reTURN

What do you do?

• We train leaders to handle normal change in churches.
• We train people to handle conflict situations and live in biblical community.
• We coach and train intentional interim pastors and, when necessary, work as intentional interim pastors ourselves.
• We facilitate the resolution of systemic conflict in churches.
• We resource, train, develop, encourage, and equip interventionists and interim pastors.
• We work personally as interventionists (doing assessment and diagnostics) in local churches.
• We do leadership consultations on a variety of subject matters, including conflict, strategic planning, leadership training, personal and spiritual formation, and change management.
• We help churches deal with significant transitions.
• We preach and teach on personal transformation, building Christian community, and other biblical themes relevant to Christ-centered local churches.
• We work with denominations and associations in training and equipping their staff and interventionists to restore churches.

What don’t you do?

• We don’t mediate or resolve individual personal conflicts in a congregation.
• We don’t normally do traditional pastoral ministry or clergy services. When functioning as intentional interim pastors, we don’t normally do regular pastoral calls and visitations.
• We don’t do counseling ministry for marriages.
• We don’t write Sunday School curriculum.

How do you get paid?

As with all CRM staff, reTURN staff are essentially missionaries and raise their own financial support. When participating in an intentional interim or intervention, churches are expected to commit financial resources to offset the costs of the work.

What is your experience?

Since 1994 our staff have worked with more than two dozen churches in seven denominations in suburban, rural, and urban environments. Among the four current staff, three have earned doctorates in church restoration and church growth.

How do you get into a church?

Usually, churches themselves contact us through their denomination or an existing relationship with CRM. After being contacted, we meet with the church’s leadership team and use “An Introduction to Restoration” to introduce the restoration and intervention process. To download this document, visit the Resources page.

How long do you work with a church?

A diagnostic is usually done in two to three months. An intentional interim pastorate lasts roughly six to eighteen months. Doing intervention without actually pastoring the church has no time limit. Download “An Introduction to Restoration” from the Resources page for more information.

How do you measure reTURN’s success?

We are successful when a church is safe enough – when members are comfortable being transparent, honest, and accepted – for people to serve God’s missional purposes. We are successful when a church’s root issues are addressed and God’s plans for the church have been accomplished. This usually involves the establishment of a new team of leaders with the ability to move the church into its next phase of ministry.