Speaker: Kerry Bart, Pastor
Kerry Bart: My name is Carry Bart. I'm the pastor at Epworth United Methodist Church in Ripley, West Virginia.
How did the On-Boarding process help you and your ministry?
Kerry Bart: I've been in ministry for over 20 years and had been through several different appointment changes. And this is the first time that we had an on boarding process. And uh we started our onboarding several weeks after uh July 1st. So I had been in the congregation for a little while but to have an outside facilitator come in and spend some time with the staff of the church uh and then to go over the staff responses and, and then have a time with the staff together and then to do the same process with the congregation. Uh That was very good. Uh It, it gave uh good opportunity to uh communicate clearly. Uh Even though we'd started to get to know one another and, and we got to know one another and uh we're able to uh figure out some things about where we wanted to go and, and uh some missteps that we wanted to avoid.
What would you share with pastors and congregations who will be part of the On-Boarding process in the future?
Kerry Bart: I'll be honest. Uh The, when I introduced this idea to the staff, they were resistant. Uh But then they found out that this was really a beneficial time for getting to know one another and how we could work together. Uh I personally found a great benefit in having uh an outsider um who wasn't involved in, in my life or the life of the church uh to facilitate this discussion.
