Congregations in transition – that is between settled ministers – face opportunities and decisions. What should they and their interim ministers focus on to move the congregation forward and to prepare the ground for the new minister and the ministries that will emerge? How best to take advantage of the interim experience to innovate, re-imagine, and engage with one another?
Among these decisions and opportunities is whether to proceed with major stewardship initiatives such as a building program and capital campaign during the interim period. The conventional wisdom is to put such projects on hold. The arguments for this include fears that some congregants will hold back during a time of uncertainty, and the challenges of focusing on a big project while also conducting a search.
But counter-arguments exist as well. Putting off a project often means postponing it for several years, allowing for the interim time, plus time for the new minister to get fully settled. Whatever momentum has been built will surely be lost and whatever work has been done will no doubt have to be re-done. Assuming the project is critical for the mission of the congregation, what will be the impact of postponing for several years? If lead donors are committed and enthusiastic, postponement risks losing their support.
A dilemma for sure. So how should congregations determine what to do? Recognizing the complexity of the decision and lack of an obvious answer is a good first step. So ignore the conventional wisdom and make a full assessment. I will be conducting a workshop at General Assembly later this week on Stewardship for Congregations in Transition, along with Andrea Lerner, UUA transitions specialist; and my wife, Rev. Roberta Finkelstein, an Accredited Interim Minister. We will present a tool for assessing a congregation’s strengths along several dimensions to help make good decisions. We’ll also be sharing stories of UU congregations that have defied the conventional wisdom and conducted major projects during transitions. We’re looking forward to the conversation.
We’ll be posting handouts and slides from the workshop on the GA and Stewardship for Us web sites. Check the following link as the week progresses.
http://www.uua.org/finance/fundraising/presentations/congregations-transition
And as always, we welcome your experiences, comments, and questions.
Stewardship Consultant Barry Finkelstein has been a Unitarian Universalist congregational stewardship consultant since the Fall of 2007 and has worked with over 50 congregations on annual budget drives, capital campaigns, and strategic planning. Reach Barry at Team@stewardshipforus.com
A piece of property adjacent to ours and the interim minister cautioned against buying until the new minister was settled.
After much discussion, we did a flash capital campaign and bought the property.
In our case, it was the right decision.