I promise that it will happen: Your beloved pastor is going to leave. 

The reason could be retirement, the Lord calling him to another church, or even death itself. Your pastor will not be your pastor forever. 

Every church has choices to make in managing the transition. The knee-jerk reaction of many sessions is to quickly line up stated supply and form a pastoral search committee in hopes of hiring a new pastor as soon as possible. As appropriate as these steps might be, what if there is a better way?

Providing the church with a period of intentionally interim leadership could be the best way to set up your church for long-term success, especially when you lose a pastor who has served for a long time. Here’s what you need to know about interim, or transitional, pastors.

Know Your Options

Most sessions don’t know that they have a real choice as they lead through a transition. While the elders dash to line up pulpit supply, they could instead call a man specially trained in serving a church in transition. 

Less than 1% of PCA churches in transition use a specially trained pastor to lead them. PCA elders don’t know that these leaders exist and would enjoy helping your church. 

In other evangelical denominations – for instance, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church– transitional pastors are the recommended route when a church loses its pastor. Why? A transitional pastor provides the church with the time and stability to reflect on the relative health of the church and better understand what they need in their next pastor.

I know of at least 20 PCA pastors prepared to serve a congregation for an interim period. Given the size of the needs, this is a shockingly low number, but organizations like Mission to North America and Flourish are working to increase both the supply and demand for transitional pastors. We hope that soon most presbyteries and sessions will know using a transitional pastor is possible and can be wise for many, even most, church transitions.

Preparing for Success

When a pastor announces his resignation, the anxiety level in the congregation spikes. This is a disorienting time for the church family. “When will we have a new pastor?” becomes a recurring question among church members. Elders with full-time jobs and families can feel bombarded. Understandably they can react to this anxiety by hastily forming a pastoral search committee. 

But moving too quickly towards forming a search committee is often like a search for a rebound relationship after a breakup. Every congregation has an emotional system perhaps best understood as a large, complex family that has lost its most visible spiritual leader. Wise elders will understand this dynamic and not rush headlong into the next step.

An intentional pause for reflection between pastors can reveal challenges that the church should face before calling another leader. Whether it is unresolved conflict, leadership immaturity, vision clarity, factions in the congregation, or power plays, the issues should be dealt with before the next pastor is hired. If not, these challenges will likely shorten the next pastor’s tenure.

Too many times the next pastor is blindsided by the unhealthy internal dynamics that result from a myriad of unresolved issues. I spoke to a church recently whose pastor resigned after just three years. Why? Unresolved issues that preceded his tenure. Sure, the new pastor may have contributed to the dynamic by his reactions and perhaps by not adequately interviewing the church before coming. But, it is clear the session and the congregation were not prepared for a new long-term pastor.

Based on my own calculations, half of PCA pastoral matches are unsuccessful. What do I mean by successful? Average pastoral tenure in America hovers around five years. Half of PCA pastoral matches don’t last longer than five years. If the marriages in our congregation weren’t lasting long, we would reconsider our marriage preparation process. Why would we be resistant to re-examining our pastoral preparation process? 

It takes humility to do something different. I’ve been working with a church where a recent pastor lasted only 18 months. While very painful, the experience humbled the church, and its leaders have slowed down in order to seek a more intentional transition this time.

Why should a PCA church seriously consider using an interim pastor between long-term pastors? Because the fruit can be, by God’s grace, a healthier, more focused church with a new pastor specifically equipped to lead the next phase of the church’s life.  

Matt Bohling serves as the executive director of Flourish Coaching, training and providing experienced PCA pastors to serve as transitional pastors.