry to be strong and healthy. An interim pastor is in a better position than anyone to help the congregation both understand and be supportive of good ministry.

This book is designed to assist an interim in leaving the congregation with an intentional plan for a healthy partnership with their new pastor. It offers specific steps that an interim can take to educate the congregation about the stresses and challenge of ministry.  The book then provides:

            Guidance for search committees about good criteria to consider

A healthy approach to working with the new pastor.

 A check list of steps a congregation can take to welcome the new pastor and family

 Ways that the leadership can take the temperature of the health of the evolving ministry.

This is one of nine volumes that are part of the series supporting the thesis that Healthy Clergy Make Healthy Congregations [HCMHC]. Each volume is designed to support clergy in a way that nurtures the spiritual health of the whole congregation. They are offered in the firm belief that God has called people together in congregations and called individuals to the ordained ministry in those congregations. All nine volumes are available on Amazon.com. Those who care about the church are invited to go to the author’s Web site www.smccutchan.com  to view these and other resources designed to support the church.

God calls the church together for a purpose. Healthy clergy enable congregations to listen to God and respond in a healthy manner with a ministry that can feed the spiritual hunger of a fractured world.

A Pastor Who Loves the Church Stephen McCutchan is an ordained Presbyterian minister. In thirty-eight years serving the church as a pastor, in retirement he has focused his energies on developing resources in support of the clergy who continue to serve the church. This particular volume suggests a special role that an interim can play on behalf of the church. As a writer, humorist, and advocate for the care of clergy, Steve has authored fourteen books and two CDs in support of various aspects of ministry by clergy. These include two books on the ways to draw on Scripture (Matthew and the Psalms), three devotional books based on the Revised Common Lectionary, a mystery novel, A Star and a Tear, that explores the symbiotic relationship between sexuality and spirituality. One CD, A Deep Well for the Pastor combines the music of david bailey with meditations around the challenges of ministry. The second CD, Laughter From the Well, again makes use of david bailey's music, augmented by music by Brian McFarland mixed with comedy skits about pastoral life. This new series, Healthy Clergy Make Healthy Congregations. [HCMHC] currently offers three volumes. Volume 1, A Company of Pastors, provides a twenty-session structure for a fresh approach for a pastors' support group. The author draws upon parabolic stories about different aspects of ministry to engage clergy in exploring their experiences in ministry. Volume 2, God Laughs-Why Don't You?, focuses on the use of humor both in the practice of ministry and in the sustaining ones physical, emotional, and spiritual health as clergy. The third volume in the HCMHC series is An Interim Pastor's Gift To a Congregation. This book offers a plan on ways an interim can educate a congregation about the stresses in clergy life and how the congregation can offer support in addressing these challenges in their pastor's ministry. All of his published works are available on his Web site www.smccutchan.com as well as his weekly blog on various practical ways that clergy, congregations, and denominations can practice healthy ministry.