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My inbox overfloweth.

After posting this love letter to Transitional Pastors, I heard from quite a few of you. In fact, I received over 60 private texts, DMs, emails, and phone calls about the state of Transitional Ministry and Transitional Ministry Training in the Church. Here’s the problem: nobody wants to shame or blame their colleagues and yet changes need to be made. Among the comments I heard over and over again:

• My transitional ministry training was a waste of time.
• The transitional ministers teaching the course I took are not themselves effective transitional pastors.
• Some of the faculty who taught my class have never been transitional pastors.
• My recent training prepared me to be an interim pastor ten or twenty years ago.
• The supposedly trained transitional pastor at my church before I was called and installed there did nothing but preach old sermons.

It’s not easy to tell a beloved colleague that their transitional ministry gifts are weak. It’s not easy to share with my colleagues who teach Transitional Ministry Training that their faculty and methods are not preparing leaders to be effective transitional ministers in a late 21st Century, post-pandemic, overwhelmingly divided and anxious culture.

There are some good training offerings out there and there are some stellar transitional leaders out there. I shared one training in particular that I’ve found to be excellent. If you’ve checked them out, please do so again to leave your contact information. (Now there’s a black and white tab to click at the top of their website if you want to be on their mailing list.)

These times demand excellence in the way we serve the Church of Jesus Christ. It’s a critical time when we need about five times more gifted transitional leaders than we currently have. Please consider if God is leading you to be trained for this particular calling. Thank you. And thank you, colleagues, who are questioning if you should continue to serve as or train transitional leaders. It might be time to let some fresh leaders serve in this way.

(Note: He was never tolerant of anything having to do with Duke or – for some reason – Sears.)

If you are one of my cousins and Dad knew your family secrets, I probably know them too. I’m not sure why he confided in me, but I know some things that I’ve kept to myself. I think his point might have been that yes, people have affairs and unexpected pregnancies and transgender children and mental health challenges and financial difficulties and yet God loves us and Dad figured he should love everybody too.

Even though he talked about hard things with me, he never got over the fact that some people don’t believe in God. He considered that confounding. How can you live in this world (“It’s amazing what the LORD has let us learn!“) and not believe in God?

Dad often stopped the car and pulled over on the side of the road in Mt. Mourne, N. C. between Mooresville and Davidson to show us where enslaved people had been sold on a block by the train tracks before the Civil War. He didn’t offer much color commentary or ask “I wonder” questions, but he almost always pointed out the spot where families were separated “and that’s why it’s called Mt. Mourne,” he’d say. That history has been erased from current day Mt. Mourne if it was ever true.

But it sounded true when he talked about it. One of the largest plantations was right there by that auction block and there used to be an historic marker about the small slave market. It’s gone now.

Father’s Day and Juneteenth don’t always land on the same day, but I wonder what my Dad and I would be talking about today if he were alive. I imagine that his heart would be hurt by the fact that some enslaved people didn’t hear that they were free for more than two years after they’d been emancipated. They continued to live as chattel for two more years of their lives. He didn’t know that history growing up.

Dad was an easy crier and I think this would have made him cry if we’d talked about it.

I have only a vague idea of what happens after this life, but I pray that my Dad is with those men, women, and children who were held against their will now in the light of their Creator. And I hope God is as gracious as my Dad was.

Healing mercies to all who grieve today.

It occurred to me over coffee with a colleague last week that I am a church pollinator.

As a spiritual leader who oversees lots of congregations of varying sizes, contexts, and demographics, I get to be the one who travels from church to church carrying resources, ideas, and encouragement in interactions that nourish God’s people with the expectation that their ministries will flower and reproduce.

Some of the coolest creatures on earth get to be pollinators: birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles, lizards, lemurs, and possums. And because of their critical (and natural) work, we get:

• fruits, vegetables, and nuts
• half of the world’s oils, fibers and raw materials
• healthier soil

This is the ecosystem in which the earth thrives.

