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In a 2022 examination of 30 million data base profiles by Zippia, it was found that the tenure of 48% of lead pastors in the United States was 4 years or less.

As much as you may not want it or like it, every church will go through an interim season. It’s not a matter of “if”, only “when”.

Typically, those on a church’s leadership team (elders, session, council, deacons, staff, etc) desperately hope that this kind of change doesn’t happen on their watch. For giving leadership to a church during the leadership transition of the lead or senior pastor is an incredibly challenging enterprise.

There are numerous experts and workshops that will help you build an orderly succession plan. But those plans depend on both sides being willing to engage openly with each other in the process. But when, for example, there is a moral implosion or a battle over control/direction of the church, you can toss your carefully scripted succession plan in the trash.

Count on it, the more abrupt the departure, the more disruptive the pastor’s departure will be on the church. How prepared are you to handle the disruptive issues?

The more abrupt the departure of your senior pastor, the more disruptive it will be on your church.

Before the American West was opened by the transcontinental railroad in 1869, individuals and families made the slow risky trip grouped in wagon trains. And they followed the leadership of a wagon-master.

This was a seasoned individual who had been over the route before. He knows the way…he knows the challenges …he has a good idea of when and by who they are likely to be attacked…he knows when they need to load up on extra water for a coming dry stretch. His job is to get the wagon train through.

When churches experience an abrupt departure by their lead pastor, they need a wagon-master. They need someone who has been over this route before, who knows the challenges, who knows when to circle the wagons, and who can keep everyone together and get everyone through.

The church’s journey through an interim season is not the time for DIY. Why? If you’re on a church’s leadership team, and tasked with guiding the church after the abrupt departure of your pastor, how are you going to handle the rapid-fire disruptive issues you will face? For example:

1. Grief/Trauma

When a pastor abruptly leaves there is a profound sense of loss. How will you assess the grief level in your church? How deep is the trauma? What does the church need in order to heal? How will you avoid the attitude of FIDO: “Forget it and drive on”?

2. The Leadership vacuum

Because of the abrupt departure, what aspects of a leadership vacuum are emerging? Often a leadership vacuum started long before the senior pastor left. What residual effects are still apparent? How will you cover the responsibilities of the former pastor? If you change the org chart, even temporarily, what long-term effect will that have on your staff?

3. Broken trust

How has the role and position of lead pastor been damaged because of the issues surrounding their abrupt departure? How has the remaining leadership team lost the trust of the church? How can trust be rebuilt?

4. Season of change

Just as the literal seasons of a year have their own characteristics, the interim season has its own uniqueness. Things are going to change in your church. How will you determine what needs to change? What do people want preserved, avoided, and achieved during this season?

5. Conflict resolution

How will you handle the diverse and often passionate opinions of members who see past decisions or coming future decisions differently? How can you preserve the unity of the body when the hurt is deep and personal preferences are at odds?

These are not the only challenges a church will face as it journeys through a leadership transition. Yet does the current team have the time and expertise to prioritize the issues, and then deal effectively and in a timely manner with each?

There isn’t a You Tube video you can watch that will provide guidance for how to lead your church at this time as a DIY project.

There isn’t a You Tube video to tell you how to lead your church during a leadership transition.

Wagon-masters, for churches going through a leadership transition, are called intentional interim pastors. Because of their expertise, training, and experience they are not a luxury but an essential to get you through!

If your church is in a pastoral leadership transition, or about to enter it, consider taking one of these next steps.

1. Contact Vital Church Ministry to learn the assessment and interim pastor support they can offer to your church (www.vitalchurchministry.org).
2. Contact me (rick@interimpastor.org) to purchase the digital version of my workbook “The First 90 Days”. This will give everyone on your leadership team a game plan for shepherding the church during this unique season.

The post Leading During a Leadership Transition appeared first on Transition Resource Ministry.

What is the most awkward question you have ever been asked? And what is the hardest question you have had to ask someone else?

Whenever we face a transition of any kind our instinctive reaction is to try to understand what is happening. For transitions represent change, and in the face of change we want to grasp its implications and impact. So naturally questions arise.

