April 23, 2024 – Are you at the top of your craft? That's the essential question asked in Episode 10 of The Transitional Specialists Podcast: "What Transitional Specialists Can Learn from the Oscars."
The Oscar isn't given to the most popular movie or the one that grosses the most money. It is given to the movie that represents the highest achievement in movie making, as voted on by those whose business is movie making. It is an award for those who represent the highest professionalism in their work. It rewards craft, as intentionally practiced.
Similarly, a trained interim minister seeks to intentionally practice their craft. Each assignment is like a movie in that it must accomplish certain tasks and it runs a certain length. Our hope is to leave the interim ministry appointment having achieved the tasks or what a movie scriptwriter would call the plot points.
In our training of interims, we practice the five Formative Tasks in our work with the congregation, the "plot points" of our own craft. They are IDENTITY, DIRECTION, LEADERSHIP, CONNECTION, and PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE. How well we do those tasks is the measure of our effectiveness as transitional specialists.
So, for this episode, our podcast host, Bill Kemp, is moving from the "host seat" to the "hot seat" as he explains what it takes to seek excellence in our craft, not for something like an Oscar at the annual Academy Awards, but for much more, as we read in The Message version of 1 Corinthians 9:25, "... Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You're after one that's gold eternally."
Let's join this conversation about excellence with Bill, a seasoned United Methodist pastor and retired elder in the Western Pennsylvania Conference. He is also a novelist and self-help author and has served as a TIIMS (Transitional Intentional Interim Ministry Specialist) for 22 years. Let's find out what he has to say about how a good transition is like a good movie!
