December 8, 2023 – The title for Episode 9 of The Transitional Specialists Podcast comes from a verse in an old hymn, "new occasions teach new duties." This phrase describes the task before church leaders and transitional specialists amidst all the current foundational changes going on in our world and the Church.
So, for this podcast we decided to talk to a person who is smack dab in the middle of those changes serving as the pastor of a new church for United Methodists whose former church disaffiliated from the denomination AND who is also a conference staff person AND a veteran Transitional Intentional Interim Ministry Specialist (TIIMS).
Our conversation is with Rev. Bonnie Osteen, an ordained elder in the Texas Conference where she served six churches before her 2015 appointment as the Conference Coordinator of Intentional Interim Ministry. She is also a past president and now the treasurer of the Board of Directors of the national Transitional Intentional Interim Ministry Specialists Association (TIIMSA). However, recently she has become the planting pastor for St. Matthew United Methodist Church (UMC) in Jacksonville, Texas, after the former First UMC there disaffiliated and joined the Global Methodist Church. First UMC was where she and her husband had attended for many years along with most of her new congregation who also left that church. So, it is apparent that her recent life experience parallels much of what has been happening in the UMC denomination as a whole, but she uniquely brings the three perspectives of personal experience, local church involvement, and conference/national leadership.
Who else could better speak to that verse from the 1896 hymn, "Once to Every Man and Nation," that says "New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth, they must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth."
Our podcast host is Rev. Bill Kemp, a retired elder in the Western Pennsylvania Conference, who brings his wisdom as a seasoned United Methodist local church pastor, self-help author, and an experienced TIIMS. This is an inspiring conversation about this season of learning "new duties!"
