WHO NEEDS TIPS?

It is taking longer to find, evaluate, and confirm the calling of a new pastor. We believe the Lead Pastor’s chair should not be empty and that the work of the church should continue even during transition.

With a full-time TIP in the Lead Pastor’s chair, ministry and the work of a church continues. The sense of urgency to “hurry up and get the next pastor before things fall apart” is set aside and the church can be afforded time to pray, continue to minister to people, and think about God’s future. Keep in mind that more than half of our churches grow substantially during the interim with a TIP. 

The process of the assessment is an approach that is not unlike the idea of “working on ourselves a bit before we go dating”. Increasing the health of your church increases how attractive your church is to pastoral candidates. The TIP process helps the local church define themselves and then describe themselves to the candidate, increasing the probability of a good match.

Again, all of this is accomplished while the Lead Pastor’s chair is occupied by a competent pastor who is also the church’s coach for moving forward.

We work to provide a full-time Interim Pastor, the seven-layer full Church Assessment, and the NCS toolbox & coach for the same cost to the church as their existing full-time pastor’s total compensation package. It is our desire that finances are never a reason not to have an intentional interim.  

NCS will conduct a pre-assessment with the governing board. From that information we will recommend a TIP that we believe will be a good fit. We will arrange a video call with the NCS Coach, the TIP, and the governing board to begin the matching and landing process.

NCS follows a very simple process that includes assessment, spiritual renewal, planning, and implementation of the plan. This process includes:

• Know Ourselves (Assessment)

  • NCS provides full assessment of the church to identify the uniqueness, the strengths, and the opportunities facing the church as they move into a new season of ministry. Not only does this help clarify the current situation, but it also helps inform the search process for the next pastor.

• Know God (Spiritual Renewal)

  • Our interim pastors lead a time of focused prayer and renewal to assist the church in discerning and following God’s will for the future of the church. We believe as Oswald Chambers said “prayer does not prepare us for greater works, it is the greater work.” This is a spiritual effort both personally and corporately.

• Know our Community (Mission Renewal)

  • The Great Commission and the Great Commandment can serve as the missional motivation to consider where we have been placed and the needs of those in our surrounding community. Asking the Holy Spirit to truly help us see others is an important step in renewal as a church. 

• Lead Well (Planning)

  • From the assessment results, a Transition Team is selected to review and put a plan together to implement the recommendations of the Assessment Report.  While the process provides an outline to follow, the specific plan forward is unique to each church. It is our experience that as they engage each of these steps, God speaks through the open hearts and minds of His people, providing a way forward that is relevant to this church.

• Live Courageously (Implementation)

  • The Transition Team (a temporary team for this purpose only) will develop goals and teams to lead the implementation of a plan to attain those goals. The team will work with the TIP and other church leaders to develop a clear and consistent communication strategy to keep the church informed of the process and progress of the interim. 

We believe in the uniqueness of each congregation within the Body of Christ. While we have a process and a toolbox, we will first use that process to provide environments where the Church church leadership seeks God’s way forward that fits them. We then continue to use the process to build health in the areas in the direction of God’s leading.

Understanding that no two churches are alike means we can talk about the process and the toolbox, but the exact way that the process is used (and the direction in which health gains are made) will be unique to each church.

Knowing yourself, actively growing in health, understanding your community, and being able to clearly communicate these things to a candidate greatly increases the possibility of a good match with a quality leader.  The resulting lead pastor profile is more accurate, sincere, and attractive.

As to the functions of searching for and interviewing candidates, we have tools for finding and discerning the next pastor. We will engage some or all of the applicable tools if requested by the search committee or the denominational leader. We will be loyal and supportive to the denominational systems and leaders that you have in place. We will help make the process as thorough as you wish, but we will not participate in choosing the pastor.

We believe that the local church is the greatest hope for the world. It breaks our heart when we see churches lose health or become damaged during transitions. Not only do we believe that churches can grow in health during transitions, our team of Transitional Interim Pastors have proven that to be true hundreds of times.

Our greatest joy is to have a part in helping a church thrive into the beginning of the tenure of their next pastor and beyond. Great relational starts between pastors and their people can make all the difference in the continued health and fruitfulness of that new partnership.

Our TIPS are so passionate about the Body of Christ that they are willing to leave their home to live with and to love a congregation into the effective future God reveals to them.

I invite you to prayerfully consider turning a coasting, just-get-by interim into an on-purpose turning point that sets the church and the next Lead Pastor up to thrive for the next decade.

Click on the above “Click Here” button and fill out the brief form. Within three business days you will receive a phone call. This is simply a conversation to learn more about your church and to provide potential next steps, no pressure, no commitment.

Following that conversation, your next step would be to contact your Denominational Leader or District Superintendent (if you have that kind of structure) and express to them your desire to consider TIPS. We would follow-up with you, other leaders in the church, and with any denominational leaders for the purpose of scheduling a live, video-call presentation about TIPS. This gives us a chance to tell about the TIP experience and to answer questions from the larger leadership team.

If your leaders and NCS agree that this would be a good and fruitful idea, then we will ask for two forms to be completed and turned into our Executive Director who will then contact you with the details of the relationship and the next steps from there.