This is especially true when we encounter painful change or abrupt transition. At those times our questions pour out in a torrent and they are intense!

Your teenager calls to let you know they were in a wreck with your new car. What are our questions and what are your emotions? Are you okay? Is anyone hurt? Where are you? Was it your fault? Are the police there? How bad is the damage?

Then there are the questions that you don’t verbalize but are bouncing around in your mind. How are we going to function with one less car? What is this wreck going to do to my insurance premiums? Will my policy cover the loss? Should I “ground” my teenager?

When a church leadership team faces the aftermath of an abrupt departure by their lead or senior pastor, they can anticipate being bombarded by questions. They will not only have their own, but they will also be asked a boat-load by the church…and many of the questions will be intense! It may feel, at times, like you are the target of a firehose.

These questions can be grouped into four key areas:

• Questions about the former pastor.
• Questions about the leadership team.
• Questions about the church.
• Questions about themselves personally.

Questions will arise about the former pastor

• What was the issue that caused their abrupt departure?
• How long had this been going on?
• How could he have done that?
• Were other people involved? Who were they?
• Did no one see this coming?
• Was nothing done to prevent this, or correct this?
• Was everything he said from the pulpit a lie?
• I read or heard his confession, but how do I know he is sincere and not just sorry he got caught?
• What does his severance package look like?
• Are we offering him the opportunity to return?
• Are we offering to pay for any restoration help?

Questions will arise about the leadership team

• How long have you known this was going on?
• How did you find out what our former pastor was doing?
• How could you have not known this was going on long ago?
• How did you handle the issue once you knew?
• Are others on the leadership team involved in any of this?
• Did the leadership team cover or hide what our former pastor was doing?
• How can I know the leadership team is trust worthy?
• What have you done so this will not happen again in our church?
• Are you telling us everything, or just some of the truth?

Questions will arise about the church

• What are we going to do without our pastor?
• Is our church falling apart?
• Are other things going on that we don’t know about?
• What is going to change around here, and what will not?
• Is our church a safe place?
• Should I even keep attending here?
• How do I respond to my friends when they mockingly bring up what our pastor did?
• What are we going to do about the drop in giving and attendance?

Questions will arise about themselves

• Why didn’t I see this happening?
• I had a sense something was not right, but why didn’t I do something or say something about it?
• Why didn’t the Lord stop this?
• If our pastor could fall like this, what hope is there for me?
• Am I safe being vulnerable to other spiritual leaders?
• Is my faith in what God’s Word says a sham? Is this whole Christianity thing a cruel hoax?

Obviously, these are only a few of the questions that will arise when there is an abrupt departure of the senior pastor. But these will give the leadership team a sense of what they will face.

So, when you’re on the receiving end of the firehose, how is it possible to handle the torrent? There are a couple of key strategies to implement to be ready for these questions.

1. STRATEGY #1: The leadership team focuses on a commitment to embody truth.

When there is an abrupt departure this is not the time to figure out how to spin it. This is the time to tell the complete truth of what happened. This is the time to take responsibility, even if it means additional resignations because of intentional or unintentional complicity.

We are told to “speak truth” to one another (Eph.4:25), and that God delights “…in truth in the inward being” (Ps.51:6). If the lead pastor morally compromised himself, and that was the issue behind his quick exit, then that means for a period of time he was involved in lies, cover-ups, and half-truths. The church will be sensitive to this and will be watching the leadership team to see if they do it too.

2. STRATEGY #2: The leadership team focuses on a commitment to teaching the truth.

The abrupt departure of the senior pastor is not an unfortunate staff or employment change. The relationship between a pastor and the church is more like a family. The church is going to grieve the loss, and for some it will be traumatic.

This is the time to make sure that the church clings to the truth of God’s Word and God’s character. They need hope and confidence in what the Lord is doing for the Body. They need assurance that He is not punishing them, nor has He abandoned them.

Use the public group meetings to get everyone into God’s Word and point people to the promises and heart of God. Affirm that together you are going to trust Him even though it’s a painful season. Comfort the church that hoping in the Lord will not disappoint.

