Can a church really grow and thrive when its beloved pastor leaves or retires? Today’s post is a guest post. Read what Barrett & Rachel Tingle say about their church experience during such a time of transition.
A church without a leading pastor is a scary thought. When our church became leaderless I immediately began to pray out of fear. Would our church fall to pieces? Would we stand still? Will we lose members? We (husband & wife) had recently been given the position of Minister’s of Youth and Children. We had worked so hard, alongside the members of our church, to see growth and spiritual development among our youth and children programs. Now I was afraid without a pastor, we would lose direction and our church progress would begin to fade. However, it wasn’t long after Bro. George became our transitional pastor that I realized these fears were in vain. God had a plan for our church during this time of transition that was anything beyond I or I think the rest of our members had imagined. The time of transition through the leadership of Bro. George would be a time of healing, examination, growth, restoration, excitement and overall a huge learning curve for our church and its members.
When Bro. George started he hit the ground running! I will never forget during one of his first sermons as transitional pastor he told us that he had seen churches actually grow during times of transition. This blew me away and made me begin to realize that God could still move and work among us during this transitional time. And He sure did! As Bro. George began to meet with different leaders in the church changes began to take place. He implemented a weekly staff meeting that allowed us to more effectively communicate among the different ministries of our church. He helped to develop a much-needed system for using the church building for different events. He even helped grow our Sunday school classes by teaching us ways to be more effective in the way we care for each other and reach out to others.
The list of positive changes that took place at our church during this time of transition is numerous. But one area of change that particularly helped us, as the Youth and Children’s Ministers, was when Bro. George suggested we hold a debrief session with our children workers after Vacation Bible School (VBS). He gave some guidance on how the meeting should go and what type of questions to ask. We cannot tell you just how effective this meeting was to our children’s program. As a group we were able to come up with valuable solutions to our problem areas of VBS, we were able to express gratitude toward our volunteers, and the workers were able to express their opinion on different matters and have a voice that was capable of change. After this meeting the excitement and sense of community began to develop among our children workers that had not been present before. And all this during a time of transition. (Debrief sessions are now held after every event & ministry cycle.)
The effectiveness of Bro. George and his ministry does not end with the administrative needs. Bro. George also helped to meet the spiritual needs of the church. Every Sunday he clearly and unashamedly preached the gospel message challenging us each time to be more like Christ. Bro. George, also brought forth much needed wisdom from his years of experience and often shared it with others in times of counsel. During his times of preaching and teaching he encouraged the church to examine itself and seek out ways to improve the way we ministered to the lost. I believe for several of our members it was very eye opening. We began to see areas that needed improvement and began to learn new ways of reaching out to others. It was a time of learning and the church is the better for it.
The last thing we will say about Bro. George is that he exceeds the expectations for a transitional pastor. During his time at SBC he went above and beyond his duty. He poured his heart and soul into his ministry from day one. He developed relationships with those in and outside the church, he became an active member of our church body, and he truly reached out to those in need. In fact, when it came time to dedicate our newborn son we wanted no one else but Bro. George, who had been there for us every step of the way.
Bro. George made a lasting impression on our church that we will never forget. Through his leadership our church began to look more like Jesus and less like the world. We thank God that he had a plan for us in our time of transition. We thank God that he sent Bro. George and his ministry to our church!
With Deep Gratitude,
Barrett and Rachel Tingle
Youth and Children Ministers at Springfield Baptist Church
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.