What a clergy member faces in a new community

By Dr. Bob Summers

St. Andrew's United Church of Christ

A change in religious leaders is traumatic for any religious organization, be it a church or a synagogue or a mosque. What will the new person be like? Will the new person have the skills and talents of our former clergy person? What will the new person want to change? On and on go the questions.

But what is it like on the other side of the fence, as it were? What is it like for an incoming clergy person? I have just gone through this process, becoming the new pastor at St. Andrew's United Church in Dexter.

In our tradition the process begins when you sense that God wants you to make a change. Often you protest like Moses did when God called him. I was very comfort­able where I was, having been there for 10 years. Why would I want to move away from a community where I had invested a lot of time and energy, to say nothing of a church where I knew everyone and how everything worked, from how the church should be decorated at Christmas to how the 30year old boiler system worked? But God kept pushing me, and so I updated my ministerial profile and started looking at the list of openings.

I had to decide what parts of the country I would consider, what kind of position I wanted (senior pastor, sole pastor, associate pastor, chaplain, teaching upcoming clergy in a seminary, etc.) At first I thought I wanted to be a senior pastor in a multiple staff church, but while interviewing for those positions, I came to realize that I felt called to do ministry rather than administration. So I switched my search and my ministerial pro­file now went off to sole Pastor Positions.

If a church was interested in me, they would send me their church profile. If I was interested, then there was a telephone interview, and if the church and I were still interested in each other, I would be brought in to meet face to face with the ministerial search committee. Different religious traditions have different ways of going about this whole process. In some you are appointed, without any say in the matter, while in others you are appointed after you have given your input. Yet others, such as my tradition, only you and the church are part of the decision making process. No matter how it is done, there is always quite a bit of stress involved.

Once you have a new position, then you have to say goodbye to people for whom you have been their preacher, teacher and religious guide. The longer you have been there, the harder it is to say goodbye.

There are so many people I had visited in the hospital, done a funeral for a loved one, baptized their babies, confirmed their youth and counseled through trying times. It is very difficult for a clergy person to say goodbye to a congregation.

Now we come to a new setting and everything is just fine, right? Actually, research shows that it takes about three years for what they call the "clergy socialization process," which is a fancy way of saying it takes about three years to learn all of the ins and outs of the new church. Often the beginning part of this process is compared to a honeymoon. This initial period can be very stressful, though.

 It can be especially difficult if one's predecessor was beloved. The congregation will go through a grief process then. It can also be difficult if one's predecessor was not liked. Then there will be individual and group counseling needed.

There is always something unexpected in the process of coming into a new church. For me it has been coming into a church with major recon­struction. We are making the church totally accessible to everyone through the addition of an elevator, redoing an entry way and redoing all of the restrooms, as well as adding air conditioning and changing a flat roof into a peaked one.

Luckily, some of the people working on this project are members, so there is a lot of understanding of when and how the church uses the building. Because of this programming has not been interrupted (thanks guys!).

There is another part of this process for many of us. There is all of the change our family encounters. Just because we are clergy persons does not mean we are spared from all of the trials everyone goes through with a move. When I moved 10 years ago, one of the major issues was having our children move into a new school system.

With this move it is selling our home back in Illinois. There always are bumps in the road of moving, as you probably know.

There are numerous books written for clergy on leaving a church as well as beginning a new ministry in another church. Obviously, I have not covered everything, but hopefully, I have covered enough so that when you get a new clergy person, you will have some insight into what we go through with a move.

One of the things that can really help us in this process is a caring, understanding congregation who realizes that a change in church leadership is as difficult on clergy as it is on laity. Luckily, I have that with the wonderful people at St. Andrew's United church of Christ, and if that sounds like an advertisement for you to visit us, it is!

The Rev. Dr. Bob Summers is the new pastor of St. Andrew's United Church of Christ in Dexter.