3. STRATEGY #3: The leadership team focuses on shepherding the church through their pain.

Abrupt, unexpected, and unwanted change brings pain because the change represents a loss. When people experience grief their questions will sound (and may actually be) accusatory since a grieving human heart often wants to find someone or something to blame. The leaders of the church will have to work hard not to take the questions personally, but to ask the Lord to help them shepherd in the midst of strong emotions.

To shepherd others through pain means being a safe person upon whom they can pour out their anger, frustration, disappointment, and confusion. Spiritual leaders in these situations practice the wisdom of James 1:19, “Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

Yet when there is a commitment to the first two strategies (embody truth and teach truth) then the leadership team’s transparency and their pointing the church to Christ will eventually restore hope when there has been broken trust.

For more information and insight into how to handle the first 90-days after an abrupt pastoral transition, check-out my other blog posts and also sign-up for my newsletter.

The post It’s Coming, Are You Ready? appeared first on Transition Resource Ministry.

Photo by Chen Yichun on Unsplash

One of ironies of leading a church through change is that it can be either the source of our greatest joy, or the cause of our deepest misery.

The experience of change can bring either pain or pleasure….change is behind why sometimes we throw confetti and other times we grab for another Kleenex.

When a church experiences an abrupt pastoral transition, it quickly enters a painful season of change. And for the leadership team, dealing with the aftermath, this season can be confusing and threatening. The change has thrown you into the dark, and it feels as if we’re groping our way forward blindly.

As I’ve explained in my last 3 blog posts (here, here, and here) it’s critical to see that the church has entered into a VUCA season. It’s a time when the issues and environment appear volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.

Obviously, the abrupt departure of a senior pastor impacts each church uniquely. No two churches will have the exact same VUCA issues. But you can count on one thing: the more abrupt the departure (especially if the issues behind it were sinful choices by the pastor), then the more disruptive it will be for the church. As a result, the VUCA elements will be much stronger.

The more abrupt the senior pastor’s departure….the more disruptive it will be for the church.

I’ve had a front-row seat as an intentional interim pastor with 4 churches over the last 8 years. Here are some of the common characteristics I’ve observed that church leadership teams face when the senior pastor pulls a quick exit. How many of the following are true in your situation?

VOLATILITY

• The strong and powerful emotions of people facing the loss of their pastor and their accompanying grief.
• The quick or impulsive decisions by people to leave the church, or for staff or leaders to resign.
• The quick nature of people to judge the decision(s) of the leadership team without fully knowing the supportive facts.
• The significant drop in giving, attendance, or volunteers willing to serve.
• The passionate declaration by some attenders that trust has been broken with the church’s leaders.

UNCERTAINTY

• The wondering by each member of the leadership team of the role they are expected to fill during the pastoral transition.
• The questioning of job security by staff in anticipation of a new senior pastor eventually coming.
• The average church attender’s concern about the future of the church, and how much change is going to continue to occur.
• The indecision by leaders, after an abrupt departure, over what issues need to be addressed, and what issues should just be ignored.
• Leaders not knowing how to help others grieve the loss of the pastor, and at the same time not ignoring their own need to grieve the loss.
• The doubt about how honest the leadership team is being with each other (and the church) concerning what they knew ahead of time about the pastor’s behavior, what they had heard from others, and what they may have suspected.

COMPLEXITY

• How the abrupt departure of the senior pastor reveals the true nature of the leadership team’s dynamics.
• How the senior pastor’s sin reflects on the church environment in which it occurred (e.g. how responsible is the leadership team for what happened?).
• The divergent responses by mature believers to the abrupt departure of the pastor (from ‘let’s just move on’ to ‘it will never be the same around here again’).
• The divergent solutions from mature believers on how to deal with the abrupt departure, and how to move forward from here.
• Distinguishing the practical difference between forgiving someone who has hurt you, and rebuilding trust with someone who has hurt you.

AMBIGUITY

• The leadership team being unsure of how much they know to be true about the abrupt departure of the pastor is then told to the church.
• The uncertainty of how much of the facts does the leadership team really know about what happened?
• Wondering how grace, mercy, and love integrates with appropriately addressing the pastor’s sin?
• The question of whether the issue with the senior pastor extends further into the church (e.g. are others involved, how have others been impacted?).
• The lack of a clear path concerning the when and the how of seeking reconciliation and restitution for all parties involved?

