A Pinch (3)

As I’ve mentioned the last few days, pinches are inevitable in families and in churches. I then described how I expereinced (and participated in) a pinch at Susan Song Baptist.

After my meeting with the two church leaders, I decided to share the covenant with the church as I had written it. When we got to the portion on the $300.00 for the Reflections meeting, I mentioned that these two men had pulled me aside and expressed concern over that point. I thanked them for expressing their concern and I wanted the church to know that these issues will be dealt with openly and not privately.

I then offered to pay the $300.00 myself if the church deems it appropriate at the end of the interim. I was motivated by the following thoughts:

1) Kicking the can down the road a bit will give the church and I time to develop a stronger sense of trust before we tackle this issue again. They have let a complete stranger into their lives and into their pulpit over the last few weeks. And a city boy at that!

2) There are some underlying concerns about money in the church. Apparently the pastors’ family and extended family (his sons, daughters-in-law and grandkids) attended the church with him. One member has shared with me that one Sunday they had thirty-five people present at church and seventeen were family of the pastor. So with all of these tithers now gone, there is some concern about the financial state of the church. I do think that in a couple of months I will have a better idea of how realistic these financial concerns are.

(I should note parenthetically that when I mentioned the possibility of paying for the Reflections myself, several church members shook their heads, as if to say that they would not allow me to do so.)

So on Wednesday night during our Transition Team meeting, we spent much of the hour discussing the Reflections portion of the Intentional Interim Ministry. One asked why they were responsible for paying for the Center for Congregational Health’s “quality control.” I didn’t point out that a business ALWAYS passes on quality control costs because I’m not completely comfortable with the business model they implicitly assumed or by Bartolo’s comparison of an IIM to a business consultant (I’m not saying that there are no similarities, but I want to keep a distinction between business and ministry, profit and prophet).

Others on the Transition Team felt that someone from outside couldn’t accurately evaluate their church, especially one who drove in from another state to meet with them.

So they accepted my compromise and I changed the wording of the covenant to:

The Church will commit to a time of Reflections at the end of the Intentional Interim Ministry that will cost $300.00. Susan Song Baptist Church will determine at the appropriate time whether the cost of this Reflections time will be paid by the church or by Taran.


Two areas of concern:

First, I can live without the $300.00. In fact, I am sure that any IIM at this church (due to their attendance and remoteness) will not make money. So my main concern is not money, but rather that I do not want the church to establish a pattern of paying ministers on the cheap. I am aware that the church will gauge expectations of its next pastor (for good or for ill) by their experience with me.

Second, I was concerned about the secretive way that two leaders took me aside and spoke on behalf of the church. That may be a sign that the church has dealt with conflict "behind closed doors" in the past. I made a point to mention my conversation with them publicly to make sure that the church deals with “pinches” in an open way.

This last Sunday I presented the revised covenant and we signed it as a group at the end of the worship service. It was a meaningful time as every member of the church, from 7 year olds to 77 year olds came up to the front and signed the agreement. One of the two men who took me aside the previous Sunday, presented me with a beautiful pen and pencil set that he had carved out of cherry wood. (Who knew you could carve a pen?!)

Any thoughts? I'd appreciate any suggestions or rebukes. As I've told you before, this is my first Intentional Interim, I anticipated that there would be some "pinches" along the way.