The Biblical Call of an Interim Pastor

Some presuppositions to begin our conversation:

the reality: the term “interim pastor,” and the office of interim pastor, does not occur in the Bible.

every ministry we ever perform is transitional. Whatever permanent ministry we thought we were performing is ultimately transitional work, intended to be passed on to another person, another man, another generation.

an interim pastor is a pastor. This seems obvious, but is important.

what we mean by interim pastor:

an interim pastor is a pastor who is serving in a transitional role, helping to lead and guide a congregation as they seek to ultimately call a new, longer-term pastor.

If we agree that an interim pastor is a pastor, then we must look to the Bible to examine what qualifies an interim pastor. His qualifications are no different than the qualifications of a pastor, as outlined in 1 Timothy 3:1-7.

- This doesn’t mean that there should not be men called to lead churches in interim and transition periods; it means that these men must be qualified for the same work as a pastor, and prepared to do the work of a pastor.

To that end, we can be confident that the Bible speaks clearly about the office and function of interim pastor. As we think very specifically about transitional ministry, we can identify 3 tests for qualification of an interim pastor.

1 Timothy 3:1–7 ESV

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

1. He must have biblical aspirations (3:1)

1 Timothy 3:1 ESV

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

Step one of qualification is aspiration. In short, you need to want to do the work! There is definitely more to it than that, but aspiration is where it must start. But this is deeper than simply an aspiration to find a second career after retirement, or a ministry “itch” that you need to scratch:

To aspire to the office of interim pastor means that a man must have a desire to serve as a pastor to a transitional congregation. Breaking this sentence down:

He must have Desire: the church must be more and mean more than simply a source of supplemental income.

The core question if you are here today: Why do you want to serve as an interim pastor? God’s glory and God’s calling are the only sufficient answers to this question, which is no different than any other ministerial calling. There is no point in ministry in which our desire for income constitutes a calling to ministry.

This doesn’t mean you aren’t compensated; a laborer is worthy of his wages. It does mean that your primary motivation for service is not compensation; it’s the glory of Christ and the advancement of the Gospel.

He must have a Desire to pastor: not to simply fill a pulpit, but to fulfill a ministry calling. Transitional congregations need transitional shepherds, not pulpiteers, who will continue to lead, feed, and tend the sheep.

Aside: interim pastor ministry is never less than faithful biblical preaching, but it is always more than that.

Men, be careful to heed the Scriptures here: you are a pastor. Your tenure may be shorter than you have experienced before, and your capacity for ministry may not be what it used to be, but you are still a pastor. Hebrews 13:17 still applies - you will still give an account over the souls of the church you serve.

Hebrews 13:17 ESV

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

and so, there must be a desire to shepherd, pastor, tend, care for and oversee a flock. You must, in short, desire to pastor.

He must have a desire to pastor a transitional congregation: this does have some differences from a “normal” pastoral situation; whatever that is. Some of these differences:

Do you desire to be a peacemaker? Do you have a longing to calm fears of an uncertain future, or to help use the Gospel to bring healing to wounds that have spanned years or sometimes even decades?

Do you desire to see the next generation set up for kingdom advancement, even if there is no recognition for you? Are you passionate about shepherding with the next guy in mind, doing as much as you can to help set a church up for long-term Gospel health?

Do you desire to serve for as long, or as short, as is needed? Can you both stay as long as needed, and discern when it is the right time to ride off in the sunset?

These are the aspirations of the interim pastor. But, as we all likely already know, there is more to it than aspiration. Along with aspiration, Paul describes to Timothy what biblical cultivation should look like in the life of a pastor.

2. He must have biblical cultivation (2-6)

1 Timothy 3:2–6 ESV

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

intro.

What do these things look like in an interim pastor? We can align these evidences into four categories

Above reproach - some translations read “blameless.” There needs to be no flagrant, unbecoming sin that would disqualify a man from service. But in many ways, we can also position some of these others qualifications under the heading of “Above reproach,” because they help us to think a little about what each one may look like in the life of the interim pastor.

the interim pastor must be sober-minded: we are to have a right view of the church, of the position of interim pastor, and of the situation that we are walking into. When everyone else is reacting, the interim pastor has the ability to stop and rightly evaluate a situation without emotional reactivity, and then is calm and controlled in his response to all these.

self-controlled: there is a tendency in the addiction world to use a phrase that I think is nonsensical because of its redundancy: tough love. I serve in a community riddled with addiction, and one of the things I have to say a great deal when dealing with broken families is “there is no tough love; there is only love.” Real love, real biblical love, is definitely tough, but also gracious. You can be clear about the state of a church without using the pulpit to punish. When others revile, can you bless? When others curse, can you bless? An effective interim pastor is a self-controlled man.

respectable: respect is never demanded, but can be given. You shepherd in transition with a keen awareness of how much your voice actually matters in the room, and using that authority with wisdom, and seeking the advancement of the Kingdom first.

hospitable: when I came to Slater, I followed an interim pastor who did many things right, but the primary thing he did really well was to be sure that the church knew he was approachable. You are coming not as a consultant, or a counselor, but as a shepherd. And a shepherd smells like sheep. Anyone who aspires to be an interim pastor simply must be approachable.