My point in identifying the specific VUCA characteristics is not to discourage you with how bleak it can get or feel, but to help you realize that your church isn’t weird or necessarily falling apart when these things happen. An abrupt departure is disruptive, but these issues are normal!

Face the VUCA elements

It’s critical for the leadership team to be able to name the issues. It’s important to identify what is volatile, what is uncertain, what is complex, and what is ambiguous. Doing this work as a team reduces the potential panic by the assurance that what you’re facing is normal and typical.

Now, an abrupt departure still hurts, and the problems won’t automatically go away. But understanding the VUCA elements brings a framework for the leadership team to admit what they’re facing and how it feels. It also allows them to specifically confess their need for the Lord to bring His wisdom, healing, and redemptive work to this body of believers.

Transition Resource Ministry is committed to coming alongside church leaders so they can have confidence in this season of uncertainty. Others have been this way before you, and there is practical help when the way forward appears unclear and the choices confusing.

Click here to see some of the options that are available to you from TRM.

Please give me, and others, your feedback. If you’ve been through an abrupt departure by your senior pastor, what other VUCA elements did you face that I’ve not listed? Use the Comment section below.

The post Moving Forward after a Setback appeared first on Transition Resource Ministry.

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I. The Need of the Broken-Hearted.

What is broken and how does that brokenness display itself? What is the environment that an interim pastor enters when the former pastor has left abruptly?

There are 5 things you can count on:

1. Regardless of outward appearance, the abrupt departure of a pastor is a significant loss for a church.

“When we think of loss, we think of loss through death of people we love. But loss is a far more encompassing theme in our life. For we lose not only through death, but also by leaving and being left, by changing and letting go and moving on.”  -Judith Viorst, Necessary Losses

Life constantly makes us face loss: when our pet dies…when we move to a new ministry…or when a great neighbor moves away. Some losses come at joyful times, when we enter a new stage of life (i.e. single to married, start having children, graduate, empty nest) so confetti is often mixed with Kleenex. Or we lose a job, the loss of our health, a divorce, death of a dream. Losses come in all shapes and sizes….some are obvious and some are obscure.

2. The loss of the pastor will bring a church into a season of corporate grief. I often refer to it as the “aftermath”: the consequences of a significant unpleasant event.

-In the same way we have literal seasons where the weather changes for a period of time, so the church as a whole will sense the environment has changed. Helping the church understand this season and have hope in it is crucial.

-Some will resist the season of corporate grief. Just like those who don’t dress for the weather, they will exhibit inappropriate behavior. Others, like snow birds, will leave the church until the season changes, then they’ll return.

3. When the senior pastor abruptly leaves, the grief expressions for many will be as painful as if the pastor had suddenly died. The verbal, behavioral and spiritual reactions we will see are grief-based, and it feels like a funeral has occurred.
4. In many cases, leading your church as an interim pastor from a “grief recovery” model, or point of view, will be incredibly valuable, especially in your first year. It will help you, and the church, remember that grief is not a problem to be fixed, but a wound that takes time to heal.
5. There will be hidden damage. If your car has ever been in a wreck, often, even after the initial evaluation by an adjuster, as the work is done to repair it they find additional damage. Sometimes it isn’t seen until you start driving it regularly!

The following is just an overview. This subject could easily be a full semester course. If you want to do further study on your own, I’ve recommended some books and resources in the bibliography. What happens when a senior pastor abruptly leaves?

A. The loss and grief and damage to the church.

1. When pastoral transition is responded to as a loss, what exactly was lost?

• The loss to the church is not just a loss of function(the bases or responsibilities he used to cover, how his gifts blessed others, how he was the face of the ministry, how he led the staff, etc), but it’s also a loss that is felt.
• We need to appreciate that some people can feel victimized and abused, because something of value has been taken away and they couldn’t do anything about it.

