Coming Alongside with Conference Care

By Terry Shanahan, NE Regional Minister

The CCCC ministry priority of Conference Care provides care for our pastors, churches and parishioners in a myriad of ways. For instance, in the past couple of years, in the Northeast alone we have had twenty two churches go through times of change. Pastors have retired or resigned and we have been able to help find trained Intentional Interims who are called to assist and guide the church, and to lead them to a new settled pastor. As of this writing, of those twenty-two churches, eleven have called a new pastor, four are in the final candidating process, and seven remain in transition.
Providing care to churches and pastors in times of transition is essential. These may be the most important times in the life of the church. In the CCCC we are developing resources and seeing to the recruitment and training of Intentional Interims for this ongoing need. In fact this coming March, the CCCC will host the third annual Interim training at Gordon- Conwell Seminary.

This past year has also been a tumultuous time for some of our parishioners and churches going through periods of conflict and other difficulties. Fortunately we were able to come along side and offer care leading to reconciliation and restoration. In the last number of years we have placed a high priority on Biblical Peacemaking. Many pastors and parishioners have been trained to respond with this Biblical model. With our deepening relationships with our churches we are being called in earlier rather than later to offer help before an impasse is reached. This remains a most important ministry for our Conference as we begin to establish Conference Care Teams and develop Regional Conference Care hubs around the country.

Another instance of Conference Care is the on-going establishment of our Community Pastor groups. New groups are being formed and are doing well. These groups comprised of five to seven pastors meet regularly to live “life-on-life.” Sharing their lives and ministries together has provided a type of preventative care in that the sharing of burdens cuts them in half and joys are multiplied several times over. Our fledgling start to this ministry is gaining momentum as we have secured a grant to train more group leaders and we are actively recruiting, assessing and training leaders for the future.

These are some of the ways that Conference Care is serving our Conference. We will continue to develop this much needed ministry priority. Everyone is well aware that ministry is not easy and the need to come alongside is ever-present.

In His Joy, Terry