 We're going to get started now and our Bishop is here with us to bring greetings and open us in prayer. We thank you for being here Welcome to everybody tonight. Thank you for being here and taking some time out. Normally we would do this in person From And so that the work that the laity do and you as leaders in the staff parish relations committees of our conferences of our churches in our Conference are just vital to making this happen. So of course, I know that you'll find other ways Jamosha later will talk about this. I'm sure in which you can connect with your new pastor and how you will do that, but I Know that During this season that is very different from any other pointless season or time in the life of the church at least in my lifetime that that everybody's commitment and faith and Gratitude for the reception of a new pastor is is very important. And of course how you say goodbye is important as well And I know that that you'll do that well, but thank you for being here. I'm going to be with you for a few minutes I'm not going to be here for a for the whole time. So it's I have another commitment this evening as well via Zoom because it is my preferred method of meeting not really, but it's the only method we've got right now I now am executive platinum on zoom. I want y'all to know that I was able to achieve that status in a very short time Anyway, it's good to be with y'all tonight And bishop, will you uh open us in prayer as well? Let us pray Holy god, we're grateful for these who've gathered this evening We asked your special blessings on congregations who will be saying goodbye to their pastor And also greeting a new pastor in just a few short weeks Oh god, we'll do this in a time of transition in a time of uh an unsettled time in terms of When we will be able to gather in the way in which we had we had once been accustomed to But at least during this time we know that you'll be able to help us find A significant new and creative ways in order to continue to be in ministry together So for gem's presence with us this evening I indeed want to offer a blessing of gratitude for him and his work that he'll be doing with us this evening And of course we ask your blessings upon all those who are gathered here And their churches that they represent. What's the name of the Christ I pray amen Amen, thank you for that and appreciate you being here with us, uh bishop And now i'm on turn over to the mission coordinator for the center for church development who has worked hard in organizing this evening for us tonight Lilliana rangel and she's going to be sharing some of our logistics as well as some of the resources with you lilliana Hi friends. Hope you're doing well. Thank you for joining us this evening I wanted to remind you just a few things to consider One thing I wanted to let you know that this meeting is being recorded So if your lay people are not able to join I know a couple pastors Shared with me that some of their lay people were not able to join We will record this and we will have it on our website so that we can make it available to you On the chat function if you see at the bottom of your screen Where you see chat you can open up that chat function And if you have any questions that come up while jim is presenting put those in there We I will figure out if we need to stop and ask him those questions or towards the end We will be able to ask him those questions as well You could just go ahead and put your questions in the chat function And I am Loading the workbook. Jim will be Talking and going through a workbook and I will throw it into the chat box If you want to download it and go through it if you have it on your in your hands I sent that earlier Yesterday if you have it great And also it'll be in the chat function and that's it. I'll give back to on Thank you, lily Anna and uh I originally had went through this passing the baton course when I was leaving christ foundry the church that I planted to become The director for the center of church development and there was one statement that jim shared that just haunted me jim said that As much as the united methodist church has pastoral transitions We should be the best at it But data shows that we are not that we don't do transitions well that when Data has shown that a church can actually grow in transitions so many of our churches do not And the resources that I received in that transition was so helpful to me and was so helpful in that pastoral transition that we We did at christ foundry When I assumed this role and I said we need to do this for every church in the north texas conference every time We have a pastoral transition because it is a great resource And having jim Lead it is especially a gift because he knows our churches. He's he served on the cabinet of the north texas conference He served a number of our churches And has been a real leader in our conference and is real connected to so many of our churches Through his work with healthy church initiative and his other work through his work in Being my predecessor. So we have a real gift for having him be with us tonight And both as one of our own from being from the north texas conference As well as being a nationwide sought-after expert on pastoral transitions. And so jim On behalf of the north texas conference on behalf of the cabinet of the north texas conference We thank you. We thank you for doing this And we are honored to be having you here tonight. And so with that I'll turn it over to you jim. Thanks Thanks so much oan and lily on and bishop and others This is so much fun for me tonight and then thursday i'll be visiting with the pastors And but the reason it's so much fun is I know many of you and I know your churches Often when i'm doing these I don't know anybody and so It's just I feel kind of like i'm at home and So I just want to say relax. We're going to be together About a little over an hour Hopefully we'll have some time for questions and answers at the end And I kind of want to just set the stage what I hope to Accomplish and I'll be checking in regularly with oan to make sure I'm on target And if I'm not through the chat he can just tell me and redirect Where he had liked for me to go So before I get started, let me just say What i'm presenting to you Tonight you're not going to hear any theory. These are best practices that we know work Especially in the age of covet 19 I work with a number of churches That have already gotten started in the changeover zone passing the baton They got started because they were uh churches in other places their their pastor was retiring They had a little bit of a head start And then covet 19 yet and so they had to they had to change everything that we had talked about him doing And I'm going to share with you some of their best practices that they are using To hopefully stimulate your own creativity so Because these are best practices from around the country We know they work but look they may not work for you or in your setting And that's fine So if they don't work, that's fine with me My goal isn't to get each one of you to to buy into everything I might lift up as a suggestion but rather that When you uh participate tonight, it will stir your own creativity And you can write this word down if you've got a place to write please the most important word of the webinar intentionality We just want to be intentional especially during this age of covet 19 and of course With what's going on in our country right now And I because I can't know each one of you And I can't know all of your settings and all of your situations Just let me ask for your forgiveness in advance If anything I say during this webinar makes it sound like I think I know more about your church and what you should be doing than you do I don't Here's my hope though that my experience working with hundreds of churches Many very similar to yours And your experience being your church at this unique moment in history with its own particular context That together tonight we can come up with some ways to have a real plan of action For your church to say goodbye to your current pastor And hello to your new pastor So also since I I can't know uh all of your settings and situation and I'll be kind of painting with a broad brush this evening Owen has arranged this so uh Because you've registered for this You're entitled to one free zoom consultation with your SPR committee With me Later Just to address any specific issue and concern that you might have that I might not get to tonight And oh and or lily ana can tell you how to contact me and and and how to How to reach me Before I even start talking about the workbook in our process though I just want to take a moment