7 Pieces of Advice I Wish I’d Followed

I’ve been a believer for 42 years and a full-time minister for 35 years. I’ve had a lot of opportunity to make mistakes, and I’ve taken advantage of most of them. Here are seven times when I wish I’d listened to those who gave me good advice – but I was too obstinate to listen.

1. “Be sure to journal every day of your ministry.” One of my pastoral mentors did this for more than 60 years. In his journal he recorded the names of every person he visited, led to the Lord, baptized, married, and buried. As I get older and think about my ministry, I deeply regret not listening to him.
2. “Don’t rush things. Make sure she’s the right one.” I was a single pastor thinking about getting engaged. I didn’t listen, rushed things, ended the engagement months later, and offered my resignation to my church’s deacons. I thank God they supported me enough to love me through my mistake.
3. “Please don’t invite him to preach again.” All preachers can remember our bad stuff, but in this case, my church almost rebelled because a guest’s preaching wasn’t good. I wanted to affirm him, though, so I didn’t face reality. That decision didn’t help him or our church.
4. “That’s the wrong motive to give him a position.” I was a young pastor, and I was sure this brother would be more committed to the church if we gave him a leadership role. My leadership theology was wrong, and I wish I had paid attention to those who warned against this move.
5. “You need to let them give you a raise.” I thought it was the right move to save my church some money, but it ended up hurting my family. I should’ve listened.
6. “Be careful about hiring church members.” We all want to help people in our congregations, but I occasionally learned the hard way that hiring a church member can create long-term difficulties.  
7. “Plan your preaching.” At the time, I thought that planning my preaching for several months was taking the role of the Holy Spirit. What I learned instead was that not planning – trying to figure out what I was preaching from Sunday to Sunday – was a bigger problem.

Leaders, what other advice do you wish you would have followed?