Live.Awake

Stuff No One Told Me Before I Became a Pastor

// March 26th, 2009 // Church Life

So I’m almost 2 years into this gig and I figure I’ve got +20 more to go.  I only have 2 years of hindsight under my belt, but those two years have been packed with learning some things the hard way.  No one has called me “the new pastor” in a while so I figure that means I’m out of the honeymoon stage and can no longer be called a “newlywed”.

I suppose now I can look forward to the stage where I can’t blame my blunders on being “the new guy”, nor can I fall back on my “many years of experience” as a bona-fide.  It’s kind of like turning 25.  No one calls you “kid” or “young man” any more, but no one respects your age either!

What have I learned that no one told me before I signed the dotted line?

1. Trust your gut. Maybe I should say “Listen to the Holy Spirit”, but that’s less descriptive of what it’s like.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not one of these “just follow your heart and it will all work out guys”.  My heart gets me in trouble all the time.  I’m talking about that feeling in your gut when you are making a decision that seems right, but feels all wrong.  You have consensus on your team, the people are behind you, but in your “gut” it feels off.  You don’t have a good list of reasons why, and stopping now would be frustrating to everyone and might even make you look indecisive (a unforgivable sin for a pastor!).So you move forward and by the next day you are kicking your own bum for not waiting.I am learning to listen to that “still small voice” and heed it. Sometimes you just need to wait. Usually I discover that the reason for the hesitancy had to do with God’s timing or with some issue coming to light that no one saw at the time.
2. Vision is caught one person at a time. There are rare people that will hear you present vision publicly and totally get it right away.  Those people are gems.  Gifts from heaven.  Most people, however, need to hear it about 123 different ways and at least once they need to hear it face to face from someone.  In a small church, that someone is YOU, pastor B.  For them, there is no substitute for a lunch meeting, a phone call, or a little face time Sunday morning.  The good news is that once people really catch the vision for what God is doing, they evangelize it to everyone else.
3. Over communicate first, then take action, then over communicate about what you just did. Some people like change.  Most people don’t.  Some are deathly afraid of it.  You have to speak to all of them and pull them onto the bus before you take off.  It makes things take a lot longer.  A whole heck of a lot longer.  But, if you don’t value people enough to wait on them you shouldn’t be a pastor.
4. Delegate or Die. If you can’t give away the stuff that you shouldn’t be doing, then you are never going to make it.  Don’t be the guy that does the finances.  Don’t be the guy that has to do all the counseling, all the preaching, all the grass mowing, all the maintenance, etc.  Stop it.  Delegate.  Your primary responsibility is preaching, prayer, vision, and people.  Delegating means that you lose some quality control but that’s ok.  You’ll survive.
5. You’re going to blow it.  Get used to it. Whether it’s the classic “foot-in-mouth” disease, or some other poorly executed idea that was a bad idea to begin with, you are going to do the wrong thing at some point.  And everyone will notice.  You are going to make people cry.  You are going to forget to call someone when they get sick.  You are going to forget the bride’s name.  You are going to say something insensitive.  You might even do something so stupid that someone leaves the church and says mean things about you to their friends (I haven’t done that yet, but I’ll get around to it soon enough).  All you have to do is remember that God is the one that called you, He is well aware of what a mess you are.  Relax.  Go listen to one of your own sermons on grace and get over yourself.

I’ll probably look at this post 2 years from now and shake my head at what an idiot I was in 2009.  Oh well.  Hindsight.