What Comes Next

How will the congregation be involved in shaping a refreshed vision for CTK Cambridge?

There is a Discovery and Vision Development process as part of the Cambridge Pastoral Transition process that started in early September. All members are welcome, needed, and encouraged to participate. The aim through the Discovery process is to collect a true and fair sample of CTK across all spectrums of its population. While some members of leadership (session, diaconate) will be involved, it will not be limited to leadership. The goal is to hear from the larger perspective of the church.

The Discovery Process as a whole protects against a church simply receiving the vision/aims of the incoming leader and having to adjust the church accordingly. It is about the next leader working with the church to clarify that vision and using his gift set to guide the church into the next stage of its life and ministry. This process is also not intended to retrofit the church with some new strategy or ministry model. Rather, this process is about getting down to who CTK actually is as a church (reality), determining what CTK wants and needs to be as a church (aspiration) and finding the right leader to bridge the gap between the two (leadership).

The first step was a "Discovery Weekend" with 25 participants on September 25th and 26th. The 25 participants were a cross-section of CTK’s membership, ranging in age, length of time at CTK, and various other criteria. During this weekend, the Discovery group walked through a series of exercises to try and answer three questions:

  1. What is the current reality of CTK?

  2. What does the church aspire to be?

  3. Who is the next suitable leader for this vision?


From interviews, surveys, and the Discovery Weekend, an assessment of the church was drawn up. That assessment has been shared with the entire congregation for additional input via a survey, so that everyone can be involved and have a voice.

Who leads CTK in the absence of a senior pastor?

A key part of our transition plan includes the placement of an Interim Pastor. Interim Pastors are seasoned pastors who - in their retirement - bring the wisdom of their life and ministry to transitioning churches. He will not be a candidate for the new senior pastor position but will serve in that role until our new leader is found. His job is to help transition us from Rick to our next Senior Pastor.

On a pastoral level, the Interim Pastor is expected to fill the same roles as Rick, without the local knowledge and history. Interims never assume they are going to establish the same relationships as the previous pastor, but they will provide all the core competencies of any lead pastor would (preaching, teaching, counsel, leadership).

In April of 2021, the CTK session issued a call to Rev. Clyde Godwin to be our interim pastor.

Is the Session going to pick our new pastor? How does that process work?

No, in our system of church governance, pastors are elected directly by the members of the church. CTK will form a Pastoral Search Committee (PSC) made up of members of the congregation and church leadership who will lead this process. At the end of the process, the PSC will make a recommendation to the congregation for a candidate that the members will vote on. The Presbytery also has to approve the elected candidate as a final step in the process. Please check out the PSC’s web page for more information on where they are in the process.

What is happening with the CTK congregational network?

The CTK congregational network (our multi-congregational church) has had a number of churches “particularize” in the past couple of years. This means they have become stand-alone churches with their own Sessions. Our congregation, CTK Cambridge, remains actively a part of the larger CTK multi-congregational church, along with Dorchester, Boston North, and Quincy. The Session of CTK has recently completed a plan for the future which defines our relationships and ministry efforts as a multi-congregational church for the next five years. This plan will be presented to all the CTK congregations at meetings in the near future and will be incorporated into the Discovery and Vision Development phases of the Cambridge pastoral transition process.