having to spend many years in the north texas conference and Feeling like this conference and these churches you all made me who I am today molded me in ministry and And I just want to say you are passing the baton in the weirdest strangest most difficult time and all of us um Are we're we're cloaked in anxiety about the future We have so many questions not only about cobit 19 But also just about What's going on in our world today? and our hearts are really uh I'm sure are just heavy as heavy. So While what I'm sure with you tonight, I think it's very very important and I and I'm sure just for your churches I don't want to for a minute to make it sound like it's more important than the current reality that all of you are dealing with Right now. Can I get an amen? And let me just say While you are all I don't know your particular setting. I'm sure some of you are just Just so excited about getting your new pastor. Some of you may be Not so excited about losing your current pastor You've got such a host of emotions and perspectives That I can't possibly know But I do know this having served on the cabinet for seven years The bishop and your cabinet have done As the absolute best they can do To try to make good matches And I'd just like for you would you mind just a thumbs up or a wave to the bishop and say hey Thank you. This can you imagine being a bishop in these times? And just let him know That you appreciate it And then a bishop could I ask you Real quick because I don't keep up with all the conference stuff So what what is the current plan now in the north texas conference in regard to starting date for churches When can churches begin to gather together in their Facilities that kind of thing would you would you mind just Don't mind talking about that a briefly. So I need to tell you this is this is not we don't have a target date yet we've been We've been open with the both the east and the northwest districts Simply because of sizes size of churches and being able to social distance easily Some of those about being able to begin to gather for worship provided that all the protocols are met We know that Some of our larger churches in that district may have some challenge about meeting the protocols Simply because of social distancing We're still watching the numbers In and what I would call the dallas area which includes not only dallas county, but Denton and collin county and rock wall Some things we should some people think we should use caulking county as well to determine that we're We're still it they they keep moving on us. We think we're going down and then they started back up So I'm going to get a period of time in which we feel like it your Your people are going to be safe and what I want to and I've said this to a couple of people at Something the other day and we want all of our clergy to be safe too. It's not like we're asking them to Put themselves and their families at risk at this time and I know that you understand that So our whole goal has been to do no harm either to people who gather for worship or or clergy families as well We may be close. I don't know that we're gonna we're gonna do a little um this thing about that tomorrow and Our largest membership churches that worship our largest number of people every sunday Have said that they will probably open later or just very slowly in order to accommodate people Because they will not be able to social distance in the ways in which we which are preferable Anyway, so that's where we are There are ways in which things can happen. We now have The musicians in the conference have been started to be very clear That uh in terms of music or congregational song that may be out for a time even and I know that sounds strange But uh when you get those things from uh from experts across the country I will acknowledge the cdc has removed that However, everybody involved in music and things like that are Are somewhat concerned. I thought we were getting closer, but this last week has not said that so we're still We follow it closely and we're looking at ways in which Gradually reopen We've not been closed. I want to say that I do want to say that there's been a lot of great ministry that's happening And so many of our churches report. There are more people engaged in worship now than there were before Before we stop gathering and many of our churches and some churches have had no financial difficulties In fact, they've seen an uptick in generosity So we what we believe there's been a lot of imagination and a lot of vision And just a lot of faithfulness and continue to be the church and community so i'm very grateful to all of you for that Thank you, and you know, I'll be obviously talking tonight about passing the baton with our metaphor because you're in the changeover zone And this is a little different in the webinar For them than than our live workshop But given that none of us have ever gone through anything like this before not only with kovat 19 uncertainty about the denomination and then the heaviness on our heart and our soul right now right about About social justice issues and what's going on. I mean friends Don't be surprised if you drop a baton or two along the way Nobody's going to get this all right all the time So let's just grant each other a lot of grace when we're doing this Lay folk grace to your pastor leaving and your pastor arriving I'll be asking the pastors to do the same thing. So nobody's going to get it all right But we're going to have a great time and a fun time trying to and I will hope to get you started With that tonight So, uh, you did receive most of you received the workbook and lily ana has put it there in the chat I really encourage you to download it If you had an opportunity to print it out, that'll be helpful, but I want to go through the workbook while we get started here so The workbook is 26 pages now relax We're only going to go through two or three pages tonight But I I want you to have it in your hand so you can see what how we train Others in the process So it's in sections like there is a section just for ds's And we use that when we work with cabinets There's a section for the pastor saying goodbye. How do you say goodbye and set your success or up for success? There's a section for the pastor arriving. You know, how do you get on board it and and get off to a running start? But tonight our focus is the section on the role of the local church. So that's what we'd be focusing on Now that 26 page Workbook includes 10 pages of resources and I really want to encourage you To use those resources So the first few pages you'll see our list of names These are lay people SPR committee chairs church leaders and clergy who have successfully gone through the changeover zone and They represent churches of almost every type and size and setting That you could imagine So if a couple of weeks down the road if you feel like you're spinning your wheels or things aren't going right Feel free to contact any of those folks. They are more than happy to share from their own experience So lay person to lay person or large church to large church or smaller membership church to smaller I'll tell you one of the one of the great things. Uh, I want to I bet you've seen this too. That's happened As we deal with COVID-19 is I have never seen our churches more connectional than they are right now And all these are folks that just say hey, let us help anybody you're working with so you can contact them And and I'll be sharing you some specific examples in a little while Also in the workbook resources. It will direct you to uh, to to our website and on that website We have dozens of videos, uh, real live videos That churches have just used recently or the last year or so Uh to introduce their new pastor And also to share with you in video form how they've figured out. How do you pass the baton virtually? And uh, you can go on those now the idea isn't for you to copy them But again, I hope it will stimulate your own creativity Our churches have already as the bishop alluded to have been so creative So let's we'll just don't let this COVID-19 thing. Don't let this the issues in our country in our world right now Stop us From having a great transition It's so important, especially when there's other uncertainties. Let's minimize the uncertainty about saying goodbye and saying hello And then you'll see also in the workbook Pastors a lot of resources that we have used that churches have shared with us To help you throughout the entire first year of your appointment To be able to get off to a good running start So I really encourage you to take advantage of the of the resources in there The inside page has a little information about