The Interim Way

It was an unfair, trick question. But the entire group of youth ministers fell for it (again). I asked, simply, “How many of you are…interims?” Not a single hand went up. Not a person in the room said “me.”

An interim, according to the dictionary, serves in the “interval of time between one event and another.” This is an undeniable reality for every youth minister. But few of us recognize our interim status, instead approaching our work as if it were an imaginary permanent position.

It’s good, of course, to be deeply invested and totally present—not always looking ahead to the next position while still in the current one. But when we forget we’re interims, we can easily fall victim to the classic blunder of making ourselves the linchpins of our own ministries—so much so that when we leave, everything falls apart.

There’s a better way. The Interim Way allows us to structure programs that don’t depend on our unique gifts. Countless churches limp along, trying to pump life into a system designed to work only with the unique skill-set of the superstar youth minister who left years before.

The Interim Way requires us to recruit partners, not just helpers. When we forget our interim status, the only kind of volunteers we recruit are those willing to help us, not those willing to own a significant part of the ministry. The Interim Way frees us to help our volunteers as they lead the ministry.

And the Interim Way might just get us to quit spending so much time on our ministries and get us investing more time in them. When we invest in people, in systems, and in a ministry beyond our own gifts, we’re living the Interim Way.

How will you know if you’ve begun leading that way? Take the kidney-stone test:
Just as you’re about to leave on a big trip with the youth group, you double over in pain. You’re rushed to the hospital with what turns out to be a kidney stone and are put on bed rest for at least a week.

What happens to the trip? Do your volunteers feel unprepared and disoriented, or do they simply miss the added value your presence always brings?

Successful interims leave their ministries better than they found them. That should be the goal for all of us “interims.”