Listen to this articleBelow is an interview with Laurel Schumacher, Chief Operating Officer at VitalChurch Ministry.
Q: For those who have never heard of it, how would you describe VitalChurch Ministry?
A: At the most basic level, VitalChurch is a group of people who are called to work with churches in crisis and transition. Most churches, for varying reasons, will find themselves in a season of crises or transition at some point, and it can leave them aimless, confused, and ineffective.
At VitalChurch, it is our passion to come alongside churches during some of their darkest seasons and walk with them as they seek to find the call that God has for their church, so they can return to health and impact their community for good. We work to bring churches back to a place of intimacy with Christ, bring about real and lasting change in every church we serve, while addressing the systemic issues that keep a congregation from flourishing.
Our organization is staffed with intentional interim pastors who serve for a season in churches to help bring about needed change. We also have individuals on staff who are experts in church diagnostics and can provide churches with an accurate picture of their current reality.
Throughout our entire process we are asking the question “What is God’s preferred future for THIS church.” We have a three-step process: 1) Discern: Through our diagnostic analysis process we are able to identify a church’s strengths and weaknesses, move past the presenting issues to discern the systemic issues or real issues, and provide specific recommendations to the church on their path toward healing. 2) Implement: Generally, one of our intentional interim pastors will serve as the church’s lead pastor for between 12-24 months to help the church implement the recommendations that come from the discernment process. In this step, the pastor works within the church’s structure to address their specific issues and equips the church and the church leaders to be able to move forward effectively and in health. 3) Follow Up: It’s a joy to serve the churches we do, and we want to continue to serve them after our in-person time is complete. We do this by providing coaching and mentoring for church leaders.
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Q: What’s your mission?
A: It is our mission to see churches reconciled and restored to unity, with gifted leadership in place, gospel values embedded, effective governance, an exciting mission agreed on, and discipleship pathways engaged. We do this through a proven, biblically based process that leads churches to a place of healing, hope, and revitalization. We envision many more churches, large and small, operating in unity and effectiveness through a movement of the gospel, creating pockets of blessing and changing the spiritual landscape for good.
Q: VitalChurch changed its name in 2016. Did the core functions of the organization change or shift at that time?
A: Our core mission at VitalChurch has remained unchanged over the years, though it has expanded! In 2014 the four pastors who were with VitalChurch decided that God was calling them to expand our ministry impact and reach by recruiting and training new pastors. This decision led to a rebrand of our ministry, as well as a parting from our parent mission organization that we had been serving under for two decades.
Additionally, our passion for the Church has led us to pass on the knowledge and wisdom we’ve accumulated over the years to anyone interested in church revitalization or interim ministry. We do this through our annual intentional interim pastor training events.
Q: How can people donate you? What should people know about where their money goes to help churches?
A: People can donate to us by visiting https://vitalchurchministry.org/donate and selecting “VitalChurch Ministry Fund” under “Purpose”. At VitalChurch we are passionate about serving churches, but unfortunately, sometimes the churches who need our specific services the most are not able to afford them. A portion of the contributions to VitalChurch help to provide what we call Compassion Grants so that we can answer the call of every church who contacts us.
Additionally, we are in a phase of growth, as the needs of churches in transition continue to increase. We desire to expand our capacity in all areas of our ministry: diagnostic division (developing a diagnostic platform, expanding our diagnostic team), intentional interim pastors (training and recruiting pastors called to this line of work), and coaching/peer mentoring (providing churches with access to parts of our ministry without a full interim pastorate). A very small percentage of donations is allocated for administration. Most goes directly to the area of need, and since we are a nonprofit organization, all donations to VitalChurch are tax deductible!
Q: What can we expect from you later in 2021? What are your plans?
A: This Spring, our annual Intentional Interim Training Event is taking place online. This is the first time we’ve done this event online and we believe that the online platform will open this training up to people who have been hindered by travel in the past. The training is an excellent opportunity for anyone who works in or with churches to gain useful tools for diagnosing common issues and facilitating real and lasting change.
We are seeing the number of churches in crisis and transition growing. In response, we are looking to grow our own team of interim pastors and our diagnostic division staff this year so that we can continue to meet the needs of the churches who seek our help and expand our reach geographically.
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