me, but many of you know me I've spent my career in the north texas conference and it's really not about It's not about me. It's about you and it's about your churches So i'll be directing my work tonight Toward the s prc chairs and the laity We did invite clergy to join in so clergy would know what we're telling the churches And then thursday i'll be spending time specifically with the churches So I hope you're here Because you're willing to say right now That anxiety uncertainty and frustration. That's just where we are visiting right now We live in hope and faithfulness And we're going to have a faithful and hopeful and great transition We're not going to just settle To become victims of what the world is handling us. Can I get an amen? So just to get a start on that is one of our very favorite Commercials from a few years back. I think you'll remember it and I hope you'll enjoy taking one Oh Father why can't we have direct tv like them and beggars do? We're settlers son We settle for things like having cable instead of direct tv Hey jeba dive how's it going working the land Hoping for a fertile spring. All right So we have to live with lower customer satisfaction. I'm afraid so now go churn us some butter boy And then make your own clothes. Yes, sir. Don't be a settler get rid of cable and upgrade to direct tv call 1 800 direct tv Now come on that's fun Now obviously i'm not here to ask you to upgrade to direct tv But I am here to ask you to upgrade your game To say let's not be settlers. Let's don't settle for the way we have done this in the past Let's don't settle to become victims and just say well to see what's going to happen And we've got an easy out of things don't work well. Let's don't be settlers Let's take charge of this be very intentional and come up with a course of action And by the time we end tonight, I'm actually going to help you and hope that you will that you will Join with me to come up with a written plan of action to say goodbye to your current pastor and hello To your new pastor to get you to get you started Now the word here is flexibility right because As the bishop mentioned some of our churches are doing things differently In terms of when they can be live in a person when they when they have to be virtual And i'm very much aware Lay folk that you are here this evening And you're wearing two hats One is the hat to say goodbye To a pastor that hopefully you have come to love And the other is to say hello To a pastor that you will come to love But not only are you wearing those two hats Unlike ever before you're wearing that hat of saying how much of this can I do? live in person And how much will I have to do virtually? So you've got a lot swirling around and i'm going to try to address as much of that as I can in our limited time so we talk about passing the baton because We just find this is the greatest Easiest metaphor to use now in some of your settings your ds may have handed your bishop I mean your your pastor A baton when they when they were Talking about their appointment, but because of cova 19 that may not have happened this year When we talked about passing the baton jay, we've had so much fun over the years training churches to use that baton typically Here's how we would say to do that um, so we'd say look On the first sunday, uh, that you're going to start talking about being in the changeover zone Now look here's the here's what the changeover zone is And and I'd encourage you to use the language of changeover zone and passing the baton because We are changing culture Whether we want to or not And culture travels on words so The changeover zone in a track meet Is a distance you've seen the very the multiple lanes along the track Where the runners pass the baton And in that changeover zone in a track meet it's it's distant. It's uh, it's about 20 meters And a good runner she can run those 20 meters in seven steps And so we built our work our book the changeover zone our workbook. Everything is on seven steps having a great transition In the church, it's not distant. It is a matter of time Now ideally if the cabinet wasn't dealing with all that it's been dealing with this year Ideally the changeover zone is a matter of about 100 days Before there's a change of pastor And the first 100 days after your new pastor arrives So we'll be talking about some of the things you can do Uh to get ready to receive your new pastor And we'll also be talking about things you can do to help your new pastor Get on boarded In the track meet there are four main players as we mentioned You know, there's the runner with the baton the runner who's going to get the baton the on the field coach and That fourth ever Important party in the relay is the crowd the people who are supporting and cheering and doing all they can to make it happen In the church The four players are these Your current pastor who has the baton your new pastor who's going to receive the baton You're on the field coach who's the district superintendent and The crowd the church you good folks who really are behind the scenes in so many ways and up front in so many ways But you're the ones who really make our churches happen So we want to be sure that you feel like you've got a good understanding of what you can do To help make a great transition And that it isn't just a matter of the two pastors Working it out, but that you're have a very important part But because of covet 19 things have changed We used to ask the pastor on the first sunday when you're the changeover zone Stand up hold that baton Talk about i'm passing the baton to my successor Pray for the successor Pray for the community pray for the mission field and why you're praying actually take that baton And pass it through the congregation from hand to hand to get as many hands Being a part of this transition as possible Well, that's That doesn't make good sense today, right? So we have to figure out other ways to pass the baton in a visual metaphor image-driven way that Creates a great culture So today we've got to figure out how to do it with temporary batons So take a look at this one church. This is a church I worked with in virginia. They started the process Feeling like they were going to be passing that baton throughout the congregation The pastor was going to take the baton down to the children's area and every child was going to touch the baton They were going to be taking the baton to the hospital So the hospital patients and doctors and nurses could have a hand and passing that baton. It's great imagery But probably won't happen this year so Here's what they did They were so shocked when they couldn't meet just like you were remember when you first got the news But instead of living In frustration and despair They just visited there for a short time and they said we're going to live in hope And faithfulness and so they turned their creativity loose and figured out ways to virtually Pass the baton and talk about passing the baton. So take a look at this video Now, please don't Don't judge this video on its professionalism or its perfection This was something they did in a week But judge it on its creativity and its messaging. Take a look Jesus we fix our eyes on you With grateful hearts We give thanks for pastor Ralph and pastor Kelly And their faithful and fruitful ministry among us With hopeful hearts, we welcome pastor Brad and pastor Mandy And the possibilities for our ministry together Heather we run this race of faith looking to you Jesus The pioneer and perfecter of our faith Amen So you see the idea Now I want to tell you a little bit about this video First of all, you might have noticed that this was the staff saying goodbye to the pastor and and each baton Just the old discarded paper towel roll Was decorated unique to each staff member And they are gifting their pastor who's retiring with all their batons with messages written to him about his future Not only they're doing that, but they're sharing with the congregation how they're doing that So that a first time guess senses What a great group of people these are What a wonderful group of folks that make up this staff that are so creative and care so much about their pastor So So this is a good way to say goodbye now I don't know how you're saying goodbye to your pastor But what we want to do is keep in mind the first time guests who may be when you are able to be in your sanctuary who will come Or just happens to stumble on to your online presence We want to be doing things that show a first time guess how thoughtful you are and what a great group of people you are So Now and you notice that they also issued a challenge to the entire congregation because we want to do something