Thoughtful Reflections on Faith and Life
While it is good to spend time with younger pastors, it is equally good to spend time with older pastors. There are pastors who have already experienced what we have yet to experience. They are a wealth of knowledge that we dare not take advantage of. There are pastors all around us who are retired … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Spend Time With Older Pastors” »
The day that I’m writing this is Good Friday, the day that we remember the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus is the focus of our faith and the inspiration for our ministry. How did Jesus lead? He let by self-denial and humility. What does a successful ministry look like? We may aspire to a ministry of … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Remember the Cross” »
No one understands what it is like to be a pastor like another pastor. We know both the joys and pains of pastoral ministry. Who better to pray for other pastors than pastors? We may be in a great chapter of our ministry or a challenging one, but we can all pray. Our experiences may … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Pray For Your Colleagues” »
Moses had his Joshua. Elijah has his Elisha. Paul had his Timothy and Titus. Who do we have? Every current pastor was once a young person who knew nothing about ministry. Ideally, someone came along side us and mentored us as we discovered our gifts and began to serve. There may have even been more … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Invest in the Next Generation” »
When it comes to ministry, we can look at our past and our present. But what about our future? Specifically, how our ministry will end? Our pastoral ministry will end, the question is whether it will end well or not. Too many pastors simply hope for the best. But we can do more than that. … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Plan to Finish Well” »
Most pastors are writers to begin with. Many of us write out a sermon manuscript, even if we may not preach from that manuscript. However, we can work on our writing skills. Developing our writing ability helps us to improve in our communication. Writing requires us to take an idea and present it in a … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Start Writing” »
Read the Bible? Who reads the Bible more than pastors? That’s the problem. We read the Bible to plan out sermons and Bible studies. But how often do we read the Bible to feed ourselves spiritually? I know from experience how hard it is to read the Bible as a pastor. I start reading the … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Read the Bible” »
Many of the pastors I know love to read. They have large libraries and collect resources to help with sermon preparations. But we can do better than just reading commentaries and other biblical resources. The way we can get better is to develop a reading plan. This can include reading books related to ministry, including … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Start a Reading Plan” »
There are many activities that a pastor can be involved in but prayer is one of the most important. There are many things that we can pray for but one of the most important is to pray for our congregation. Pastors can have congregations ranging from 20 people to 20,000 people but no size should … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better a Pastor: Pray For Your Congregation” »
One way to do ministry is to do it Sunday by Sunday. Each week, pick a passage to preach on. Start or stop ministries as situations come up. Hope for the best and pray it all works out. That is one way but not necessarily the best. Another way is to plan out our year. … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Plan Out Your Year” »
I was involved in a youth group at a particular church. The youth group traditionally went on retreats. One year, the youth pastor announced that Christians don’t retreat and so the time away was renamed an “advance.” I have since seen a number of churches call these events advances. With all respect to that youth … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Retreat!” »
In my first four months as a paid pastor, I gained about thirty pounds. This was the result of two things. One that I was spending much of my time getting together with youth at McDonald’s and Tim Horton’s. The other was that I was not getting much exercise. I was eventually forced to include … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Get Some Exercise” »
One of the biggest challenges that I face as a pastor is responding to mental illness. While I had a couple of counselling courses in seminary, I feel that I lack background in mental health. I spent some time as chaplain in the Canadian Armed Forces. They put a tremendous amount of emphasis on mental … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Mental Health” »
Most churches have some sort of vision/mission statement. They may have both. But more is needed than just having a vision statement. Even having the vision posted on the wall is not enough. It is the pastor’s job to put the vision in front of the church as often as possible. It is more than … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Focus on Vision” »
Some people embrace Christian apologetics and some have no interest at all. I would suggest that pastors don’t have the right to reject apologetics. Even if we are not interested, apologetics is necessary for our congregation. Even if we ignored Christian apologetics, that wouldn’t stop our people from encountering anti-Christian apologetics. There are plenty of … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Include Apologetics in Your Ministry” »
