Interim Ministry Partners (IMP), represented by a member of the IMP team (Representative), and the designated leaders of your church (Leaders) agree to enter a short-term interim ministry partnership to strengthen the church, clarify future direction, and help find the new minister God is calling to serve the church.
Time Frame
- This agreement covers periods specified in the online “Quarterly Schedule Agreement.”
- Extending our agreement beyond the dates specified in the “Quarterly Schedule Agreement” will depend on your church’s need and our mutual evaluation of the adequacy of IMP services. Your Representative will be available to your congregation for as long as services are requested. We will evaluate the need for extensions of this agreement on a quarter-by-quarter basis.
- The IMP Representative will be present the agreed upon number of weekends per month as schedules allow.
Responsibilities of the IMP Representative
- Preaching and Teaching: On scheduled weekends, the Representative agrees to preach for Sunday assemblies and teach classes if desired. He will provide a consistent pulpit presence that offers appropriate sermons for the interim season. The Representative will also coordinate with one or two designated members gifted in teaching/preaching to extend this consistent pulpit presence on weekends the Representative is not present.
*A Search Consulting Relationship is typically limited to an on-site presence of once per month. It is recommended that the church strongly consider a more frequent IMP Representative presence in the final weeks leading up to the arrival of a new minister.
- Providing Competent Consultation for Church Leaders: The Representative will serve as a consultant with the shepherds, staff, and various ministries as needed and time permits. This involves helping leadership evaluate the congregation’s health, challenges, and opportunities while making recommendations for a functioning and effective future.
- Coaching the Search Process for a New Minister: The Representative will outline a search process, help build related teams and calendars, establish a process to recommend suitable candidates, and work closely with the Search Team as it communicates with the congregation, evaluates candidates, and makes recommendations to Leaders.
Additional Commitments of the IMP Representative
The IMP Representative will:
- Be responsible for making all travel arrangements (flights, lodging, scheduling, etc.) required by participation in this agreement.
- Be on time and prepared for scheduled meetings. In case of emergencies (flight cancellation, illness, etc.), he will make timely alternative arrangements that attempt to accommodate all schedules.
- Expect to lead meetings with Leaders: Setting agendas (with Leaders’ significant input), determining the flow of conversations, and accepting or assigning necessary tasks.
- Assign homework for Leaders to accomplish between visits as needed (e.g., readings, discussions, communications, decisions).
- Ensure that written summaries of significant meetings are provided- highlighting decisions/conclusions and listing action items/assignments.
- Have regular (usually weekly) contact with the Search Team Chairperson and Search Team: Mentoring the Chairperson, building meeting agendas, providing training and coaching, monitoring flow of conversations, and accepting or assigning necessary tasks.
- Devote time and effort helping Search Team members become proficient with digital tools required to accomplish their work (Trello, Zoom, SurveyMonkey, etc.).
- Be available for appointments via e-mail and phone with the Leadership’s designated Point Person and the Search Team’s Chairperson.
- Be transparent regarding fees, expenses, and associated costs. The basic rule regarding finances is “no surprises.”
- Commit to work diligently to give his best efforts to our success. As a consultant, the Representative will help the church do its necessary work, not do their work himself.
Note: Interim Ministry Partners and the IMP Representative make no guarantees that your church will be able to find and hire a minister as a result of this relationship. While we have never failed to help place a minister at any church we have served, the availability and placement of ministers is always determined by the church’s circumstances and conditions. The church Leadership will make the final decision about their new minister.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CHURCH LEADERS
The Leaders of your congregation will…
- Commit their personal time and energy to learning, evaluating, and planning. This includes attending scheduled meetings/activities, reading suggested materials, accomplishing recommended tasks, and making themselves available to support and encourage this interim work.
- Devote time and resources to this effort: Planning the church’s calendar around related initiatives; making time during class and assemblies for communicating, teaching, and special events; providing access for communicating via all congregational channels.
- Work closely with the Representative to develop plans for addressing your church’s challenges and commit to accomplishing the plans.
- Work closely with the Representative to identify, invite, and charge those who will serve on the church’s Search Team.
- Recognize that your church enters into this relationship with the IMP Representative because of their training, experience, and skills. His role is to help your church accomplish its work and search for a new minister in a more effective and systematic manner, not to perform that work himself.
- Designate a leadership “Point Person” to be responsible for managing contact between the Representative and Leaders to ensure that communication is as efficient and coordinated as possible. (We recommend this person be the “elder liaison” who functions both as an elder and as liaison with the Search Team.)
- Designate a Preaching/Teaching Partner to be responsible for weekends the Representative is not present.
- Designate a Technology Chair who is technologically adept and can support the Search Team’s and Leader’s work when technological assistance is required.
- Designate a Finance Person to ensure all IMP invoices are received, processed, and paid in a timely manner. Note: The IMP Representative will not be paid until the invoice is paid.
- Agree to strongly encourage the congregation to be prayerful and positive about this interim process, and to use their gifts and talents to support it.
- Agree to not hire, confer with, or ask advice from any other church consultant without the specific and expressed consent of the Representative.
SCHEDULING
The Representative and Leaders will carefully plan and respect mutual calendar commitments. Schedules will be made on a quarterly basis (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, July-Sep, Oct-Dec).