fun together And virtually every group in the church has jumped in we have many of their videos on our website But this one I want you to see this is the youth group How they pass the baton visually to use the metaphor passing the baton and So again, I want to ask you just take a look at this now You don't know these kids But imagine you're in the church And you know who the teenagers are And you see the teenagers instead of sitting on the sidelines being disconnected almost victims of what the heck is going on in our world today Instead they said we are going to be active participants and Imagine that you're a first time guest and you happen to have the teenager And you see how much this church values its teenagers. So take a look Again, um, I hope you're not looking at that saying how cheesy how crazy Just to put yourself in the place of people in the church How creative can your church become to pass the baton some way Even if it has to do it virtually Let's I know everybody's immediate response to all that was going on is Pretty depressing, but we want to live in you know, I mean We want to live on a response that's faithful and believes that we can we can Overcome whatever is handed our way Now I'm going to begin now to share with you some specific techniques keeping in mind that word flexibility So about how you say goodbye and how you say hello So, um, let me just preface that by saying first of all Because I work all over I can't know exactly what the current protocols are for the north texas conference So if I say anything, uh, that doesn't that you don't think seems to quite align with the current protocols of the conference however, they've been communicated to you Or they don't align with something perhaps that your district superintendent might have told you If if they don't align go with your ds Your ds knows you much better than I do knows your church satiated a situation So if it's not quite the same Just go with your with what your ds has to say So would you turn in your workbook if you have it to page 15? And you'll see our action plan quadrant And I'm going to start doing a little work right now for just a few minutes So it looks like this and let me just kind of go through this with you It's on page 15 and as I said I I really want to be sure That we don't spend an hour and a half together and and when you leave here It just seems like it's wasted words. I want to have a real plan of action Now I can't possibly know your setting But you do so start with the challenges What are the challenges in front of your church right this moment? Now all of us are going to have some shared challenges, right? COVID-19 Uncertainties about the denomination The absolute sole heartbreak of what's going on in the world today in our country today about justice So we've got those challenges, but what are your unique challenges? One church told me their challenge was this That uh They've had a pastoral max. It was not good Things have really fallen apart And and people were quit coming and and they're not sure they have enough money To afford a full-time pastor for a year. That's a challenge I don't Challenges are but but SPR folks and lay folks, please Be sure that you write down your challenges as you see them And if you're on the committee or if you're a leader in a church and you feel like something's a challenge Get it to your SPR chair. So so she or he can get the challenges done What are the goals of your transition now? Again, I had one church that said, you know, here's our goal Our pastor has done a brilliant job. She's been with us for a number of years. The church is prospered She's going on to another appointment Our goal is to have a transition which uh and a new pastor who can build upon the momentum that we have I don't know what your goals are Is that the church told me? We just have to have some unity and somebody to bring stability. We we have to stop the bleeding. That's our goal What are some of the goals of your transition? What do you need to accomplish right now? And in the long term What are the opportunities in front of you right now opportunities to reach your mission field opportunities to strengthen your church opportunities to actually reach new people Now I hope in the remaining hour I have I'm going to be sharing with you some opportunities that you would want to write down Like how do you pass the baton? What are some opportunities? to pass the baton in a way that will just shout out who we are as a congregation our creativity and our intentionality And tonight especially I'd like for you to start with making plans Concrete plans remember I said ideally the change over zone is a hundred days before the change of pastors But that can't happen this year, right? I mean, uh, you're uh, you're you're going to have very limited days So what we want to do is be sure that we don't waste them So would you just and that plans just draw a horizontal line about midway through As you look at it on the far right side put the date that you expect your new pastor to begin On the far left hand side Put this coming sunday's date because we want to start this week. We don't want to waste any sundays And then just put a little slash a vertical slash for each sunday So that you can uh together you can look at your church calendar the The calendars that people operate in your community and you can know what's coming up each and every sunday So you can plan either to leverage what's coming up or work around it To say goodbye and to begin to say hello Now as even as we talked the rest this evening if something comes to mind Just write it down Get it in action. Now SPR chairs We recommend That the if you have not yet done this the very first thing to do to do it this week Is to put together a transition team Now hopefully you already have that but if you don't this is a good time to start at one of the challenges Is we don't have a transition team Some churches many churches Just use the staff parish relations committee to be the transition team and that will work We recommend however to expand in a little bit And have a transition team that would consist of a couple of representatives from the SPR A couple of if you have staff a staff member or two on it Other leaders in the church influencers who love the church people are pretty detail oriented because your transition team will take what The goals and the opportunities That you are going to identify in the SPR committee and they're the ones who would actually carry out the plans So you want to be sure that nothing falls through the cracks That's the first thing And then within a week or 10 days at the latest. I mean it's kind of late here as as the bishop acknowledged I mean it's just been a tough year So, uh, please get with your current pastor Your incoming pastor. I think most of you know who your new pastor is going to be and your uh your transition team and compare notes So that everybody's on the same page about how you're planning to say goodbye And how you're planning to say hello. Does that make sense? Now if it doesn't let me know in the chat line and uh And go under concerns to your questions. So when I ask you to be doing that And so so we don't just stop with this evening, but just as quickly as you can get together to put To put your transition team in operation So what are the Challenges goals opportunities and your plans Now here are the three big things that you can be doing Right now to get started To say goodbye in the best possible way All right, you're ready if you want to write these down somewhere the first is this Your attitude Your attitude now, I know that seems trite. You've probably heard it and other kind of things But what one my experience as a church consultant working with hundreds of churches all over the country I can tell you without a doubt The single most Common thing that torpedoes a church's mission is an attitude that's negative in the congregation So you there's so many things you can't control you can't control In you couldn't control You know covet 19 you have very little control over what our denomination is going to do There's so many things you can't control and if you focus on those you will fall into despair and frustration and you'll be reacting But you can't control a few things And if you'll live in those you'll be responding And the most important thing you can control is your own attitude So I'd like to ask you if the bishop was still with us. I'll be asking him to join You know for you to make this covenant with the bishop I don't really have any authority, but i'm going to ask you would you make a covenant tonight? right here that after this webinar from this day on Not one negative word about