Pastoral Leadership

Have you ever noticed how a lack of joy negatively impacts your ability to serve the Lord? And to collaborate with those you serve with?

When you host a special day or event as a church—such as for Resurrection Sunday or a graduation or conference—it is tempting to finish the event and then kick into low gear. Or, if you are Type A like me, finish the event and quickly move on to the next!

No doubt about it, Resurrection Sunday is a highlight of the year. I thank God for the opportunity it provides many churches for extended outreach and gospel preaching, and I praise Him for every soul saved around the world this weekend.

I’ll be upfront: as an independent Baptist pastor, I am concerned. Statistics bear that various groups are sliding, and every indication is that established independent Baptist churches are seeing fewer people added to the church by baptism.

In part 1 of this post, we set the context for wanting our music to be honoring to God and offered three principles related to music. In part 2 we looked at seven more principles, for a total so far of 10:

I have learned in the ministry that things are always changing. Transition, change, and flexibility are good words for a church.

In part 1 of this post, we set the context for wanting our music to be honoring to God, and we looked at three principles related to music:

I thank God for the gift of music. I am particularly thankful for sacred, Christ-honoring music. Music is an integral part of worship and edification. It can draw our hearts closer to the Lord and reinforce scriptural truths in our minds, or it can weaken our walk with God and pull our flesh toward the world.

For thirty years, Dean Herring spent his life ministering in South Georgia. During that time, he spent eight years as a youth minister, two years in evangelism, and twenty years as a pastor. He had the privilege of preaching at numerous youth camps, marriage retreats, and conferences across the country each year. But after a visit to Treasure Valley in southern Idaho, God began to impress upon the hearts of the Herring family that He wanted them to move to the area and plant a Baptist church.

Have you ever gotten to the end of a “day off” and felt just as exhausted as you did at the beginning? Have you ever looked back over the day and wished for a do over?

In 1989, First Baptist Church of Plattsmouth, Nebraska was on the brink of closing its doors. The church had been without a pastor for eighteen months. An elderly couple and one widow were the only church members remaining. But they decided to launch out by faith to call a new pastor. They believed God wanted their church to go forward, though many obstacles stood in the way.

My generation tends to think of a strong spiritual leader as someone who is authoritative and able to administrate from a position of command. Indeed, we see leaders like this throughout the Bible—Joshua, Nehemiah, perhaps Paul.

There’s a lot of talk in our day about transparency. Some of it is just talk in which people try to create an illusion of transparency where there is none. But biblical Christianity is transparent and free of guile.

We know that God is more interested in the spiritual health of a church than its numeric growth. A spiritually thriving church will be reaching people with the gospel and seeing people added to the church, but a church focused only on growth may be seeing people added without true conversion or spiritual maturity.

The average tenure for pastors and assistant pastors is somewhere between three to seven years. There are many reasons why pastors and assistants move on. We cringe to hear of the bad reasons, but sometimes ministry transitions are good for all parties involved.

If planning counts as productivity, the week between Christmas and New Year’s is my most productive! This is my week for setting goals and planning out the “big rocks” in my calendar for the coming year.

When Terrie and I moved to Lancaster over thirty years ago, I began an eighteen-month season of intense personal outreach. Every week, I would knock on no less than five hundred doors personally with a church invitation and a purpose to share the gospel at the door.

I meet once or twice each year with the senior men of West Coast Baptist College to discuss ministry philosophy and personal growth. As we met last month, I was encouraged by their sense of anticipation and eagerness for getting into the ministry.

Every pastor has former church members and former workers. It has been said that the average life of a church worker is seven years. That may be the average, but I am sure it is not God’s intended norm. Here are a few simple thoughts to help people be faithful in the work of God over a long period of time.

There is no greater leader, than the Lord Jesus. Two thousand years after His brief earthly ministry, the impact of His leadership is still being felt, books are written about Him, universities named after Him, churches meet weekly to worship Him, He was a leader among all leaders because people today are still following him! Why did people follow Jesus?