Congregations have ecosystems too and pollinators are needed to grow fruits (of the Spirit) and spread God’s love. This metaphor is exciting because who doesn’t want to grow fruits and spread love?

What do we need to create church pollinators who will help the ecosystem flourish?

• Something needs to be blooming. If nothing at all is blooming, it’s hard to pollinate anything.
• We need water and the Spirit. We can’t see God’s plan without them.
• We need healthy soil. Are we really ready for pollination? Or are stuck and bored and blind and disinterested in being God’s people? Jesus said something about this.
• We need light and some of our congregations have actually chosen darkness: bullies are in control, basic kindness is rare, there is little evidence that anyone wants to love God or their neighbors as they love themselves.

Pollination is my favorite. It makes the world more beautiful and more nourishing, and it’s our critical and natural life purpose if we are living as we were created to live.

 “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take at least one thing off.” Coco Chanel

We are better at addition than subtraction, but sometimes less is more.

I love this book by Dr. Leidy Klotz of the University of Virginia and it holds many wise words for those of us serving congregations or other non-profits. It could also work for jewelry and other accessories a la Coco Chanel.

Every congregation I know – when considering their programming, mission activities, and even staff models – likes to add rather than subtract. We are already involved in Habitat for Humanity, the local homeless shelter, and the annual Chili Fundraiser (which we’ve been doing on for 34 years.) And when we are looking to “grow” or “reach new people” we consider adding a tutoring class or a spring ice cream social.

What if – instead of adding something to our already busy church schedule – we take something away? What if the reality is that everybody hates that Chili Fundraiser or it’s increasingly impossible to find volunteers for Habitat? It’s okay to stop doing something. It’s more than okay. It’s healthy to take something away – especially if we are tired of it and it has no positive impact for the community anymore.

As the years pass I need fewer and fewer things and so I’ve developed a personal discipline that goes like this: before I can buy a new pair of shoes, I need to get rid of a pair of shoes. Before I buy a new black turtleneck, I need to give one away. (This works for books and toys too.)

Leidy Klotz notes that humans are more likely to add than subtract in our thinking processes. It’s literally more work for our brains to subtract than it is to add, and so adding becomes our go-to behavior. He uses the example of his young son’s work on a Duplo bridge. The bridge that he was building with his son was uneven because one tower was taller than the other. Klotz’ son instinctively removed a block from the taller side – which was an interesting choice. Most people would add a block to the shorter side.

We seem to forget that we can remove things from our personal and corporate schedules – from meetings to fundraisers to classes. It’s okay, we don’t have to offer a Bible study on Wednesday nights anymore. Maybe we can move it to Sunday nights. Or maybe it could shift to a different kind of study. Or maybe we can just stop doing it for a season and see if anyone misses it.

Business leaders tell us that subtraction can make us more efficient. I think subtraction can make us more faithful. What do you think?

Check out these articles about subtraction as a practice.

A friend recommended the book Search by Michelle Huneven recently. (Thanks L.) It’s the story of a restaurant critic who is also on her church’s pastor seach committee, and it’s a familiar story – at least to me.

Some of the Search Committee members have an agenda: some are serving to ensure that the new pastor is not a straight while male. Some hope to steer the committee towards a pastor under the age of 40. As the story goes on, it’s clear that their agendas are actually not so secret. Pacts form. Strategies develop. There’s an attempt to remove a couple members of the search committee when their agendas clearly don’t align with the agenda of the old guard.

Perhaps this story is familiar to you too.

Especially in Church World, we believe that The Holy Spirit has something to do with The Call to Ministry. There’s that initial call when a human being senses that God might be directing them towards a spiritual vocation. And then there are calls that come and go throughout a pastor’s life.* In my tradition, all Christians are called to ministry at the moment of their baptism. Some of us are called to professional ministry.

