Clergy Coaching
Being a pastor can be a lonely undertaking. You may face difficult or new situations for which a conversation partner prove helpful. PneuMatrix coaches bring listening hearts as well as years of ministry experience to their work with church leaders. They can help you listen to both your deepest sense of self and the nudges of the Holy Spirit and then develop strategies for moving forward rooted in both.
Church Cluster Engagement
Over six months with a cluster of 6-8 congregations (more can be added for an extra fee). In addition, the judicatory (or its appropriate committee) will name an equal number of Adaptive Change Apprentices (ACAs), each one to be assigned to work with one of the participating congregations. This model, though designed for cluster learning within a judicatory can be adapted to a cluster of congregations of different denominations that are in the same community and may wish to focus on mission to that community.
This option is well-suited to a judicatory wanting both to serve an especially targeted cluster of its congregations and to build a bench of ACAs to remain in the judicatory ready to lead the next cluster of congregations through the process.
Individual Congregation Consultation
Over six months but can be fast-tracked to 3 months. Each meeting is a 90-minute Zoom, with a Team of 6-8 church members plus a pastor if there is one, appointed by the church to represent broadly the demographics and character of the congregation. There will be some homework between meeting and highly suggested reading of Tod Bolsinger’s Canoeing the Mountains. The focus is on teaching a congregation’s leadership to look at their future through an Adaptive Change lens, guiding the church team through assessment, discernment, and implementation.
This option is best suited to a congregation facing a leadership transition, in preparation for a Mission Study, or a church seeking a deeply different path forward from its current model.
Adaptive Change Training for Judicatory Leaders
A targeted consultation process to train judicatory leadership (staff and appropriate committee folk) to build a bench of internal leaders equipped to lead congregations through adaptive transitions. The focus can be on training appropriate committee members, creating an Adaptive Change Apprentice (ACA) bench, or staffing for transition. The structure can be with (preferred!) or without previous assignments of trainees to individual congregations they will be working with.
This option is a more affordable way to train an Adaptive Change bench within the judicatory while capitalizing on the strength of the cluster model.
Designing for the New Norm
PneuMatrix has developed a specialized approach to working with our more fragile congregations, with limited membership and less than full-time clergy leadership. Even as this profile of our congregation’s increases, they often suffer for lack of attention designed especially to their realities.
A four-part zoom series (normally monthly) targeting churches under 100 members and/or with less than full-time clergy leadership. Topics covered include:
How Church Has changed in this Post-Christendom and Post-Pandemic world; Discerning your church’s DNA; Dreams and Expectations/Sorrows and Grieving; Obstacles and Opportunities. This is sort of a “tasting’ menu” that is designed to engage congregations that need to get ‘unstuck,’ whether they are living in denial, paralysis, or exhaustion. We also offer a more in-depth and individualized version for this specific audience with our cluster model.
Pastoral Transitions
PneuMatrix offers an array of services to congregations and judicatories across a trans-denominational spectrum. We help search teams and judicatory committees develop the material they need to find a pastor for the 2030s, can provide a pool of vetted candidates to help you to find your pastor or associate pastor more quickly, and can help you right-size your staff to align your positions more closely with your vision for ministry.
Faith-Based Suicide Prevention
Soul Shop is a faith-based suicide prevention training ministry that equips faith leaders to train their congregations on how to minister to those impacted by suicide. We believe that suicide is largely due to hopelessness and isolation and that faith communities are in the business of both of those things. So Soul Shop challenges people of faith, with their faith, to show up as an act of faith to save lives and bring hope.
