A reverse Transpac from Honolulu to Santa Cruz, CA on a 32′ Westsail made me a better interim pastor.
Image credit: mkperspective / 123RF Stock Photo
I was on hiatus between churches when the call came. Someone had heard that I like sailing. Would I be available to help him relocate his boat from Ke’ehi Marina in Honolulu to San Pedro, CA? It took me about 30 minutes to pack my duffel bag with everything I’d need for a month and I was out the door.
Over the next 32 days and 2900 miles I learned many a valuable lesson that have served me well when I pilot a church through transition.
Lesson #1: You need to start with a good plan
Planning for this voyage began with the Admiralty Ocean Passages of the World chart book. This is basically 300+ years of weather reports, currents and tide charts, for every ocean passage in the world. It’s based on a curated collection that was, at one time, kept by the British Admiralty.
We turned to the Honolulu to Southern California passage chart. It suggested that a June 1 departure date would require us to sail north from Hawaii to about 35 degrees, look for the westerlies coming off the Pacific high and turn right for a 1700 mile leg to the California coast.
We started out with a sailing plan.
An intentional interim pastor should start with a plan. Although each church presents distinct characteristics and unique context, you have to pilot each of them to the same destination: to be a biblically healthy community that produces new believers, nurtures them into fully devoted followers of Jesus, and replicates additional believing communities that repeat the process
Lesson #2: You never have all the information you need
Two days out of Hawaii our weatherfax died. Suddenly, we found it difficult to gather all the information we needed to modify the sailing plan. A few days later, unbeknownst to us, an unseasonably early tropical depression formed off the Yucatan Peninsula. This pulled the Pacific high almost 900 miles south.
No one in this life has all the information needed to fully understand what’s going on in the moment. This is especially true for interim pastors. Even with exceptional interview skills, superb assessment instruments and a well trained ear, we’re going to miss important information from time to time.
Don’t let it surprise you.
Lesson #3: You change your plans as new information comes in
We ran into light westerly winds at 25 degrees north (the same approximate latitude as San Diego), but we didn’t recognize them as the Pacific high; the charts said that this time of the year it is usually 900 miles further north. The captain even said, “Wouldn’t it be great if these were the westerlies? We could turn right and be home ten days early.”
But we didn’t. We stuck to the plan rather than responding to local information. It made for a very unpleasant trip.
Interim pastors must be adept at assessing new information and incorporating it quickly. Plans are always temporary, particular when you’re leading a church through an interim process as the transition pastor! New information can reveal a grievous sin at the root of a significant, unexplained problem and may suggest the need for a solemn convocation for corporate confession.
Even when the assessment phase is complete, be alert to new information and respond appropriately.
Lesson #4: The wind and the waves will beat you up if they please
We ended up sailing right past the Pacific high, all the way to 39 north (about the same latitude as Marin County). Then the sailor’s nightmare: we were becalmed. No wind. The water’s surface was like glass. But it was rolling glass because the swell over the Japanese Current (a cold current that runs from Japan, across the north Pacific and then down the California coast through the Santa Barbara channel).
It’s a miserable ride on a becalmed sailboat. Without wind the sails there’s no steerage so the boat turns broadside to the swell. Day and night, rocking back and forth in your berth when you’re not on watch beats you up. If you’re prone to motion sickness it’s almost a living death!
By now the sailing plan was out the port hole and over the starboard side!
Interim pastors who enter service for a seriously dysfunctional church – one where there’s been decades of nasty infighting, ugly power plays and sinful behavior – will beat you up. But all you can do is strap in and stay on board until the ride is over.
We set the initial course but forces beyond our control took the boat where they wanted it!
Lesson #5: Your patience will be tried
Since there were three of us, we developed a four hour watch schedule. Four hours on, eight hours off. When it’s your turn for dog watch – again – it’s easy to fall into grumbling and complaining. Particularly when it doesn’t look like you’re making any headway! Anyone who is susceptible to anger, especially one who is Type-A personality with an off-the-chart D on the Performax DiSC profile (I’m not looking at any of you, I’m just saying…) will be tried. By fire.
The middle stage the interim process can try an interim pastor’s patience.
It’s that lengthy passage during which you’re working behind the scenes to identify and train leaders, lead the transition team in formulating vision, and move the congregation, incrementally, into new ways of thinking. But these steps have to be finished before the church can start a healthy search process.
By then the church, even though they love you and have seen significant progress under your leadership, also becomes impatient. They want the search process to be over even before they’re really ready to start!
Everyone’s patience will be tried, but it will pass.
Eventually.
Really!
Lesson #6: You will grow as a result
Every time I had to step into the cockpit and take watch while we were becalmed, I had a decision to make. Will I get angry, yell and holler and make a fool of myself, or will I accept it for what it was (a chance to go sailing!) and enjoy it. Over the course of that trip I learned a remarkable lesson, one that I’d heard but never really believed: I am in complete control of my anger, no matter how dire the situation, and I can choose to feel the anger or I can let Christ-in-me respond to it.
The hardships of ministry – interim or settled – will produce spiritual growth in your heart and life if you let it.
Lesson #7: Prayer will get you through
When I decided that I did not want to let anger get the best of me, I had to turn to the Holy Spirit to ask for help. That prayer was answered.
In fact, that was such a transformative experience in my life that people have a hard time believing them when they learn that I really am a Type-A Driver. When they flash that dumbfounded look I tell them, “You’re not seeing the real me. You’re seeing what the Holy Spirit has done to scrape away my stuff so the life of Christ within can shine through.”
Lesson #8: Your final destination may be a surprise
Our original destination was San Pedro, California. This is a shipping point with several massive trucking and container operations on the south end of Los Angeles. But because we missed the westerlies to sail past the Pacific high, we eventually motored southeast and caught the Japanese current and a light westerly breeze that took us into Santa Cruz, CA. Even though we were a long way from our intended port, we were worn out after 32 days at sea.
But you know what? That final destination – determined for us by forces beyond our control – was sweet. We could smell the earth of the Marin County headlands before we could see them. It smelled wonderful. We motored into the marina at 2 a.m., tied up and secured the boat and caught a cab into town. We managed to find a hamburger joint open at 3:30 in the morning.
I tell you, to this day I have yet to find a burger, fries and chocolate malt as good as that one.
The destination was a surprise, but it was a delight.
And so it is in God’s service. Time and again the Lord delights us as interim pastors with blessed arrivals on fair shores would could not have imaged.
What experiences in life have made you a better interim pastor?