2. The other thing we need to appreciate is if there was a moral collapse, that was an abuse by the pastor of his position, and it has caused widespread damage.

• I have been keeping a list, and through my interviews with people as their interim and the research I’ve done, there are at least 28 areas of damage that occurs when the senior pastor has an affair. Everyone will not experience all 28, but all 28 will be felt by someone.
• interimpastor.org/28-damages/

As interim pastors, some of the churches we serve will experience corporate grief. What will it look like?

B. The various dimensions of grief.

1. When the senior pastor leaves quickly, everyone responds differently. The best analogy is that it will hit the church like the combination of an earthquake and a tsunami.

People are first deeply shaken, then swept into the powerful current of painful questions and emotions. In a very short period of time the landscape of their lives is dramatically altered.

2. Overview of each dimension.

• • • Stress: this is the mental or emotional strain/tension/pressure from adversity or very demanding circumstances. As interims, we minister to people who are stressed-out on many levels.
      • But to experience stress does not mean a person is grieving. Grieving begins with a sense of loss. But once you cross the “loss line” (the dashed line in the graphic), grieving begins…and it brings with it all the traits of stress.

• • • Loss: this is grief over a “separation” which results in an ache, an emptiness, a sense of sadness. Reaction to the loss will be:
      • Physical (i.e. tears, sleeplessness, high blood pressure, no appetite),
      • Emotional (i.e. sorrow, anger, depression),
      • Social (i.e. withdrawal, aggression),
      • Spiritual (i.e. doubt, confusion, blame).

• • • Crisis: this is a more intense grief response as it throws a person off-balance and into a state of shock, panic, and uncertainty. For you’ve now added the elements of stress and loss.
      • If often involves a temporary loss of coping, and yet the person falsely assumes that the disruption is reversible.
      • It brings an anxiousness that something must be done now!

• • • Trauma: this is a very deep wounding, as it overwhelms our senses; leaves one numb, disoriented, and can literally change our brain chemistry so that the right and left side of our brain don’t communicate well. It’s feeling powerless because our safe world is out of control. We no longer have a place of refuge. People in the pews can have symptoms of PTSD.

These are the dimensions of grief and as they grow in intensity they build on each other. Back to my analogy, like a tsunami, people are often initially pushed to a high level of intensity but then the wave recedes and over time they begin to move back to less intense reactions. But regardless of which dimension most accurately describes their grief, the need is for each person to resolve it. As shepherds we must know the path they will walk.

C. The phases of grief (Theresa Rando). There are 3 phases people will need to work through regardless of which stage of grief they are experiencing.

These phases are not clean and orderly. People will move back and forth between them. But in general we can observe 3 distinct phases or stages.

1. Avoiding: this is the desire to avoid the terrible acknowledgment of what was lost by denial. At this point they are protesting the loss, they want to undo it, and not have it be true.

• • • Denial is a buffer to absorb the reality of the loss over time. It is often an emotional anesthesia.
    • As recognition of what has happened starts to seep in and shock and numbness slowly start to wear off, denial immediately takes its place.
    • Expressed by outbursts of emotion (anger, intense sorrow, sadness, hysteria, tears, rageful protest, screaming). Others may quietly withdraw or exhibit mechanical action without feeling. Some will feel depersonalized, as if they were witnessing the experience happening to someone else.
    • But there is a contradiction that comes with denial: on one hand is the disbelief in what happened, and yet at the same time a driving need to know why. The more abrupt the loss the stronger the desire to know why this happened and to assess blame.
    • Blame is an expression of denial, and is an attempt to make sense of what happened. It can be seen in “…if only…” statements. (If only…she had been a better wife…the church hadn’t expected so much of him…we hadn’t started that building program)
    • Initial denial is normal. Long-term denial is abnormal and damaging.

Avoiding usually doesn’t last a long time, but in some cases, it can be months. Eventually a person will move into the second phase.

2. Confronting: this is the time when grief is experienced most intensely and reactions to the loss are most acute because the truth of the loss is being accepted.
   • The mourner has the strong urge to find, recover, and be reunited with what was lost. There is a pining or yearning. This constitutes separation anxiety which is the main characteristic of this time.
   • This phase is a painful interval of confronting the reality of the loss and gradually absorbing what that means. This is a transfer to the gut (heart) of what is known in the head.