Our Presbytery hired PneuMatrix to evaluate our current leadership/staffing structures and help us make appropriate compensation recommendations as we move into this “new normal.” Additionally, PneuMatrix worked with some of our smaller congregations to think about new designs, structures, and opportunities, as many of our congregations’ attendance and membership numbers are dwindling. I would highly recommend PneuMatrix, as they bring a wealth of information and experience with lots of different congregations to the table. – Ariel Mink, Associate Presbyter and Stated Clerk of Redwoods Presbytery
Highly recommend! PneuMatrix worked with a dozen congregations in our Presbytery. These congregations were struggling with buildings too big for the membership to support, with neighborhoods changing and congregations being disconnected, with no clear path forward for the leading of God’s Spirit. PneuMatrix led and trained local leaders in a process that brought clarity, direction, and hope for ministry and mission .– Jay Wilkins, retired General Presbyter, Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley
I want to thank PneuMatix for excellently supporting the Pinnacle Presbyterian Church’s PNC in their search for two associate pastors. They expedited the search timeline while correctly discerning the needs of the congregation. Early returns suggest rave reviews across the board! - Dave LeMoine, co-chair, Pinnacle Presbyterian Church PNC
Our presbytery began a relationship with PneuMatrix in June of 2022, asking them to lead mission study discernment processes for five of our congregations. We’ve been very pleased with the ownership of the process and resulting mission study by the congregations. In addition, PneuMatrix is providing support for mission and ministry discernment conversations between congregations that may lead to mergers. We feel all of the consultants we’ve worked with are professional, pastoral, and do a good job of keeping the presbytery in the loop. I would highly recommend their services. - Debby Brincivalli, Executive Presbyter, Presbytery For Southern New Jersey
In October of 2021 Pinnacle Presbyterian Church engaged PneuMatrix and Jim Kitchens to assist in our search for two pastors - an Executive Pastor and a Family Ministries and Congregational Life Associate Pastor. These positions required distinctly different skills and background experience. Through Jim's leadership and counsel, the search committee identified the key position skill requirements and defined the methodology for the interview and evaluation processes. Once these processes were clearly defined, Jim assembled and vetted candidates for both positions that met our established criteria through his contacts throughout the country and personal relationships. At this writing, we have filled both positions with truly experienced and capable pastors that will help Pinnacle Presbyterian Church achieve its dreams for the future. The search committee believes the success of the search was largely due to the guidance and support of Jim Kitchens and PneuMatrix.
Highly Recommend! PneuMatrix worked with a dozen congregations in our Presbytery. These congregations were struggling with buildings too big for the membership to support, with neighborhoods changing and congregations being disconnected, with no clear path forward for the leading of God’s Spirit. Deborah Wright and Jim Kitchens led and trained local leaders in a process that brought clarity, direction, and hope for ministry and mission. – Jay Wilkins, retired General Presbyter, Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley
In September of 2022, our church began a search for a co-pastor to work alongside our existing senior pastor and head of staff. That December, we engaged PneuMatrix to assist in that search. That engagement energized and focused our search, and it gave our pastoral nominating committee and our congregation confidence that we would identify and interact with a strong, diverse, and nationwide pool of candidates. In addition to that exceptional candidate pool, our PneuMatrix consultant walked our committee through a process designed to identify the key qualities and characteristics that we sought in our new pastor. Our church is thrilled with the outcome of that search, and we think that the focus, guidance, and ongoing consultations provided to us by our PneuMatrix consultant played a critical role in that successful outcome!
- First Presbyterian Church, Lake Forest, IL
Jim and the team at Pneumatrix led us through an incredibly challenging but necessary staff reorganization. Jim diligently learned about our organization and listened to our staff and lay leaders in order to assess what kind of staffing structure would be needed in the future while still honoring our past. His organizational expertise coupled with his pastoral sensibility made him the perfect person to guide our church through this daunting task. As the head of staff, I never felt alone in this process and couldn’t have asked for a better partner during this time. – The Rev. Dr. Charlene Han Powell Senior Pastor | Head of Staff, First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley
’ve worked with Deborah Wright, a PneuMatrix principal, in a couple of different capacities… our Presbytery hired her as a consultant to evaluate our current leadership/staffing structures and to help us with making appropriate compensation recommendations as we move into this “new normal”. Additionally, I worked with her and some of our smaller congregations as part of a grant to think about new designs, structures, and opportunities as many of our congregations’ attendance and membership numbers are dwindling. I would highly recommend Deborah to you – she is very insightful. She has a wealth of information and experience with lots of different congregations in a variety of settings, and coupling that with her organizational design and change management expertise she brings a lot to the table. – Ariel Mink, Associate Presbyter and Stated Clerk of Redwoods Presbytery
