Advice to new pastors

 For the past 40+ years it has been my privilege to serve in ministry. For 20 years I served as a bivocational pastor of a small, rural church. Fourteen years were spent in regional ministry serving, first 84 churches in my Area, and before retiring serving 133 churches in the same capacity. Since retirement (?) I have served two churches as Transitional Pastor. If you would allow me to, I would like to offer some advice to pastors who are new to pastoral ministry. These are things I have been fortunate to learn (some the hard way) that I pray will help you.

1. You are not the leader of your church. Your position as pastor does not automatically make you the leader of your congregation. There are people who have invested years of their lives serving the Lord and that church who are the real leaders. They are the ones others listen to, not you. You will have to earn the right to lead your congregation, and that can take several years of faithful ministry before you will earn the trust to be a leader in the church. What you must learn is to lead through the leaders. Yes, you may have some great ideas, but these need to be filtered through the recognized leaders of the church. They may point out some flaws in your thinking simply because of their experience with this congregation. It's often best if your good ideas are presented to the church through the lay leaders who are recognized as leaders in the church.
2. Many of your new ideas will be automatically rejected when they are first presented. A significant percentage of the congregation is happy with the ways things are even if they are no longer productive. Another significant percentage wants nothing more than peace in the church so they will side with those opposed to your new ideas. You can expect most changes in a church will take longer than it should as it takes time for people to adapt to new things. You are working with volunteers so you have little leverage over them. A good rule of thumb to remember: No one likes change except a baby.
3. The worship wars should have ended years ago, but it hasn't. There continues to be an issue between those who prefer traditional worship versus those who prefer a more contemporary style. (Of course, contemporary means different things to different people.) The church I most recently served as Transitional Pastor found the way to blend the two styles of music into each worship service as well as any church I have ever experienced. Most fail at doing this. If the church you serve is a new church you can probably use more contemporary music and worship styles with little problem. If you are serving in a more traditional church, it's not that easy. Worship is about finding ways to help people experience and worship God in a way that is meaningful to them. I believe it is a sin to ignore the needs of your more traditional saints who have been faithful to the church for decades in order to reach out to younger people with different styles of worship and music. At the same time, we cannot ignore their needs either. It remains a balancing act that will continue to be a challenge for many pastors and church leaders.
4. Although I could share much more I will close with this: You are not indispensable. From the moment you begin your ministry in the church you are a departing pastor. You will leave either vertically or horizontally, but you will one day leave if the Lord tarries. The cemeteries are full of indispensable people. Unless your church is a new church start, there have been pastors there before you, and if the Lord tarries, there will be pastors there after you. God has placed you there for a season. Your responsibility is to make the best of that season. One of your roles is to prepare the church for your replacement.

Perhaps later I will share more things I have learned that might make it easier for new pastors. Just remember this, if God has called you to this place it is because He has great things in mind here for you and for the church.