the appointed process as it relates to your church Friends, here's why I say that Your you're a leader in your church Your negative word you're mumbling or grumbling or complaining Your negative word when it's repeated becomes a negative sentence And when it's repeated becomes a negative paragraph And when it's repeated it becomes a negative page and when it's repeated it becomes a negative narrative And before you know it the narrative in your community Is oh that church that's where those grumpy complaining old people are And a first-time guest will never be a second-time guest So let's be positive Now that doesn't mean You may not have concerns. I don't know your setting your situation But those are to be talked about in the right place but not ever publicly not Not in a not in the hallways of your church when you can meet together Not in your zoom gatherings with the congregation So the first the most important thing is Be positive Grant each other grace No one's going to get this all right But together we can try to work Toward a tremendous passing of the baton Secondly is If you haven't started this yet Begin to introduce your new pastor now So that your new pastor is introduced Before she or he arrives Now with your pastors on thursday, I'm going to spend a lot more time on this But I want you as church folks to know why this is important And it isn't just that the new pastor is being introduced But we want your current pastor To be seen visibly Pointing to that new to the here or his successor and blessing them as the new pastor in the church So So hope I'm making sense how important that this is to be not only introducing but blessing your pastor so The best way there are lots of ways to do this But the best way Is through the use of screens especially if you're meeting if you're live streaming your worship It's it's easy to to live stream and put on your screens A good introductory video Now many of you may have already been doing this, but if you haven't I just wanted to show you just a simple little Biographical introduction Mandy is going to be introducing herself to the congregation By video It will be playing in their live stream screen since they're not meeting together and the pastor will be Acknowledging that video so take a look and how excited we are To have Mandy as our new pastor take a look Hello there Blacksburg United Methodist Church both the church street and edges campuses My name is Mandy Newman and I will be heading your direction in late june to be the site pastor out at edges I'm super excited to be coming your way and can't wait to Share in this wonderful journey of faith together with you guys I am an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. I'm a wife of 27 years. I'm a mom of two kids I do yoga, but not very well. I play the piano, but usually not for people I love to read and go to movies and to hang out outdoors with people But most of all, I love jesus And I love to share the love that jesus has for all people With others and to be in a community to be a part of a community Where we can ask questions and learn together and figure out how we might live our faith In this sometimes crazy world Please know that I have been praying for you all and we'll continue to do so and invite you to also pray for me I understand we'll be sharing a few of these video clips in the coming months And I look forward to doing that and I can't wait to hear and hear all your stories and meet you guys So in the meantime may the grace of jesus christ be with you all So very simple Now front when we say introductory videos, please don't spend any money on them. Don't spend much time on them just It's time if you If you haven't yet done this To contact your new pastor and ask her or him to produce a simple video like that To send to the church so that you can be introducing your your new pastor Well before she arrives or he arrives. Does that make sense? Again, if you have specific questions, I'll be glad to address them in your follow-up follow-up zoom so First thing you can do check your attitude. Make sure it's positive second thing you can do plan now Time is very limited to be introducing your new pastor especially for a first-time guest they A guest wants to know that where they're going that people are intentional and thoughtful And they want to see a transition that is targeted and So be sure that they're That they're seeing their new pastor and they're seeing the current pastor Bless of that new pastor that new pastor if at all possible and sometimes that's not possible If you don't have time to use videos or if you're If your setting doesn't allow for it, we'll be training the pastor. So Thursday about using Selfies so you just get lots of selfie pictures of the new pastor the new pastor's not just the You know the mugshot in the hallway, but family life pets Things like that to be sent and over every week So that the new church gets a chance to get an idea of the flavor of the life of their new pastor Some churches I work in some conferences where Geography makes it very difficult to have even Wi-Fi access But these churches haven't let that stop them. So what they do is they use selfies But instead of using them on videos or you know on screens They just use the selfies. They send snail mail out with a little flyer that they made of our new pastor Maybe have the pictures on the inside of the worship Bulletin cover or something like that. So don't let anything stop you Just say, you know, we can do this. We can be created. Just go crazy. What are some of the opportunities that you have Right now to not let COVID-19 or anything else stop you from having a good passing of the baton in the changeover zone This is making sense so, um I'm aware that Uh, I'm giving a lot of information and you're all processing it as best you can in your own setting I know again the heaviness of everybody's heart and anxiety people are uncertain And uh, there's um There's a lot of fatigue in our churches. Is that right? Am I on target? I mean you you see a lot of fatigue You see a lot of the same people doing the same things people, you know, it just breaks my heart when I'm You know when I'm online watching churches and see how good a job that they're doing to put together worship And knowing that the people who are participating are dealing with so much And uh, so there there's just a lot of fatigue That you have to deal with But we can deal with it and we can energize our congregations through having a great a great transition so, um Be flexible I recommend you talk to your church starting this week. Hey, we're in the changeover zone We're passing the baton. We're going to figure out how to do it the best way we can do it To to show who we are and to show our passion for doing things in a good and um In a good way. Here's the third thing you can do Begin now. It's time this week begin now Put this in your plans begin planning for The listening tour for your new pastor so And and the listening tour is Something I want to spend a little time with Pastors tell us wherever they go that it's probably the single most important thing they do to get started To really get a idea of who the church is and what the church's story is and what its narrative is So If you would please turn to page eight just take a flip over and look at page eight in that workbook and I want to talk about the listening tour now The listening tour is just that as a matter of fact, we really recommend that You begin to talk about it and message it Market it advertise it as the listening tour Some churches do this. You've probably been a part of the church. You've probably done it in years past slightly different than the way that we've Learned to to to teach it Some churches do it. They call it a meet and greet or Chat and chew or something like that all very clever and that's that's okay if you have to do it But you're better to focus it on Words that help create the culture you want to create listening You want to know your new pastor is going to listen and if you happen to be situated In in or near a college campus town or a military town Tour speaks the language of that generation. So you're having a listening tour so now We're going to be flexible I want to spend some time talking about doing the listening tour as though you can do it in Live in person and you may well be able to the listening tour won't start until july or august But you may not be able to or you may decide even if you can that that's not a smart thing to do I want to walk through doing it Personally live and then how to do it virtually if that doesn't work So ideally the listening tour is done in homes So if you're an SPR committee and the current