Do we, the members of the church, accept _____ to be our pastor, chosen by God through the voice of this congregation to lead us in the way of Jesus Christ?

This is the vow church people make when their new pastor is called in the Presbyterian Church USA. We believe God speaks through discerning humans.

God can still work when people come to the table with secret agendas. But hidden agendas are divisive and when someone campaigns to be on the pastor nominating committee to ensure that the next preacher will love handbells, it can get in the way. In some circumstances, it can derail a search.

In so many aspects of life, we come with secret (or not so secret) agendas. Personal agendas have been derailing the Institutional Church since well before Constantine was the Emperor. Among my favorites:

• The leader who suggests that the church bakes cupcakes to give to the homeless as a new mission project when actually she wants to start her own cupcake business.
• The members who want to fill the Pastor Nominating Committee with bagpipers in order to call a Scot as their new pastor.
• The pastor who wants to put his own spouse on the governing board “because my spouse is so faithful” when actually the pastor just wants another elder on the board who will agree with him.

These are all true examples.

I have not-so-secret agendas too, but I’m constantly praying that my truest agenda is that we in the Church will do what pleases our Creator. Maybe it’s Build Affordable Housing. Maybe it’s Open an Emergency Shelter. Maybe it’s Add a Child Development Center. It doesn’t really matter as long as it pleases God.

*According to the PCUSA constitution “In Baptism each Christian is called to ministry in Christ’s name. God calls some persons from the midst of congregations to fulfill particular functions, so that the ministry of the whole people of God may flourish.” (W4.0401) The only laypeople in a Presbyterian Church USA congregation are the unbaptized.

If I could choose my super power it would definitely be polyglotism – without the need for Duolingo. In reality my super powers are parallel parking and basic navigation. I am blessed with the ability to parallel park in any space that’s the size of whatever car I’m driving. And I have a superb sense of direction.

I asked a friend recently what her super power was and she said that she is super at “living while poor.” She grew up in a military family that struggled financially and once her father left the Army, he went to college and worked full-time. Her mother had two jobs, and their one luxury was books. Her mother allowed my friend and her brother to buy books. Eventually, they could afford a house and college (with loans) but S. is still extremely frugal. She makes no spontaneous purchases and she can squeeze a lot out of $20 – like three meals and a new t-shirt. It’s her super power.

I have another friend – a pastor – who spent a couple of years as a young adult who was incarcerated. He is deeply ashamed of this and is very careful to entrust that information with just a handful of people outside his family. And yet, this is his super power. That experience changed his life for the better to the point that he credits his prison time as the seminal event of his call to professional ministry. He has a wisdom that changes the lives of other people who might be where he once was.

Sometimes we live with personal shame and yet it’s possible that the cause of our shame is actually our super power.

Did you have alcoholic parents? Did you lose your parents at a young age? Have you lost a child to gun violence? Are you in recovery? Are you a housefire survivor? Did your family get evicted? Did you grow up in foster care? Were you raised by wolves?

My friends – yes, you need therapy – and after your wounds have turned into scars, those scars are your super power. Use them to make the world better.

Did you win the genetic lottery? Do you have a genius IQ? Do you have a genius EQ? Can you walk on your hands? Can you intuitively take apart a car engine?

My friends – yes, you probably need therapy too – and after you get over yourself, realize that those gifts are your super power. Use them to make the world better.

Have a wonderful Monday.

Dear Regenerating Congregations,

I’m not supposed to have favorites, but you are my favorites.

You understand that just as lost or injured organs can regenerate, human institutions – like the Church – can be regenerate too. And you haven’t just talked about it; you’ve done it.

Thank you Friendship Place in Chicago. Thank you Arlington Presbyterian Church in Northern Virginia. Thank you Caldwell Presbyterian Church in Charlotte (and other partner churches in the Presbyterian, Missionary Baptist, Roman Catholic, AME, and United Methodist traditions.) Thank you St. Gregory of Nyssa in San Francisco for feeding 500 families every week.

