Temporary Shepherds: A Congregational Handbook for Interim Ministry

Roger S. Nicholson

Effective interim ministry depends on strong partnership between the interim minster and congregation. Lay leaders of congregations preparing for such a transition will value the expert guidance provided by over a dozen experienced interim pastors. What is interim ministry all about? What needs to happen during the interim? What should leaders and members expect from the interim pastor and themselves during this transition? What other resources are available for congregations?

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Praise for the Book

“Finally, the intentional Interim Ministry is demystified. Here are answers to the questions we always wanted to ask and were too impatient—or too casual about the missional life of the church—to ask. Nicholson and company offer highly readable essays on the substance and the doing of this specialized ministry, and on such issues as transition, separation, grief, conflct, systems analysis, and pastoral ethics. Hundreds of disastrous mismatches of congregations with new pastors might have been avoided had this book been read and taken to heart by the leaders involved—lay and ordained alike.” —Gaylord Noyce

“This book is just the right resource for leaders in congregations anticipating or going through a pastoral transition, for clergy who want to understand interim ministry better, for anyone who loves the church of Jesus Christ and wants the best possible leadership for its life and mission. With myriad stories taken from their experience with hundreds of churches as interims, the authors help us get the whole picture of the many gifts interim ministry brings to the church. I commend it for your study.” —Davida Foy Crabtree

About the Author

Roger S. Nicholson is a United Church of Christ minister who recently retired after a fifteen-year career as an intentional interim pastor. He served the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ as minister-at-large, guiding more than twenty congregations through pastoral transitions. Prior to becoming an interim ministry specialist, he served as senior pastor of the South Congregational Church in East Hartford, Connecticut for twenty-two years. A graduate of Tufts University and Yale Divinity School, he received a Doctor of Ministry degree from Hartford Seminary in 1983. He took his basic training for intentional interim ministry under the Mid-Atlantic Association for Training and Consultation in 1982. An active member of the Interim Ministry Network, he is a member of its education faculty, working as a coordinator of basic education events. He is also chairperson of the Network's Judicatory Liaison Committee.

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ISBN# 1-56699-208-7
Alban No. AL198
paper, 205 pages
1998

In stock

$18.00 ($14.40 for members)

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