pastor together, you would organize the listening tour for the new pastor Now, uh, if you're a pastor and you're leaving you're helping your church Organize that pat that listening tour. You won't be participating in it The new the new pastor will be participating in it. So the organizing is done over here And after the handoff it's executed. It's done So to get it organized first of all decide how many listening tour sessions that you need If you're going to do them at homes, we recommend that you uh, the congregation Uh, be placed in small group settings that would be meeting in someone's home Um, if possible, you might have reasons to say that would never work for us but um So you just determine how many do we need and usually what churches do is they just take their average worshiping congregation And divide it by 10 and that gives them a good starting point. How many you might need? Some churches They'll do two or three other churches do 15 or 16. So it just depends The idea isn't to get 100 of your congregation in a listening tour, but it's to get a good number So that the new pastor really gets a chance to learn the story of the church Now if you are able to meet in homes or at a church or something in july or august or september Um, we like to be sure that whenever you uh, have one scheduled and when you schedule them remember sbr chair When you schedule them, you have to coordinate with your new pastor So if you say we're going to do one on july 13th, you got to be sure that the new pastor is Signed off on that on their their calendar. So you kind of come up with how many projected dates Contact the new pastor you all come to an agreement about which dates where they'll be The listening tour session is about an hour and a half And in that hour and a half time period, uh, you have a little short time for refreshments And then you gather around and you address What we recommend are three specific questions That we'll be going over Now if you're able to meet in homes sbr chair, not only are you going to help organize it But we find it's really helpful if one of you somebody on your staff parish relations committee or your transition team or your leadership team You would be the uber driver You would take the new pastor to each session To minimize the new pastor getting lost or being late for something they can't control So you go and then when you're there you are the scribe That is you'll be taking notes and i'll shortly tell you why that's so important so when you get there Have a little pie or coffee or whatever and then You address these three questions now. You may want to come up with other questions That's okay, but be very careful about The kind of questions that you ask we're not trying to invite controversy here But people learning the church's story We want to send the questions to them in advance And you'll see in the resource book you've got sample letters to send to sbr chairs about the questions So on page eight at the top here are the three questions if you're like to fill in the blanks number one What is one thing that I as the new pastor need to know about this church? Number two What is one way that we are going to reach new people in this area? From the get go. I hope you'll agree with us All of our churches all of our pastors no matter what other priorities you have among them Must be we have got to reach new people Can I get an amen? We just have to reach that's why we're here for And you'll get great ideas. I tell the pastors you'll get great ideas from lay folks on how we can be very intentional about reaching new people Number three. What is one dream that we have for our church? now You just simply go around the circle and ask that those questions people give their answers and the scribe the spr or church representative We really want you to be taking notes on their answers Because the last thing we want is for your new pastor to ask a question and then have her his head stuck down in the piece of paper writing Instead of what making eye contact being relational And the reason we want to take notes is Is we'll be coaching your new pastor We really will recommend to them but for the first 90 days about three months of sermons whether they're online or live To be saying something during the worship time like this This is what I heard at the listening tour Because we want a message that i'm here to listen and to learn who you are Before I try to come in and just come in with my own agenda But you know, it's about you as the church and we want to know who you are So that's the listening tour all right Now there's a lot of material there. It's spelled out in the workbook and again if there's um Something that would be helpful to follow up on would be happy to do that Now oh and I want to defer to you for just a minute um I have about 30 minutes left And I'm going to leave a few minutes for questions I'm getting ready to talk specifically about the role of the church But is there any question right now that you see that I should be Addressing that I haven't touched on Not as much a question as much as I just want to reiterate that point that really Resonate with me the first time that I went through this which was People who come into your church or who are visiting your church Are going to make the decision about whether they're going to stay or not Not based on the one person who may be up there may be going may be coming But based on the people that are in the congregation and how they are interacting with one another And if they see you having fun if they see you fellowshiping if they see you loving Then that is what makes them want to be a part of that congregation and connect with you and and basically Have you be a part of their life and then be a part of their life? And so I want to reiterate that that is a lot harder to do in this season with covet But the the cheesy low budget videos that we have seen They they were making me smile And just that that word that jim started off with Intentionality and and just thinking how can we make this fun? How can we connect? How can this help bring life in our congregation in and in such a difficult time? And so Uh, I just wanted to reiterate that once again jim because that's such a powerful point Well, it is and having fun being seen right now with with people uh burdened We want to be as uplifting as we can and have as much fun as we can and and that's that's one of the turning points for uh for this Okay, let's turn if you'll move over to page five I want to share with you the specific role of the church as we have learned it over the past seven or eight years So uh first is this You see it there page five. Here's the main job sbr chair I don't we've just learned the best way to say this is the main job of church leaders is to rally the troops Especially this year now more than ever so Like even on the listening tour that I just spoke about if it's still in such that uh that you can't meet in homes You can do the listening tour just about as effectively just like this by zoom You have the same roles where a church leader takes notes and that's done virtually you may decide that's the best thing But however you message it however you decide We again, we want to be positive and say this is why we're doing it And this is how it's going to be so effective and we can have a great time Rally the troops we say that and I don't mind say telling you we we work with cabinets a lot And and our observation is this That it is not Strange for the bishop the superintendent Even the sbr chair and the pastors involved To underestimate the level of angst in a congregation When it changes pastors So just know it's out there. So we want to rally the troops. So hopefully this will help do that So you see there's the first bullet is the age response ratio and this simply means There's a rule of thumb the younger a church For instance, if you happen to be a startup You're six or seven years old and you're having your very first change of pastors I don't know somebody's here like that Generally, it takes more intentionality and a little longer time Because the church has never gone through it before On the on the other hand if you a church that's been around for a while You've probably had a number of pastoral changes. Can I get an amen? And so you've got track record. You've got history. You've got experience You've also got fatigue It almost can fall into the trap of just being ho hum We're having another change of pastors. We're just going to see what happens. We'll get through this We want to change the culture to This is a time for us to pass the baton. We're in the changeover zone and we're going to grow through this We're going to do things in