Thank you The Grove Church in Charlotte for being willing to lose more than half your membership when you decided to invite your immediate neighborhood into your building, love your Muslim neighbors, and focus on discipleship over churchianity.

[Note: These congregations are not necessarily filled with rich people. They have partnered with like-minded neighbors who understand their regenerative vision.]

Many of our congregations have forgotten that they were established to love God and the world God created, becoming social clubs instead. A few of our congregations protest injustice in all its forms. And a handful of congregations – like yours – are creating something that makes a practical impact in the lives of God’s children. Thank you. I love you.

Eboo Patel writes in his new book We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy that he had a vision for a world that saw its diversity as “a powerful and visible asset.” And then someone pulled him aside and said, “Please build what you see – it would make the world so much better.”

I see a world where everyone has enough food to eat and a safe place to live. I see a world where children have access to excellent health care and schooling. I see a world that addresses what breaks God’s heart in the name of Jesus Christ. Let’s build that together.

Regenerating Congregations: thank you for showing us what could happen when we take our faith and the Holy Spirit seriously.

Gratefully yours, Jan

Image is Friendship Place in Chicago. Source here.

Although I’ll be watching the January 6 Hearings tonight on C-Span, I doubt that I’ll be joined by the masses. People have already decided what they think happened on January 6 or they don’t care. Both of these perspectives are disturbing.

We just commemorated the 78th Anniversary of D Day when 6,603 Americans died alongside 2,700 British, and 946 Canadians. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t consider what happened on D Day to be anything less than a monumental sacrifice against the evil of fascism for the sake of freedom. And yet now we live in a world in which the reactions to fascism range from a shrug to a tweet.

Who wants to build something rather than tear something down? Eboo Patel has written a new book about the need for us to shift from shaking our fists and burning down our enemies’ houses to changing the world to become a beautiful social order. I would call this the Reign of God.

As politicians continue to tear each other down and brokenness shows up in school shootings and young adult suicide, as the Church continues to grapple with terrible press – much of it deserved, thriving communities are not succumbing to pessimism and hopelessness.

Tomorrow – another love letter is coming. A love letter to regenerating congregations. Thanks SB.

In the meantime, please read Eboo’s latest book. You can buy it here.

After doing my unplanned series of love letters – which were all inspired either by your requests or my own personal experiences – I’ve heard quite a few people tell me that they hope (their transitional pastor/their head of staff/their associate pastor/their 60-something pastor/their 30-something pastor/their former pastor/their current pastor) read a certain post.

I wish we could be lovingly honest with each other to the point that we didn’t need to surreptitiously and anonymously place a printout of a blog post on somebody’s desk. (“Hmm. Where did this article come from?“)

I love the Church of Jesus Christ. I love watching the Holy Spirit make shifts that we never imagined or expected. I love watching stuck congregations become unstuck. I love watching an authentic call unfold. I love observing leaders build a different kind of Church.

But friends, we have got to hold each other accountable when our efforts are lacking or when we are damaging the Church rather than bolstering the Church. True fact: some of us believe we are strong leaders when we are not. Please re-read this.

A couple of things based on your thoughts shared with me privately over the past week:

• It does the Church no favors when Presbyteries (and other mid-councils responsible for preparing candidates for professional ministry) continue to move seminarians forward when it’s clear that they do not have the EQ to be successful pastors. Humans can learn Emotional Intelligence, but we have to want to do it.
• Much of the practical training for pastors and the certification training for transitional pastors is sorely dated. Just because we have a seminary degree and/or transitional ministry training doesn’t mean we learned how to serve the 21st Century Church. I’m receiving a lot of feedback from people who have taken transitional ministry training. Basic feedback: Please stop using dated tools. Please stop teaching what might have worked 10 years ago. Or 25 years ago. (For the record, this training is excellent.)
• Do not be afraid. Many of us are afraid to retire with too little money. Many of us are nowhere near retirement, but we fear losing the only kind of job we know how to do. Many of us are afraid to move away from our families. Many of us are afraid to take a leap into new territory professionally. People – we call ourselves children of God and followers of Jesus. What does scripture say about being afraid? Why don’t we listen to the angels?

