Some months ago I took a leave of absence from my church to attend the Seminary. I was to attend for two quarters and then return to my same pastorate. I began to do some thinking. For four years I had been in this church. Through those years I had been able to effect certain organizational planning. Would all this come to nought when I left? How could the interim pastor take over with the least possible wasted effort?
As I had done on other occasions, I began to describe to the incoming pastor my pastoral plan. To him this seemed a complex system of organization. Realizing that it might be bewildering to simply tell him of the existing plan, I decided to think the church organization through. I put this in outline form so that he could follow it as a guide.
How often when I had taken over churches it had taken weeks to become oriented to the existing ways of doing things. I thought after I had written out this outline, how happy I would have been to receive something similar from some of my predecessors.
Our church had been organized on the committee plan. We have some nineteen committees. Most churches probably have a like amount if they think of some of the various church offices as a committee with a chairman at the head and a group of laymen under him.
Each of these committee chairmen were listed on this outline sheet. Also a brief outline of the committee's work was given. In this way the incoming pastor could put his finger on a few leaders and effect his church program. Many of these committees help in the planning of the special services of the church.
A second section of this outline listed some of the church policies. One of those is the memorial fund idea. This is a plan whereby Rower money can be diverted to church use, and yet the person giving the gift can be recognized both by the bereaved and by the church. Information about the church newsletter, time of making Sabbath morning announcements, bulletin deadline, and a listing of church-owned audio-visual aids were shown in this outline.
So that the new pastor could have a better financial picture of the church and its accomplishments, a list of all the capital investments made during my term of service were listed. And so that he might be apprised of certain needed developments, a listing was given of unfinished projects under study. All we need to watch is lest this become a "black list" and fall into unauthorized hands.
Also given to the interim pastor, and most important, was a rather complete listing of all prospects for church membership, with a paragraph as to their background. A listing of special Ingathering contacts usually solicited by the pastor was given to him, with a paragraph on the approach to each merchant, and an outline of the whole Ingathering campaign organization.
This outline became to the new pastor a simple description of the already existing wheels of organization. He could soon become oriented to his new job and make such adaptations as he chose, but could in the meantime use existing organization to keep his program going.