not a drunkard: are you a person of discipline? We are called to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. Robert Murray McCheyne once famously said “the thing my people need the most from me is my own personal holiness.” The pastor of any congregation must be a person of spiritual discipline, who isn’t given to any sort of unbiblical excesses.

gentle: the interim pastor simply cannot hold a grudge. You are coming into a place and a situation from time to time when you see people at their absolute worst. Effective interim pastors speak grace into the sinful responses of others, and through gentle, yet firm and clear leadership, serve as undershepherds in congregations and among sheep that in many cases have been allowed to run wild.

not quarrelsome: just because a church is fighting, doesn’t mean you are a fighter. The Proverbs teach us “a gentle answer turns away wrath.” Interim pastors cannot be fights looking for places to happen. We will be entering into congregations that are hurt, afraid, angry, and sometimes unrepentant and/or unconverted. If you do your job well, it is highly likely that fights will be coming to you. Can you speak truth in love, without needless conflict?

not loving money: this one is of particular interest to us today. I am keenly aware that there are a great number of interim pastors in the world who are at least tempted to do the work simply to get a supplemental source of income. Having years of ministry experience and opportunities, they may see interim pastor ministry as an opportunity to simply coast with old sermons and old strategies until the Lord calls them home. Dear friends, we have enough of these interims. Interim pastor ministry is a call to ministry.

Now, let me give you some clarification points here. I am by no means old, but I’m not as young as I once was. One of the things that I have realized this year is how my capacity isn’t what it once was 10 years ago. This is a trend that suspect will continue. But here is the thing: in the lives of many mature Christians that I have seen, as capacity decreases, wisdom increases. In other words, you certainly may not, and I would even say should not, be doing what you were doing 30 years ago, but you should be still laboring to equip the saints for the work of service! But now, after so many years, you should be skilled at knowing what needs to be done by you, and what should not.

Nor do I mean that you just shouldn’t take any form of compensation. A laborer is indeed worthy of their wages. I’m simply saying that income is not the primary motive for anyone in ministry, much less interim pastor ministry. You cannot be a lover of money and a lover of money, simply because no man can serve two masters.

Modeling family life well - the next little category has to do with family life issues. We can know these matter, because they are still included in the Scriptures.

when you look at these two qualifications in particular: submissive children and the husband of one wife, we must be careful, right? There are many different ways to interpret these, the key question that I think this raises for us as we think about interim pastor ministry is this: can you model for the church what a Christian family in your season of life should look like? Can people look at your family life, your marriage and say “I hope that is where my family is headed?”

Able to teach: This qualification has some distinctives to interim pastor ministry that are worth talking through. We are very well aware that it is likely that most of the men in this room are able to teach, but there is a noxious habit in ministry that we must be particularly careful to avoid when we do interim ministry that I would love for us to be cautious of. I am a person who prefers to speak with clarity, so let me lay down a principle here, and then spend a bit of time explaining why I say this:

Transitional congregations are not places where we simply reheat or recycle old sermons. People in transitional congregations need sermons that are written from the overflow of the current state of the pastor’s heart. To that end, not only does the church need to be fed fresh bread from the Word of Life, the pastor needs to be laboring in the Word so that such bread may be produced. Old sermons may feed the sheep, but fresh food is better.

It’s a bit like calabash seafood. I love seafood of any kind, but there is a reality to seafood that you simply must live by: you need to eat it while it is fresh. When you put those hush puppies and popcorn shrimp in a to go box and take them home, you always do so knowing that it is impossible to reheat seafood and create the same taste it had while it was fresh. You really need to eat it while its still hot.

When we feed our congregations reheated and recycled sermons, we are in essence trying the same thing. They may eat it, and they may not necessarily be hungry anymore, but there is nothing like a fresh Word. Friends, that congregation is the living, breathing, body of Christ. They are the sheep of the Lord. They must be fed with fresh food.

And, we must be growing in our way of feeding the sheep. God’s Word should have far more depth to us now than it did 5, 10 or even 20 years ago! For the pastor, study is at least part of how that happens!

Are you growing with the way you are feeding on the Word?

Not a recent convert:

Again, it seems an obvious one, but something that I have said in my context a great deal is this: older does not mean mature. Can you define Christian maturity? What does it mean to be mature in Christ? Would others around you say this is true of you? Are you still being conformed to the image of God?

For a great deal of this, my hope is that these qualifications have been something that God has already used to cultivate in you the image of Christ, so that you can carry on the work of transitional ministry in ways that confirm that calling.

After examining the aspiration of the interim pastor, and then the cultivation of an interim pastor, we can now see the third aspect: there must be a biblical reputation.

3. He must have a biblical reputation (7)

He must be concerned with the reputation he has

he must be able to leverage that reputation in the church he serves

He must be willing to aid a congregation in repairing its reputation: sometimes we loan our reputation to churches that have a bad one

What can we be certain that an interim pastor must be?

a man who demonstrates maturity

a man who senses a call to pastoral ministry

a man who commits the best of his energy for the glory of Christ and the good of the church

Is this you? The rest of this training is designed to help equip you for this work.