A Bridge Between Seasons: The Impact of Faithful Interim Pastors
The interim pastor period in a church is vitally important,” Brian Saxon, SCBaptist Shepherd Team Leader, said. “There is a great opportunity for change in those seasons.”
That season arrives differently for every church, Saxon explained. Sometimes a church is saying goodbye to a well-loved leader after a decade of faithful ministry, or sometimes a church conflict reaches a breaking point. But Saxon has seen enough transitions to know that this period of time matters more than most churches expect.
“Because you’re short-term as an interim, some churches think you can only have short-term impact,” Saxon said. “But what I have found in so many churches, is that the interim pastor can almost be a catalyst for what is to come.”
It is a conviction that SCBaptist has invested in through an interim shepherd training program, equipping pastors to step into an often-challenging moment for a church and lead it to health.
Becoming an Interim Pastor at El Bethel
When Pastor Benjamin Littlejohn arrived as the interim at El Bethel Baptist in July of 2020, he had been through that training twice. The church had experienced some challenges and was down to around 40 members.
Littlejohn remembers sitting down with deacons when he first came on. “They said, ‘Hey, we got our work cut out for us,’ and we did,” he said. “I came and did what I’d been trained to do. Knowing they’d been through rocky times, I spent almost a year just listening, preaching, and loving.” His primary goal was to meet the people where they were. “The old adage is so true; people don’t care what you know until they know how much you care.”
Meeting the Church Where They Are
Another significant moment for Littlejohn was realizing that the church needed to acknowledge something the congregation hadn’t been able to name. “In the departure of their former pastor, they had to see it was okay to grieve. They didn’t know they could do that,” he said. He recognized this was a process that would take some time to work through. “For 20 years, you’re used to sitting in the same chair beside the same people, seeing the same face, hearing the same voice, and then boom, the next Sunday he’s gone for good,” Littlejohn said.
“The role is to love them where they are. So, when I got here, that’s what we did.” It was only after about a year that the church leadership moved into evaluation and planning for the future. The questions no one wanted to answer rose to the surface. Littlejohn recalled asking, “Should we close? Should we merge? Should we begin again?”
Making Plans for the Future
After laying a relational foundation, the real assessment began. “I handed about a 15- or 17-page document on what I saw they needed to improve on,” he said. Littlejohn was worried the church would be upset. He told them, “This is just a love letter. You may not see the love in it, but I’ll promise you there’s love on every page and every sentence.”
This is where Littlejohn began to focus the church outward rather than inward. “We started stressing outreach and discipleship. We started prayer walks. We started mission trips. We started getting involved in the community,” he said.
All the while, they continued to pray and ask the Lord for direction. “I’m telling you, here we are today because of God’s people and God’s prayer,” he said.
Transitioning the Pastorate
When the church began interviewing Jonathan Baldwin for the pastorate, Baldwin felt the impact Littlejohn had on the church immediately. “In one of those interviews, I asked them, ‘Why are you talking to me, and why haven’t you hired Dr. Littlejohn?’” Baldwin said. “But they said, ‘He’s not the one being called.’” Littlejohn had made it clear that the Lord had called him to be an interim for a season, setting the church up for healthy future growth.
And the church did grow under Littlejohn’s leadership. When Baldwin accepted the role of pastor, the church had gone from about 40 members to around 100. “Not only did Littlejohn take a church that was dying and build it back up, but he was also able to help them focus more on giving to missions,” Baldwin said.
While also paying down the church’s debt, there was a renewed effort to reach the nations with the Gospel through sacrificial giving. “The goals that he set and the people meeting those goals to give to Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong, and Janie Chapman—he set a precedent there,” Baldwin said. “It’s something that I’m just so happy to take the baton and carry forward his heart for missions and getting the Gospel out.”
Set Up for Success
For Littlejohn, the four years he spent as interim at El Bethel Baptist can be easily summed up. “In a short tale, we just loved the people, preached the Gospel, opened the doors, and people decided to come,” Littlejohn said.
Baldwin attributes it all to the Lord working through and utilizing ordinary faithfulness. “You can fill the pulpit and have people come in and preach, but to have someone who is intentional and trained come in, it helps so much for someone like me,” he said.
Saxon hopes that as SCBaptist intentionally trains and raises up interim pastors, it will impact the way the role is viewed. “Interims are literally bridging the gap between one pastor and another,” Saxon said. “And to be honest, whether you’re an interim or you’re a full-time pastor, it’s the same work. You’re shepherding people, counseling people, proclaiming God’s word, sharing Jesus,” he explained. “There’s great ministry done through our interim pastors.”