This past week, I published at Thom Rainer’s Church Answers website a blog entitled, “Twelve Things I Would Do Differently if I Were Starting Ministry Again.” That post has more detail, but here’s what I wrote there: I would pray more, counsel less, delegate more, spend more time outside my office, say “thanks” to my wife more often, study more for sermons, connect more with my community, spend more time with senior adults, listen to members wiser than I, take my days off and vacations, take a mission trip annually, and not allow criticism to defeat me.
As I reflect on that post, though, I realize there’s much more I would change, including:
- I would recruit a group of prayer warriors to intercede for me. This many years later, I now have a group of 20+ partners who pray for me each time I speak. How I wish I had done the same when I started pastoring!
- I would connect more with pastors in my local community. I, like other pastors, was too competitive and distrusting toward other church leaders. My pride hindered needed fellowship, and loneliness often resulted.
- I would more intentionally “call out the called.” I’ve written about this responsibility in the past, but it was years after pastoring that I realized its importance. We need to be vessels through whom the Spirit works in calling out new gospel leaders.
- I would give more attention to developing a plurality of elders in the church. I don’t believe this model is the only New Testament model for the church, but I do believe it’s the wisest model (as I’ve written elsewhere). I welcome this kind of structure.
- I would connect with a local Christian counselor and meet with him or her at least once a year for my own growth. This one may surprise you, but I realize now how much my upbringing and experiences affected how I pastored. Talking regularly with a counselor outside the church would have been good for me.
- I would lead the church to observe the Lord’s Supper more often. Both churches I pastored shared the meal once per quarter. Now, I would do it at least monthly, calling believers regularly to examine their hearts and focus on the Lord.
- I would make the church’s membership class a requirement. We had a membership class, but we “highly encouraged” attendance rather than require it. That was better than nothing, but I would now take the additional step of making the class a requirement.
- I would be more involved in the preschool and children’s ministries. I would want the next generation to know me well as their pastor, to enjoy hanging out with me, and most importantly, to feel comfortable turning to me for spiritual guidance at the appropriate time. They would be more likely to come to me as teens or adults if they’ve known me closely long before then.
- I would spend less energy thinking about the next ministry place I wanted to be. That is, I would focus more on where God has me today. I would hold to the words of one of my students years ago, “You can’t pastor well two churches—the one where you are and the one where you want to be—at the same time.”
Ministry leaders, what would you add to this list?