Rando p.34 “Each time the mourner is frustrated in their desire to be with the deceased, they confront the truth again that the loved one is dead. When the mourner hears a hilarious joke and reaches for the phone to pass it on to his brother, only to remember that his brother is buried across town, that painful realization confronts the mourner. When the bereaved mother hears the school bus but does not see her daughter step-off of it, the searing agony she experiences confronts the mother. When the widow reaches out in the middle of the night to touch her husband, but her hand touches only air, her overwhelming loneliness confronts her.

• When the denial and disbelief of the Avoiding phase start to fade, then depression and despair arise in their place. But that is the signal the mourner is starting the process of relinquishment and accepting reality.
• Angry sadness is the dominate emotion. “It [can be] an overwhelming, confusing, and frightening time as the mourner experiences types, intensities, and vacillations of emotions that make them unrecognizable to themselves, afraid of who and what they will become, and fearful of losing their mind.” (p.35 Rando)
• Be aware that coming to church forces people to face their grief. The absence of the former pastor in the pulpit, the way he led the church to celebrate holidays, special songs he mentioned, the difference in the way you (the interim) preach….things like this make it difficult, for they are reminders of their loss, and that is why many stop coming or come sporadically. Being in church is no longer a refuge!

If a person addresses their grief well over time, eventually they will come to the 3^rd phase.

3. Accommodating: this is the social and emotional reentry into the reality of everyday life. They ask less ‘why?’ questions and more ‘how?’ questions. They also look less within and more out. They look less to the past and more to the future.

• • • The person or loss is not forgotten, but the mourner learns to live with the reality of the loss and its implications in a way that does not preclude healthy, life-affirming growth.
    • This phase doesn’t mean a person has come to the place where they would have chosen or wanted the loss. But they no longer fight it.
    • The loss will leave a scar, similar to a scar that remains after a physical injury. This scar does not necessarily interfere with overall functioning, but on certain days and under particular conditions it may ache or throb.

*6 Observations about Grief’s intensity:

1. Grief deepens over the perception of the replaceability of what was lost. (losing a cell phone is different than losing a child; a storm which takes out a church’s 50 year old oak tree is different than losing a beloved pastor of 15 years)
2. The more intense the grief response, the more intense and overwhelming the emotions, till trauma then there will be an initial numbness followed by disorienting emotions.
3. The more intense the grief, the more difficulty in working through each of the phases.
4. The more intense the grief, the more time it will take to work through one’s grief.
5. The more intense the grief, the more intentional help a person will need.
6. The more intense the grief reaction, typically the # of people in each dimension of grief drops.

Bibliography and Resources

Hopkins, Nancy Myer, and Mark Laaser, eds.  Restoring the Soul of the Church: Healing Congregations Wounded by Clergy Sexual Misconduct. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1995

Out of print. Insightful volume by main line denomination leaders helping their churches understand and respond to the violation of trust and deep wounds in the wake of clergy sexual misconduct.

Gaede, Beth Ann, editor.  When a Congregation is Betrayed: Responding to Clergy Misconduct. The Alban Institute, 2006

Out of print. Another very helpful book on how afterpastors (interims) can be bearers of hope to those church they serve where the senior pastor violated his position by an affair.

Card, Michael  A Sacred Sorrow: Reaching Out to God in the Lost Language of Lament. Carol Stream, IL.: Tyndale House, 2014

Singer, songwriter Michael Card, writes out of his own experience and scriptural study of how believers need to learn to lament. Written to lead the reader in a journal format to learn about grief through the life of Job, David, Jeremiah, and Jesus. Particularly helpful for developing a biblical theology of grief.

Bridges, William  Managing Transitions. Philadelphia, PA.: Da Capo Press, 2009

The classic book from a secular perspective on leading through transitions in corporate settings. His Neutral Zone illustration is applicable to every interim.

Bridges, William  The Way of Transition. Cambridge, MA.: Da Capo Press, 2001

Bridges personal journey (he is not a believer) of handling the transition of the death of his wife.

