Bud Brown

Interim Pastor’s Journal: Attentive Listening

One Sunday morning a young family greeted the preacher on their way out the door after the service. The six-year old shook the pastor’s hand and said, “When I grow up I’m going to give you some money.” “Thank you for that kind thought, but why do you want to give me money?” the preacher

Read More »

5 rules for the care and feeding of church volunteers

In response to an observation that volunteers are too often seen as amateurs, one replied, “Just remember: Noah’s Ark was built by amateurs. The Titanic was built by professionals.” [source] Image credit: hemul75 / 123RF Stock Photo [dc]A[/dc] previous post on encouraging church volunteers resonated with many readers. It generated plenty of discussion on several Linkedin groups

Read More »

10 things you won’t learn in seminary [Updated]

Invariably seasoned and successful pastors who train for a second vocational career as an intentional interim pastor will say, “Why didn’t they teach me this in seminary?” or “Why didn’t someone tell me this thirty years ago?” It’s not their fault. Seminaries can’t teach you everything you need to know about ministry. In fact, they

Read More »

1 quick and easy step to help a discouraged church

[dc]E[/dc]ncouragement is often in short supply in churches that are ripe for an intentional interim pastor. The interim pastor’s call has often been preceded by many months, years and, in some cases, decades of debilitating, depressing decline. The good news is that this is an easy fix. Discouragement is remarkably susceptible to encouraging words. A

Read More »

God provides all a transitioning church needs – ahead of time!

[dc]F[/dc]inances have become a recurring problem that intentional interim pastors must help the congregation solve. Earlier in my interim ministry – which seems to have begun shortly after Noah disembarked – this wasn’t an issue. But in the last several years I’ve served churches that were either started in or rapidly expanded during the go-go

Read More »

Another Interim Pastor’s Journal: Week Two – Five

I was excited to see Bud engage in multiple weeks of journaling, so I will do my best to catch-up with this one posting! From last week, there was a decision to be made. It was a decision that had been neglected for over 14 months…but first some helpful background. The church was a plant

Read More »

10 reasons interim pastors should keep a private journal

Her Journal: Tonight, my husband was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a nice restaurant for dinner. Conversation wasn’t flowing, so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk. He agreed, but he didn’t say much. I asked him what was wrong. He said, “Nothing.” I asked him if

Read More »

1 lesson a chef can teach interim pastors about change management

Restaurant: Impossible is a fascinating reality show about Chef Robert Irvine’s applying change management techniques to rescue desperate restaurants on the verge of failure. He assesses all facets of the restaurant’s operations, initiates change (menus, staff, decor), sends a team out to hit the streets to tell the community the good news and even offers

Read More »