In the midst of all the excitement about the Republicans regaining control of the Senate and extending their control in the House some are now reminding anyone who will listen that their next challenge will be to govern. No doubt, some of the voters selected candidates based upon their own frustration at the failures of those currently in office. As a nation, we have grown tired of the stalemate that has existed for too many years, and it has hurt us economically, socially, militarily, and in nearly every other area of life. Americans have selected new leadership, and the challenge for these individuals is to now lead our nation.
Relax, I'm not going to explain how that should happen or what it should look like. We in ministry face the same challenge that these new Republicans face. I still vividly recall that Sunday night in July 1981 when the impact of a church vote that morning hit me. Following a trial sermon that morning the church voted unanimously to call me as their next pastor. To say I was excited would have been an understatement. I'm not sure I stopped smiling the rest of the day. That night I laid down in the bed when suddenly I sat straight up. The thought had just entered my mind, "Now that I've got them, what am I going to do with them?" I had no pastoral experience and no education beyond high school at that time. I knew God had called me into the ministry, but now I had a church and no real idea what to do next.
There are many serving as bivocational ministers in the same situation I was in. Lacking experience and ministerial education we can quickly feel overwhelmed by all the responsibilities that goes along with being a pastor. New ministers have no idea what it's like to prepare a new sermon (or two) every week. We don't understand the administrative needs of even a small church and the amount of time we will give to those needs. It can quickly get overwhelming when people start coming for advice or counseling. We know we've been called to lead our church; it's just that we didn't know what that entailed and now we're not sure we can provide the leadership our church needs.
When a newly elected politician begins his or her term, it's important that they get the lay of the land. They need to find out who the players are and how things really work in the political world. Ministers need to take the same approach. I did very little for the first few months except to spend time knowing the people and learning the history of the church. My first business meeting was rough because I made a recommendation that was met with angry opposition. Later I learned that people were not responding to me or even the recommendation I made; they were responding out of emotions my recommendation caused them to have. There was a painful episode in the history of the church I did not know about, and that caused the reaction I received. I knew after that night that I needed to spend some time learning more about the church's history and how things really worked in that church.
When these newly elected individuals go to Washington the wisest ones will begin spending time with some of the senior congressional leaders to learn more about how things operate. Ministers should follow the same strategy. I have been pastor of my church for only a few short months when I made an appointment with one of the older pastors in our association. He had been in the ministry for a number of years and in his present church for much of that time. I considered him a good pastor and knew I could learn much from his experiences. I was right. The afternoon I spent with him, and others, were very helpful as I began my own ministry. I learned some things to avoid in ministry. It was far better for me to learn these things through the mistakes they had made than to have to make those mistakes myself.
During the election I heard numerous complaints from politicians about how their opponents missed votes and committee meetings. For the first few months you can almost guarantee that these newly elected officials will demonstrate how hard they are willing to work. We in ministry must do the same only we can't do it just for the first few months we are at our post. Ministry is hard work, and if a person isn't willing to work hard he or she should not consider ministry to be their calling. The church I served was blue collar, and one of the things that helped me as a bivocational pastor was that everyone knew that every day I went to my factory job, worked an eight-hour shift, and came home and focused on ministry responsibilities. Not once in that 20 year pastorate did anyone ever question my work ethic. As the pastor, as a leader in your church, you must be willing to work harder than anyone else in your congregation.
While there is much debate over what mandate came out of this election I think it's safe to say that one mandate is that American people want to see results. If these newly elected individuals do not produce tangible results they may find themselves replaced the next time they run for re-election. When I became pastor of that small church it was broken in many ways. Some thought it was time to close its doors. After taking some time to know the people and the history we began tackling small challenges and seeing positive results. Even small victories can make a big difference in how people perceive themselves. Positive results led to people being willing to accept larger challenges, and when those produced positive results we took on even bigger challenges. Not everything we attempted succeeded, but because we had already accomplished some good things these failures were just seen as setbacks. Such victories are critical to the long-term success of a minister and the church being served.
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