Wright, H. Norman  The Complete Guide to Crisis & Trauma Counseling. Minneapolis, MN.: Bethany House, 2011

The best resource for pastors wanting to understand the field of grief recovery, and how to personally minister to the hurting.

Wright, H. Norman  Experiencing Grief. Nashville, TN.: B&H Publishing Group, 2004

An 80-page handbook of short chapters which is appropriate to give to someone struggling with their grief and wants biblical help and perspective.

Rando, Therese A.  Treatment of Complicated Mourning. Champaign, IL.: Research Press, 1993

A secular clinical evaluation of why people struggle to grieve. Find the book at a library and copy Chapter 2 which defines and describes loss and grief, and how people process their mourning.

Resources:

“Tear Soup: Recipe for Healing after Loss” RamMedia Productions , 2014 (animated video from book)

Grief Share (www.griefshare.org) A national ministry with curriculum for promoting grief recovery small groups.

One day seminar by H. Norman Wright “Recovering from the Losses of Life” (www.hnormanwright.com) For information on hosting his workshop/seminar call 800-875-7560.

© Transition Resource Ministry 2018

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Lucy and I were introduced to Richmond 7 years ago through Compassion International. He grew up in Uganda as a Compassion Sponsor child. After graduating from university and getting his Masters at Moody, he now leads his own indigenous ministry, Pastors Discipleship Network Click here to get to know PDN.  PDN trains and disciples the pastors of Uganda and other East African countries. In the past 9 years they have trained over 4,800 pastors, and in the next 3 years they are on target to train 10,000 more!

God’s hand of favor rests upon Richmond and PDN, as the Lord has given them strategic partnerships and support from the faculty of Lancaster Bible College, Precept Ministries, Christian Book Distributors, and others. In the past 2 years they have purchased their own property in the capital, Kampala, and built a training facility. A resource library and media center will open in the Fall of 2018.

Helping the churches in Uganda and East Africa

Richmond contacted us several months ago and asked us to pray about making several trips to Uganda over the next 2 years to help his leadership team develop an interim pastor ministry for the churches of East Africa. This interim ministry would not only help churches in crises (those in painful pastoral transition), but also those experiencing blessing (open doors for ministry that they either can’t or don’t know how to take advantage of).

Our first trip will be September 23 – October 8, 2018 and will focus on meeting key people, learning about the culture, and spending time with the PDN leadership team to understand the need of the churches. We are there to observe, listen, ask a lot of questions –in order to contextualize interim ministry for East Africa.

The second trip will be in 2019 to meet again with PDN’s leadership team to start putting the pieces in place for an interim pastor ministry in Uganda. Then, once the concept is practiced in Uganda (and the kinks worked out!), the intent is to make it available to the churches across East Africa in 2020.

You might be wondering about Lucy’s role? PDN has a training track called “Women of Influence”. This is a group of 200 women in the capital city (some are pastor’s wives, civic leaders, para-church leaders), who have their own large groups of women they are building into. Lucy has been asked to prepare to speak to these key women of influence.

Trip Specifics

Our desire is to develop a team for prayer and financial support. The budget for each trip is $5,000 with the majority of that being airfare. Here are the specifics of how you can respond:

• • • If you would like to intercede for us, then fill-out the following to receive our prayer updates for these trips:
  Subscribe to our Uganda Prayer Updates
  
  

• If you would like to contribute to our trip, your gift will be handled by Transition Resource Ministry and is tax-deductible. You can give in several ways:

» If by check, send it to:
Rick Foster -Transition Resource Ministry
1218 Chesham Village Point
Colorado Springs, CO  80907

» If by credit or debit card, click here to be taken to PayPal. After filling-in an amount and choosing form of payment, please click the box to add a special instruction that it’s for the Uganda trip.

We would be excited if you would prayerfully consider supporting this strategic opportunity. If you have any questions, or need additional specific information, please contact us! We can be reached via email at rickfoster1@gmail.com, lucyfoster2@gmail.com or by phone at 719.359.6137.

Rick and Lucy Foster

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