Pulling Weeds And Planting Healthy Seeds: NCC Interim Senior Pastor Lee Moore

By Shannon Hicks

Newtown Congregational Church is going through some changes these days, internally and externally.

For the public, the biggest change for the church came last year when NCC’s old church house on Main Street was torn down and the church sanctuary on West Street underwent a major renovation. The church is now under one roof at 14 West Street — sanctuary, church offices, meeting and class rooms, and even a new kitchen and large gathering place called The Great Room are all at the same location.

Internally the church is also going through some major changes. Steve Gordon announced last autumn that he would be leaving NCC as its senior minister, a position he had held since 1988. Six months later, at the end of March, he gave his final sermon from the pulpit in Newtown.

It can be a difficult transition for a church to lose any member of its staff. Losing its senior minister left Newtown Congregational Church with a significant challenge. Members who had looked to their senior minister for years of comfort and guidance suddenly found themselves looking for guidance elsewhere.

For NCC associate minister Janice Touloukian, the departure by Steve Gordon meant additional duties on top of an already very full schedule.

Another result of Rev Gordon’s departure was that two search committees needed to be formed, one to find an interim minister and a second to find NCC’s new senior minister. Led by NCC senior deacon Bill Brett, the first committee was formed in January, and interviews with interim candidates began in March.

 On Tuesday, July 5, the Reverend Lee Moore signed a contract with Newtown Congregational Church to serve as its interim minister. His work with the church officially began on Friday, July 15, and he delivered his first sermon on July 17.

In that worship service he introduced himself to his new congregation. The Rev Moore began by reading Matthew 13:24–30, The Parable of The Weeds and The Wheat, and then offered his sermon, called “Sowing Good Seed.”

“I think it is easier to listen to someone talk if you know a little bit about that person,” he said.

Lee Moore is the eldest of five children. He is 63 years old and married to the love of his life, Carolyn, who he met while attending college. He is, he said, “a small town Ohio farm boy, and along with that comes all the farmer traits that you imagine.”

He and Carolyn moved to Connecticut in 1969. In 1988 they moved to Candlewood Lake in New Fairfield, where they still reside.

“I am a person of deep faith,” he said during his debut sermon in Newtown. “I love my wife. I’m straightforward. I don’t like to play games, and I don’t like people who play games.”

“I believe we’re bound together by a covenant. We agree to be part of Newtown Congregational Church. I expect people to be here regularly and actively participate,” he added. His straightforward approach was noticed immediately that morning, and has been seen each Sunday since, as well as at countless church committee meetings the Rev Moore has attended.

He speaks his mind, sometimes catching people off guard but always holding respect. His manner is frank without being pushy.

His sermon also included reference to Matthew 13:36–43, Jesus Explains the Parable of The Weeds.

“There are weeds in life,” Rev Moore told those in attendance that Sunday morning. “No matter how hard we work on our intimate relations there are weeds, aren’t there? Relationships with our spouse, siblings, parents, friends — relationships of all kinds.

“Even the most joyous life has weeds. Even the best churches have weeds,” he said, noting that he would be out in front of the church later that week to pull up some weeds that had encroached on one of the church’s gardens.

“There are also relationship weeds, perceptional weeds, and attitudinal weeds at church,” continued Rev Moore. “What are we to do? Some people dig their heels in, some stop attending as regularly, some will even think about sampling the wheat here and think about attending another church, of sampling the wheat elsewhere.

“I hope you will remain faithful to this church and your covenant. Interims are times of getting rid of weeds and nurturing wheat. It’s a time for the church’s health.”

The Rev Moore may be new to NCC, but interim work is far from new to him. From 1969 until 1998 he did Christian education work, and then he decided he wanted to do something different while still remaining in the church. NCC is his seventh interim ministry.

“What I bring is a lot of passion, or enthusiasm, to the church. I have been at this long enough to have a sense of what works and what doesn’t work.

“Churches don’t have to do what an interim suggests, but interims do have good ideas,” he said. “I try to make the church make its own decisions. It’s not ‘Do it this way or else.’ I bring a lot of different ideas from a different perspective. Because I haven’t been here too long, I’m looking at things with fresh eyes.”

His track record is good. The pastors that were selected for each church he has served as an interim with are still serving those churches.

“The work is interesting,” Rev Moore said recently. “You get to play in other people’s sandboxes with their toys. It’s so exciting, and sometimes challenging.”

Rev Moore has announced the five developmental tasks of interim ministry he is bringing into his tenure with NCC. These tasks, he reminded the congregation in its September newsletter, are for the church as a whole, not just him.

These tasks include coming to terms with history, discovering a new identity, strengthen patterns of lay leadership, strengthen denominational ties (both within the town with other churches as well as with the United Church of Christ’s Fairfield East Association), and prepare for new leadership.

The search committee interviewed six candidates, and each interview ran at least 2½ hours. Two candidates were also called back for second interviews.

“We did a lot of evaluation,” said committee chairman Bill Brett.

Search committee member Nancy Crevier called the interviews “exhaustive.”

For Mr Brett, Rev Moore’s past experience was a strong point.

“A lot of our decision had to do with his recommendations and his prior experience,” Mr Brett said. “His interpersonal skills of dealing with conflict resolution, and a strong preaching background, and the majority of his career has been dealing with difficult transitional ministry [were important]. His experiences in interim ministry, dealing with difficult situations, his strong push for stewardship and increasing membership were also important. And his personality helped.”

NCC Moderator Gordon Mounts and Trustee Bob Keegan were also a major part of the search process.

“The thing that impressed me the most is he’s perceptive,” Mr Mounts said. “He listens well, he questions well, and he’s very perceptive of what people have to say.

“I thought he would be a person to listen to our congregation. At the time the interim was a big thing on everyone’s mind and we thought he would do a good job in that area,” Mr Mounts added.

In his first sermon for Newtown Congregational Church, the Reverend Moore offered the congregation this: “I have a pastoral dilemma this week, and each week. Do I do my best job ever on Sunday? What, then, will you expect next week? Should I do my worst? Who will return?

“I will aim for just above average,” he told his new congregation. “I will plant good seeds of faith for you.”

When it comes to worshipping, he wants Newtown’s congregation to rethink the current approach.

“The common misconception is that you are the audience, I am the performer, and God is the prompter. He whispers something in my ear, I share it with you, and you either like it or not.

“That’s a bad habit. We need to get out of that habit.

“God is the audience,” said Reverend Moore. “We are here because we are worshipping Him. You are the actors, I am the prompter. I will prompt you and together, Lord willing, we will worship God week after week.

“My goal is to turn over to the next settled minister a church that is as healthy as possible. And I hope we will have fun. This should be a joyful experience.”