Three analogies for understanding redevelopment transitional pastors

I’ve found that the following analogies are helpful for understanding the new paradigms in transitional (interim) pastoral ministry. The redevelopment transitional pastor is like:

A “This Old House” crew member – If you’ve seen the long-running public television show you know the routine: A couple of homeowners sit down with the “This Old House” leaders and share their dreams for the remodeling of their home.  After listening attentively, the experts inspect the house carefully.

After some calculating, they sit down with the homeowners again and tell them about the work that needs to be done to their house.  It’s often kind of a shock to the homeowner who wasn’t dreaming about a new furnace, plumbing or roof, but after some “reality therapy” and discussion, a plan is agreed upon.  Then everybody gets up from the table and the “This Old House” staff gets to work and transforms the old house.

In much the same way, the redevelopment transitional pastor listens to the dreams of church members, studies the church carefully and then presents an action plan for what needs to be “remodeled” (not the building itself, but the congregation which meets in the building).

The willingness of the church members to let God change their church and to work hard with God in the process is the equivalent of the cash the “This Old House” homeowners are willing to spend. Ideally everybody gets to work (with God) and a year or two later “This Old Church” ends up significantly transformed. 

This metaphor is solidly grounded in Scripture, as Jesus said He would build His church (Matthew 16:18), Paul described himself as an expert builder who laid a foundation when he planted the Corinthian church (I Corinthians 3:10) and also spoke of other Christian leaders building on this foundation (I Corinthians 3:12).  The redevelopment transitional pastor, in Paul’s metaphor, would be an expert remodeler.

A Dog or Horse Whisperer – Cesar Milan, The Dog Whisperer (on the National Geographic Channel) doesn’t believe there are any bad dogs.  He believes that many good dogs have been poorly trained and managed by their owners.  Thus, he says, his job is to “rehabilitate dogs and train humans.” 

My viewpoint is that there aren’t any bad Christians because Christians have been regenerated by God and God doesn’t make any junk.  There are Christians who behave badly and many churches are dysfunctional (in need of rehabilitation) because Christians who behaved badly or foolishly have made them dysfunctional. 

My passion is like that of the Apostle Paul who wrote in I Timothy 3:14, 15 “…I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.”

When Christians get trained in how to “do church” in ways that are effective and Biblical, their churches get rehabilitated. At the end of one of our transitional pastorates a wonderful and spunky little lady exclaimed to me “You really straightened us out!” – and it was a meant as a warm compliment.

A Special Forces Unit – This analogy came from our son, who was joining the army at the same time we were going into transitional ministry.  His observation was that what we were doing was like a special forces unit which parachutes into a dangerous situation, gets a difficult job done and then moves on to do it again elsewhere.

Do you know of a pastor-less church that needs remodeling, “gentling,” or the attention of a special forces style transitional ministry specialist?