Maybe there will be a future “love letter” or two. And in the meantime, let’s be the Church together seeking what expands the reign of God.

Painting is David and Nathan by Swiss artist Angelika Kauffman (1741–1807.) Source.

Dear Transitional Pastors,

I have strong feelings about your ministry.

Some of you call yourselves Interim Ministers but that sounds like you’re a place holder until the real pastor shows up. Pastors who are serious about this work of serving a congregation between settled or “permanent” pastors are not place holders. You are Transitional Pastors.

Keep in mind that the hardest and last part of active childbirth is called “Transition.” It’s going to hurt but at the end there’s new life.

Some denominations don’t have Transitional Pastor positions, and I believe that’s a mistake, but this post is not for you. It’s for denominations who recognize that – between pastorates – there are some messy things that need to happen to prepare for a congregation’s next chapter. How wonderful that you – Transitional Ministers – have signed up to do these messy things for the sake of the Gospel. Thank you.

And yet, I hear over and over again about Transitional Pastors who are leaving their temporary positions in worse shape than they found them, meaning the newly installed (“permanent”) pastor has to start their ministry doing hard things. No honeymoon. No hearty welcome.

I am not breaking up with you, Transitional Minister colleagues, but please consider not being a Transitional Pastor if any of the following are true:

• You haven’t been a successful pastor in called and installed positions, and so you’re trying this out as a Plan B.
• You are conflict averse and find it incapacitating to consider helping the 85 year organist retire because she can’t read music anymore. Everybody in the church knows she needs to step down but they love her and nobody wants to do it. It’s your job to do it.
• You’ve always wanted to live in The Big City, The Mountains, The Resort Town and it would be fun to live there for a year or two. Oh right – you also will have a hard job to do six days a week.
• You consider Transitional Ministry a great post-retirement income even though you’re exhausted and seriously kicked back for the last five years before retirement.
• You believe this will be the way to maneuver yourself into a permanent call. If they fall in love with you, they might keep you. Colleague: this is devious and unhealthy.

Great reasons to serve as a Transitional Pastor:

• You still have energy for professional ministry but it’s time to leave your current position after 15+ years. You are too close to retirement to seek another called and installed position, but you have so much to give and find working intensively with a church in transition to be interesting.
• You get that all congregations are in transition right now, and you welcome the opportunity to set the stage for continuing transition even after the new pastor is called.
• You don’t aspire to fix a church, heal a church, or dramatically change a church that doesn’t need to be fixed, healed or dramatically changed. In other words, you don’t have a savior complex and you get that some congregations are quite healthy.
• You travel lightly. (i.e. You don’t carry unnecessary baggage from previous pastoral roles.)
• You don’t need to be the smartest person in the room. It’s offensive to have a pastor come in assuming that nobody else knows how to do church.
• You have excellent emotional intelligence. You read rooms quickly.

I have strong opinions of where people should and should not take Transitional Leadership training. Message me if you’d like suggestions. For the record, really excellent Transitional Leadership Education is a worthwhile continuing education experience for all pastors whether you plan to serve in a specific Transitional role or not. But don’t take just any class. Again – some are better than others.

A great Transitional Pastor is like gold and we need more of you. The Church of Jesus Christ continues to evolve and reform, and it didn’t start with the pandemic. It’s been happening for decades and it will only continue. Thanks to all who find this exciting.

You are an essential part of 21st Century ministry. Much love to all who accept this call which requires sacrifice and flexibility beyond the usual pastoral role. I’m trying to get more benefits for you.

Bless you, Jan