such a compelling way that a first-time guest Will walk away saying these are the kind of people I can hang out with That's how a church grows whenever somebody has a relational connection To the church as a whole or to some member of the congregation You've got a good chance for them to become a second-time guest and Go ahead There was a question that was lifted up by our incoming north Texas conference layleader, uh kim brannon about what is the role of Of the laity in making some of these announcements about these pastoral transitions The the staff has been playing a large role in and the multi staff churches But what what role should the lay to be playing both in single past single staff? Churches as well as in multi staff churches Thank you. And who is it? Who's the incoming person? Kim brannon from university park united methodist church So a huge role a huge role and then I'm going to show you a couple of videos about that But as much as you can Like making announcements messaging The the more that can be done by the laity the better Because uh Again, I look at this from the perspective of a first-time guest They They really don't want to come mostly to be a consumer of the preacher They want to be A producer of the church. They want to be a participant So we really encourage lay people to be to be central Even in my first example about holding the baton up Only time it was ever held up by the senior pastor. It was the first time after that. It's by lay people now, uh, it'll be different with COVID-19 But I'd really encourage you in your opportunities. I'd listen. What are some of the opportunities? To let our lay people blossom To unleash the passion of our laity in the congregation You never have a better opportunity than when there's a change of pastors to highlight the laity And I hopefully I'll have a time to talk more specifically and show a couple of videos about them Okay now So that age response ratio and and the reason we List this is because churches that have been around and have had a lot of change of pastors unknowingly Those churches can can be more fatigued than other churches. It's just this is just something I've got to get through so We we just be aware of that We like to use this little example, you know, that there's two really great ways To re-energize a fatiguing congregation, which tends to be older churches that have done this a lot And it's just a transaction now for them. You know, one is, you know, put this stuff in their communion cups now come on that's Not really But the other is to have an absolutely great passing of the baton where all the energy of the church is focused On this marker moment in the life of the congregation saying goodbye and saying hello so Use that metaphor Of the baton figure out a ways that you that you can use it Rally if you're looking if you're following along floating the blanks at third bullet Rally around prayer I don't know what your prayer practices are in the church But you've never had a better opportunity to focus the congregation We're in the changeover zone over the next three or four weeks Let's let's come together virtually or in person To pray specifically About our pastor where our current pastor is going if they're retiring or going to another church Let's pray specifically about our for our new pastor and that new pastor's family for the community Some churches do this one time others will do it every week. I don't know what your setting is That's why you want to get it in your plans. How are we going to rally around prayer? And through bible study Same thing Try to find a way when you can highlight either in your Sunday school classes your small group setting your online teachings Online settings to have a concerted bible study about passing the baton We have one in our book. Love at Weems has a number of them online from from his work Find a character Elijah to Elisha Find somebody that you can have a bible study on that focuses on the biblical Underpinnings and basis of passing the baton from one to the other And the next is to highlight your identity Again, I don't want to roll past this but we're time is very short. It's really important that That the identity of the church is highlighted every sunday so that this doesn't just become a pastor driven time and you're able to To highlight the identity in a number of ways. Here's a few the first is this Start this sunday We'll be talking to your pastors about this as well So that every sunday somebody best if it's a layperson Be standing up it's standing up or part of your streaming live streaming service To say something like this This is why we exist So you're going to have a shoe drive for the homeless shelter. That's a terrific ministry powerful a great ministry Just add the why to the what? We're going to have a shoe drive for the homeless shelter because this is why we exist to help other people Especially now right now where social justice issues and and listening to other people To be highlighting our identity. This is why we exist to bring together unity and and peace and highlight your identity You can never All of you kind of know your church's identity, but again that first time guests they don't And so it's important that you highlight it Otherwise all the conversation and the energy of the church will be focused on the pastors Say goodbye saying hello and we want it to be focused on the church You certainly don't need your new pastor to come and tell you what your identity is You know what it is highlighted Make it uh make it essential We have found um This is another great way to highlight identity to have the Laity of the church be telling your story during these Sundays of the transition zone so We we've been teaching this for a while. I want to show you a couple of quick videos one is um Just ask right now you start asking amongst yourselves in your church A couple of questions and then get quick Cell phone videos. You don't want to spend any money on these and it take no time. These just a head shots One of the questions you can always ask anybody in your church is what got you here the first time They'll be glad to tell you people love to tell their story And it goes on those screens when you're back in your worship setting or in your live stream setting So take a look at this young lady from a church in the atlantic area Okay, we started coming to the bridge um probably in the spring of 2013 because we had some friends that were coming here and we heard some good things about the church And we just decided to give it a try and it's been a good fit for our family So you got see how simple now, uh, that's a cute sweet video Just imagine in your plans that at least a couple of times between now when your new pastor gets here Or even after the new pastor is here That not only do you have videos of the pastor But i've also the laity. It's the laity who really message the story of your church Here's another simple question and a great technique. You can just ask yourselves You can be making these videos this week and start showing them. Just ask each other. What do you recommend? about Our church take a look This is what I would recommend about our church We um, we have a very interactive atmosphere where it isn't just coming and listening to somebody speak at you But you're able to tackle the topics of the day and the questions and doubts that you have with one another In a setting that is um friendly and conducive to doing that. So I really enjoy that about our church So it's actually very simple. Uh, no money. I mean it doesn't require any expertise It used to be kind of had to do lights and sounds and really have good Videos, but how do people watch videos today? well On their cell phone youtube so it doesn't have you know God has gifted us with a great way to message and let lay people tell the story of their church So that it isn't all about the pastor You don't want to be pastor driven if you can help it So I'll highlight your identity. Here's the next are recruit eager people You sell them have a better chance than when there's a change of pastors to recruit new people For new positions. What are some things that you could recruit new people to do? So here's some here. Here's your phone in the blanks. Here's what churches tell us are the best way to recruit new people First of all make it fun You want to be recruiting for fun. Remember right now Um, there's a heaviness in our heart. We we want to uh deal with anxiety Uh with Doing some fun things together now. That's not to turn a blind eye to the realities of what we deal with we have to address that But let's look at some fun ways. So uh one pastor that I work with Been there for a while the church. He's