The Transitional Specialists Podcast

What Transitional Specialists Can Learn from the Oscars

April 23, 2024 – Are you at the top of your craft? That's the essential question asked in Episode 10 of The Transitional Specialists Podcast: “What Transitional Specialists Can Learn from the Oscars.”  The Oscar isn’t given to the most popular movie or the one that grosses the most money. It is given to the movie that represents the highest achievement in movie making, as voted on by those whose business is movie making. It is an award for those who represent the highest professionalism in their work. It rewards craft, as intentionally practiced.  Similarly, a trained interim minister seeks to intentionally practice their craft. Each assignment is like a movie in that it must accomplish certain tasks and it runs a certain length. Our hope is to leave the interim ministry appointment having achieved the tasks or what a movie scriptwriter would call the plot points. In our training of interims, we practice the five Formative Tasks in our work with the congregation, the “plot points” of our own craft. They are IDENTITY, DIRECTION, LEADERSHIP, CONNECTION, and PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE. How well we do those tasks is the measure of our effectiveness as transitional specialists.   So, for this episode, our podcast host, Bill Kemp, is moving from the “host seat” to the “hot seat” as he explains what it takes to seek excellence in our craft, not for something like an Oscar at the annual Academy Awards, but for much more, as we read in The Message version of 1 Corinthians 9:25, “... Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.” Let's join this conversation about excellence with Bill, a seasoned United Methodist pastor and retired elder in the Western Pennsylvania Conference. He is also a novelist and self-help author and has served as a TIIMS (Transitional Intentional Interim Ministry Specialist) for 22 years. Let’s  find out what he has to say about how a good transition is like a good movie!

New Occasions Teach New Duties

December 8, 2023 ­­– The title for Episode 9 of The Transitional Specialists Podcast comes from a verse in an old hymn, “new occasions teach new duties.” This phrase describes the task before church leaders and transitional specialists amidst all the current foundational changes going on in our world and the Church. So, for this podcast we decided to talk to a person who is smack dab in the middle of those changes serving as the pastor of a new church for United Methodists whose former church disaffiliated from the denomination AND who is also a conference staff person AND a veteran Transitional Intentional Interim Ministry Specialist (TIIMS). Our conversation is with Rev. Bonnie Osteen, an ordained elder in the Texas Conference where she served six churches before her 2015 appointment as the Conference Coordinator of Intentional Interim Ministry. She is also a past president and now the treasurer of the Board of Directors of the national Transitional Intentional Interim Ministry Specialists Association (TIIMSA). However, recently she has become the planting pastor for St. Matthew United Methodist Church (UMC) in Jacksonville, Texas, after the former First UMC there disaffiliated and joined the Global Methodist Church. First UMC was where she and her husband had attended for many years along with most of her new congregation who also left that church. So, it is apparent that her recent life experience parallels much of what has been happening in the UMC denomination as a whole, but she uniquely brings the three perspectives of personal experience, local church involvement, and conference/national leadership. Who else could better speak to that verse from the 1896 hymn, “Once to Every Man and Nation,” that says “New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth, they must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.” Our podcast host is Rev. Bill Kemp, a retired elder in the Western Pennsylvania Conference, who brings his wisdom as a seasoned United Methodist local church pastor, self-help author, and an experienced TIIMS. This is an inspiring conversation about this season of learning “new duties!”

Fame, Fortune, Freedom, or Charity?

In this Episode 8 of The Transitional Specialist Podcast, you are invited to pause and consider the work you do and how you prepare for it, whether it be your next Interim Ministry appointment or any other major task. Our podcast host, Rev. Bill Kemp, challenges us to consider more than the tasks involved. Are you also clear about your MOTIVATIONS and how they affect your performance of those tasks? Bill is a seasoned United Methodist pastor, self-help author, and Transitional Intentional Interim Ministry Specialist. He shares much wisdom in this brief treatise on approaching your ministry labors.

Survival Is Insufficient

June 30, 2023  – In the midst of the oppressive summer heat of 2023, cool off with this 15-minute meditational respite offered by Rev. Bill Kemp, host of THE TRANSITIONAL SPECIALISTS PODCAST. His journey includes churches in post-pandemic disaffiliation stress, an apocalyptic novel, and the “Three S’s” he learned from Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter. She was the keynote speaker on the theme, “Embracing the Next Normal,” at the recent 2023 Gathering of the Transitional Intentional Interim Ministry Specialists Association. Basically, Bill wants you to consider why “survival is insufficient.” SHOW NOTES Check out EPISODE 6 of THE TRANSITIONAL SPECIALISTS PODCAST and our pre-conference interview with Rebekah Simon-Peter on the theme of “Embracing the Next Normal” at tiimsa.org/podcast/ [https://tiimsa.org/podcast/]. Learn more about Rebekah Simon-Peter and her ministry of transforming church leaders, Creating a Culture of Renewal®, at rebekahsimonpeter.com [https://rebekahsimonpeter.com/] along with her excellent resource book for churches in transition, FORGING A NEW PATH: Moving the Church Forward in a Post-Pandemic World, at cokesbury.com [https://www.cokesbury.com/9781950899593-Forging-a-New-Path]. STATION ELEVEN, A Novel by Emily St. John Mandel (Vintage Books © 2014) The Transitional Specialists Podcast is a conversation about interim ministry when local churches are in a time of transition between pastors. This podcast is brought to you by the Transitional Intentional Interim Ministry Specialists Association of The United Methodist Church.

Embracing the Next Normal with Rebekah Simon-Peter

March 8, 2023  – In a world of huge transitions, what is the “next normal” for congregations with effective ministries? This podcast seeks to answer that question featuring Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter, a United Methodist pastor, coach, consultant and founder of the award-winning leadership development program, Creating a Culture of Renewal®. This Episode #6 of The Transitional Specialists Podcast is offered to leaders of the Christian faith who are challenged to “move forward” through the struggles of our current liminal season. In Rebekah’s 2022 book, FORGING A NEW PATH: Moving the Church Forward in a Post-Pandemic World, she writes, “My question is, How we can best organize ourselves going forward? It’s time for Christians to get ready for the next normal – and the one after that – by intentionally reimagining the way we do and be church. In fact, we have an extraordinary opportunity before us.” Hosting this conversation about that opportunity is Rev. Bill Kemp, a United Methodist retired elder, author. and an experienced Intentional Interim Minister. We also have Rev. Karen Dungan bringing the perspective of an active local United Methodist Church pastor and former District Superintendent. Karen is also President Elect for the TIIMSA Board of Directors. Bill frames the conversation on “Embracing the Next Normal” around the three questions that Rebekah askes in her book: When do things get back to normal? How do we get people (back) to church? and How do we do more with less? SHOW NOTES You are invited to personally join Rebekah in the conversation about “embracing the next normal” at the 2023 TIIMSA Virtual Gathering on April 25-26. Learn more about the event and register at  https://tiimsa.org/2023-gathering/ [https://tiimsa.org/2023-gathering/]. The registration includes Rebekah’s book, FORGING A NEW PATH: Moving the Church Forward in a Post-Pandemic World, and access to the 2023 Gathering recordings and resources. The Transitional Specialists Podcast is a conversation about interim ministry when local churches are in a time of transition between pastors. This podcast is brought to you by the Transitional Intentional Interim Ministry Specialists Association of The United Methodist Church.