- The Representative and Leaders will agree upon dates of services every quarter and sign a Quarterly Schedule Agreement via Adobe Signature. This form will be emailed to the IMP representative first and then automatically emailed to the Church’s Point Person to review and sign. It should be completed a minimum of six weeks prior to the beginning of the next quarter.
- The Representative commits to not book other engagements that interfere with the set schedule. While a rare exception such as a family emergency may arise, the Representative agrees to contact church Leaders as soon as possible to negotiate a schedule change and to release the church from those financial obligations.
- Similarly, once weekends are set, the church commits to honor the schedule and meet their financial responsibilities to the Representative. In the event a commitment on the church calendar was overlooked or a last minute change to the church calendar is made so that the Representative’s presence is not required on a particular Sunday, the church is responsible for negotiating a different weekend with the Representative if possible. If not, the church will pay the Representative’s fee for that weekend and cover travel expenses already incurred.
- Because of travel uncertainties such as weather/mechanical and cancelled flights, both the Representative and Leaders will demonstrate mutual trust and grace when unforeseeable events threaten the Representative’s ability to be present on a weekend or delay his travel home. The Representative agrees to do all he can to arrive in time to meet the weekend’s obligations by carefully planning flights and finding alternative transportation. The church agrees to rearrange schedules if the Representative is delayed or make alternative arrangements for speakers if he cannot arrive at all. Should a weekend be missed for such reasons, the Representative will attempt to reschedule with Leaders and make up the weekend if possible. The Representative will attempt to negotiate for a flight refund. If the airline does not refund, the church will be responsible for change fees.
FOLLOW-UP
- The Leaders agree to a final assessment to help formulate mission-critical tasks for the first year of the new minister’s tenure. These tasks should be understood as responsibilities shared between the minister, Leaders, and congregation. Your IMP Representative will spend one of the final weekends summarizing findings and helping formulate goals and priorities as you move forward.
- The Leaders, Search Team, and new minister agree to honestly evaluate the work of IMP to identify how services can be improved.
- Upon minister arrival, Leaders understand that effective follow-up is crucial to long-term success of the Church/Leaders/Minister relationships. Leaders agree to:
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- Strongly consider a mentor/coach for the new minister on a monthly basis for the first year of tenure. IMP will help identify an appropriate mentor/coach.
- Consider a similar arrangement for mentoring/coaching the church’s leadership. Again, IMP will help with these arrangements.
- Quarterly follow-up conversations over the first year with the IMP Representative to discuss the Church/Leaders/Minister relationships and trouble-shoot difficulties that may arise. These conversations will also address and recommend an evaluation process whereby both the minister and the Leaders are mutually accountable to each other.
RATES, FEES, AND EXPENSES
Introductory Interim Season Seminar
- (<200 church members) $1750 plus expenses (travel, hotel, car, fuel, parking, meals)
- (200-500 church members) $2000 plus expenses (travel, hotel, car, fuel, parking, meals)
- (>500 church members) $2250 plus expenses (travel, hotel, car, fuel, parking, meals)
Search Consulting/Preaching Weekend
- (<200 church members): $1500 plus expenses (travel, hotel, car, fuel, parking, meals)
- (200-500 church members): $1750 plus expenses (travel, hotel, car, fuel, parking, meals)
- (>500 church members): $2000 plus expenses (travel, hotel, car, fuel, parking, meals)
Search Consulting/Preaching weekends involve traveling to your site on Saturday, meeting with the shepherds, Search Team, and/or other church leaders Saturday afternoon or evening to address leadership matters and the search process; preaching on Sunday morning and teaching class if needed; and engaging in such other meetings as time permits before traveling home.
Your church will be responsible for the Representative’s travel expenses (airfare, rental car, fuel, parking, hotel, and meals) while traveling for work with your church. Expenses will be included on invoices and receipts are available to the church’s point person upon request. All invoicing will be through Hope Network Ministries, IMP’s parent organization, whose board and management oversees our work.
Quarterly Technology Fee
- $250 per quarter
The IMP process relies heavily on technological tools to keep churches organized and on task, to help teams communicate, and to manage many details of a search process. With this fee, churches gain access to Trello, SurveyMonkey, Zoom, and other online tools that permit assessment, video conferencing, and project management. It also provides IMP tech support for each of the tech tools provided.
OPTIONAL SERVICES AND FEES
At the Leaders’ request, the Representative may perform additional services. The following are services available to churches working with IMP in interim ministry and consulting relationships:
- Writing/Special Projects: $75 per hour
Churches sometimes request uniquely tailored materials for their use in planning, publication, training, or teaching. Churches often want our help in writing vision statements, mission strategies, etc. We are happy to partner with churches in this way.
- Assessment Reports: $250 per report
One of the most important facets of IMP’s work with a congregation is assessment. Churches often request that we do the analysis and written reports on those assessments. At the church’s discretion, these reports could include some or all of the following: Congregational demographics, members’ spiritual health, members’ perceptions of the church/leadership, ministerial preferences, qualitative analysis of comments to open-ended questions, community analysis, and local kingdom assessment. Samples of each report can be provided.
*A copy of this contract will be sent to the Church’s Point Person and the Church Leadership Representative via email within 72 hours of the contract being signed/submitted.