he's leaving Um, the church wants to say goodbye. And so they're doing what many of you I hope are already doing You're planning what uh, typically or nowadays called drive by goodbye So that they're going to do a drive by parade to say thank you Uh, and they're all decorating their cars They also discovered this that um, there's their pastor had a longtime hobby of collecting kites So they recruited an eager new person in the life of the church They just stood up or actually did it online in one of their services They said we need somebody who can find a source for us of kites and this person said I can do that They uh, and so everybody in the parade Has a kite flying out of their window as they drive by Because it connected with the pastor It was fun the kids and the families had a delightful time decorating kites to say goodbye And say uh that familiar goodbye to him make it fun Remember that youth group video I showed you where the kids corny silly kids just acting like kids Um, they had each decorated a baton And they are all giving their baton to the new pastor Now if they can meet in person, they're going to have a time in the worship service to all present their batons But if they can't they'll figure out a way to have them delivered to the new pastor's house As she arrives. So just do things that are fun and together and you're messaging it So the whole church sees what's going on And the people especially the first time guests They come and they say this is a church of hope. This is a church of excitement. This is a church of fun This is a church of creativity. This is not a downtrodden bunch of people Make it familiar remember that In the congregation almost everybody's gone through a job change of some time people are familiar with that So you want to be able to do things that are fun and it's familiar it makes sense to people And they can relate to it and can relate positively to it and Make it unforgettable not just the saying goodbye Like I don't know what you could do now in your setting Maybe you can all get together and have a big shindig of some kind but you more than likely you're going to be saying goodbye to your pastor How virtually I had a young lady email me today On her transition team saying she was in tears at June 1st when she realized We're getting ready to say goodbye to our pastor whom I love so much and I won't even be able to hug her I mean people are feeling this so you have to come up with other ways to say goodbye That are, you know, like the drive-by goodbye collecting videos collecting pictures And the same was saying hello to your new pastor So here's some things churches are doing You know collecting having everybody in the congregation send a card Just a welcome card telling about themselves One pastor I just talked to a couple days ago in New Mexico in a small town Doing something that's old school But I think in a nice refreshing way So they're having a pounding for that pastor, you know what a pounding is where everybody brings canned goods for the pastor and And likes churches sometimes do they're all tearing the labels off of the can so the pastor doesn't know what's inside But then putting their name and their phone number on the can So the pastor has to call them to find out what's in that can To start conversation just to have fun with it So make it memorable. Make it unforgettable Well, I've Really gone through a lot of material with you remember this next This the idea is to re-energize your congregation not just a smooth and seamless passing of the baton But to accelerate growth. That's the purpose use this opportunity to reach new people Don't waste this opportunity to put focus and attentionality On something that's really important And then remember to reorient around your new pastor Your new pastor is going to be starting Her his ministry with you in a completely new world Try to be careful about that we've never done it that way before kind of responses You're all together learning how to be a startup church no matter how old you are In a world that is so different than we've ever known So be cooperative Be helpful just reorient around this new leader Trying to do ministry in a new way Well friends, we spent a lot of time together oan I'd like to close with the last video But again, I want to say is there any specific question that I Need to address that I haven't addressed that you would like me to touch on I haven't seen any questions come up in the in the chat, but I want to remind everyone that Uh Jim has offered to meet with every single one of your churches every one of you wants it and so email lilyana At ntcumc.org and lilyana is putting her email in the chat right now And so you can copy and paste that it's available on the conference website again That's lilyana for lilyana run hill lilyana at ntc Umc.org north lexus conference united this church.org and she'll set up a time for your sp rc To meet with jim and jim can help you formulate that plan that you are thinking about or that you're working on or answer any questions That you may have I see scott gilland on here He's going from being one of my parents pastors to being my brother's family's pastor And I know this past sunday. They did the drive by Uh saying goodbye to him and I don't know what it was like for scott But I know it was meaningful for my parents and it was mean for them to be able to drive by and uh to bless scott and reagan's departure from their church and so Again, like jim said seeking those creative ways of the way that you can Connect somehow with your congregation and your congregation connect with you in this saying goodbye as well as the saying hello and so I I want to before I turn it over to jim to close us out for the night. I want to express my gratitude to first lilyana ron hill Who has coordinated this event as well as the bishops office In getting the invitations out and a special invitation and a gratitude to jim Or for coming back and connecting with us With the center for church development and assit and assisting our churches to make our transitions Fruitful where they will bless Not only our congregations, but new people who connect with us during this season. So Lilliana jim. We thank you for this And and and we're grateful in sign language. This is how they give a round of applause And so I'll invite everybody if we can give a round of applause For this ministry tonight and so I'll turn it back over to you jim to close us out Is scott still with us if he is scott you want to comment on how it felt on the drive by goodbye Can you unmute? scott you're on me worry. I had my microphone turned down Can you hear me now? So it was very meaningful. Um, we were there's reagan back there. So if she wants the china We got to we got to do it in conjunction with uh reverend dr. Jacob keega as well. And so Yeah, it was really special. I mean if you can't see everybody and hug everybody Getting to see their faces and some people decorated cars and I'm sure we've made way too much noise for the neighbors But um, it was a lot of fun. I'd highly recommend it if you're able to do that All right, you know what we say friends, uh, I don't know where you are and you're planning You're very compressed timeline, but hey go crazy You have a great opportunity and a great, uh, you know to come from just say what what can we do? That's really memorable that that would just make a difference that people will talk about for a long time And real please please Um, I hope you'll take seriously as a committee and as leaders late leadership To be especially getting focused on the plans So that it won't be it won't come across as just spur of the moment But be be really planned out between now and when you'll be uh, say goodbye Well, I want to say goodbye, uh If you don't mind we just like to ask you to watch this last video as you leave We hope this is a spiritual exercise, you know, none of us is smart enough to do this just with our own cleverness It takes prayer. It takes bible study. It takes letting our soul be touched by god and uh, so we just uh, like to show this video to remind us why we do what we do and um And uh, so if if you don't mind, uh, you Just take a couple more minutes and then you'll have a very great. Good night. Hope hope this has been helpful Thank you, lily But Was Blessings all have an amazing passing of the baton to share god's amazing grace Thanks for joining us. Thank you jim and um, just before you guys leave reminder You may get an email from me just a quick survey to see if this was helpful for you See all of our pastors on thursday at two o'clock and our lay people. Thank you for joining us so much And you guys have a good evening God bless y'all