There are times of transition in the life of a church when she needs what some call a “Transitional Pastor.”
The Transitional Pastor is full-time, yet his name is in velcro.
Rather than maintaining a permanent position, his goal is to prepare the church for the next season of permanent Pastoral leadership.
This need may come about because their beloved Pastor has just moved to a new ministry setting, retired, or been called to heaven. It is important to grieve over his loss, regroup, then move forward together with a common mission.
On the other hand, the need may come about because of conflict. Perhaps the former Pastor was fired, or fired-undercover. I wonder how many Pastors have been forced to the international mission field? These are times of debriefing, returning to a season of normalcy, re-visioning by listening to God’s voice as the church prays and reads their Bible, taking steps toward repentance, learning new conflict resolution skills, having time to test out those newly learned skills, preparing for the person that God is preparing for you, and transitioning to that new leadership.
Amazing Grace Global Impact Ministry has years of practical experience working with churches who have multiple staff and hundreds of members attending each Sunday. This is good news!
But the best news is that our speciality is working with churches, regardless of their size, that are coming unglued because of horrific conflict between Pastor and people, embezzlement of funds, the moral failure of a leader, or worse.
Why not let us humbly serve you? No church is too big…small…difficult.
Below is an example of how God continues to work through us.
Key West:
God sure has a sense of humor. He sends some people to desserts, and others to the wilderness, while He sends me to world class islands. For some time now, God has had me on missions in Hawaii, where only six percent of the people are evangelical Christians. This year, the plan was for me to be on mission in Hawaii for two months. So I journeyed to Maui, hoping to establish a long term partnership to plant new churches in the area. I did meet with a gifted Pastor at Lahaina Baptist Church. After visiting with former members of my church from Virginia in Honolulu, God directed me to preach and do construction on the parsonage of Kaunakakai Baptist Church on Molokai. Debbie and Bryan met me in the Kona area on the big island for Christmas and vacation. Imagine on Christmas day standing on a beach with to-die-for sunsets, with eighty-plus degree temperatures, and looking up at a 14,000 foot volcanic mountain covered with snow. Priceless. Then on to preach and encourage the believers at Kapa’a Baptist Church on the island of Kauai.
While my intentions were to invest two months in Hawaii, from the time of my arrival there, God began uprooting me, and redirecting my path. Remember the story in Acts where the mission team was headed full-steam to Asia, but God communicated that He needed them in Europe. That is want happened to me. Headed to Hawaii, and actually investing a six weeks there, God redirected my path to Key West, Florida. With an early arrival, I preached my first sermons there in January 2018 as their Transitional Pastor.
Even prior to my arrival in Key West, God started giving me a love for the people at Fifth Street Baptist Church. Now, I am officially a “Conch.”
Lesson learned: The person that travels with God always gets to their God-intended destination.
Challenge: Please don’t miss the joyful opportunity to follow Jesus today.