There are those who argue that for churches to grow it is necessary for pastors to give up pastoral care. I reject that. I think that being involved in some pastoral care is by definition part of being a pastor. Having said that, they are correct that pastors cannot provide all of the care. Not … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Include Laypeople in Congregational Care” »
Whether you are the solo pastor of a small church or one of the pastors in multi-staff situation, we are all part of a team. Out team might be other pastors, deacons/elders or a group of volunteers. A healthy team environment doesn’t come about by accident. It requires work. While it is not all up … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Build Your Team” »
Many churches have embraced the concept of disabilities. Churches want diversity of gender, ethnicities, age, economic status and others. But what about disabilities? I need to confess that I’m biased in this area. In addition to being a pastor, I’m also a father of two children with disabilities. We also have a number of people … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Embrace Those With Disabilities” »
Can you remember your time in Bible college or seminary? Were you counting the days until your graduation? Were you eager to finish your education? It is interesting to note that many other careers expect that education should continue. Some are required to earn a certain number of continuing education credits. Others are expected to … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Continue Your Education” »
In smaller churches, pastors are equated with preachers. But even in larger churches, many pastors have preaching as one of their responsibilities, although perhaps not every week. After preaching for a number of years, it is is easy to get complacent when it comes to sermon preparation and delivery. It would be a good idea … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Invest in Your Preaching” »
One of the best decisions I have made is to observe a Sabbath. A Sabbath is not just a day off. A day off can easily be filled up with other stuff. A day off is not necessarily a day of rest. A Sabbath is a 24-hour period of rest and focus on God. Obviously … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Observe a Sabbath” »
One of the best ways to become a better pastor to be intentional in lifelong learning. The worst thing is to see graduation from Bible college or seminary as the end of learning. There are many ways to learn but one of the most convenient is to listen to podcasts. You can listen to them … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Subscribe to Some Podcasts” »
There is much respect given to pastors who work long hours and who are always available to their congregation. But that doesn’t mean they are good pastors. What about their family? At one time there was talk of needing to balance church and family. Balance ideas have begun to fall away as a 50/50 split … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Focus on the Family” »
One of the best ways to build a long lasting and effective ministry is to cultivate an attitude of thankfulness. It is easy to focus on the things that are wrong or frustrating. Being thankful takes work and it doesn’t come about by accident. One of the things that I do is to blog weekly … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Embrace Thankfulness” »
This post in the series is by guest blogger Dave Jacobs. Dave coaches pastors and you can find out more about him in the bio at the end of this post. Why you need a coach I’m a coach. I don’t coach athletes, I coach pastors. In fact, I’m into my eleventh year as a … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Get a Coach” »
One of the frequent descriptions of pastoral ministry concerns the loneliness of being a pastor. It doesn’t have to be that way. While I think it is good to have friends within the congregation, it is also helpful to connect with other pastors who know the pressures of ministry. This can look a number of … Read More “31 Days to Becoming a Better Pastor: Connect With Other Pastors” »
I’m told that Christian job sites have biggest spikes of pastor resumes on Mondays. That is, it is most likely on the day after a Sunday service that a pastor is looking for a new position. The reason for this is that pastors put too much emphasis on what takes place Sunday mornings. Of course … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: No Major Decisions on Mondays” »
I have already talked about the importance for pastors to grow in their relationship with God in a previous post. Related to that but still distinct is the importance of worship. How are they different? When we seek to grow in our relationship with God, we are looking to receive something in terms of a … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Take Time to Worship” »
The two most important things a pastor needs to do is to love God and love people. Often the loving of God comes easier than the love for people. Some people are easier to love than others. What does it mean for us to love our congregations? It doesn’t necessarily mean that we are filled … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Love Your Congregation” »
You have likely noticed that during safety demonstrations by airlines that the stewardess always tells the passengers that in case of emergency they need to put the oxygen on themselves before helping another. The reason for this is that if you pass out from lack of oxygen, you are of no help to others. There … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Seek After God” »
I am not the best pastor in the world nor do I have all the answers. But I have been pastoring for over twenty years and have been able to serve in a variety of contexts. More than that, I’m still learning and know that I have a lot of room to grow. For the … Read More “31 Days to Become a Better Pastor: Remember Your Call” »
