What do younger pastors need?

At a denominational gathering one day we were discussing the problems younger pastors face when they begin their ministries. I don't think there is little argument that many pastors were not prepared for pastoral ministry by their seminaries. While a seminary education is a good thing, in most cases, many of them do not adequately prepare someone for the challenges of pastoral ministry. While they may have a basic knowledge of biblical languages and understand the history of their denomination, few pastors leave seminary trained in how to lead a meeting or how to deal with church bullies. Few have a good understanding of how to manage their time or how to set priorities and goals.

So many new pastors find themselves in trouble soon after beginning their pastorate, and we were trying to determine how we could best help them. One suggestion was to help them find mentors.

We wanted to match our new pastors with one of our more seasoned ones. Finding a good mentor can be a rewarding experience  regardless of what one is doing at the time. A mentor is one who has walked where you are going and is willing to share his or her life's lessons learned along the way.

On the surface, it sounds easy to match a mentor to a young leader, but in practice, it's not that easy. We found some new pastors were not interested. They either did not feel they had the time or they did not believe having a mentor would be a positive thing for them.

This is a very short-sighted approach. No, you won't have the time. You make the time. This is an investment in your future as a ministry leader, and like nearly all investments, there is an initial cost involved.

To believe you will not benefit from having a mentor is not just short-sighted; it is arrogance magnified many times over. These senior pastors have experienced many things throughout their ministries. Some good and some not so good. Why not learn from their experiences rather that have to go through them yourself?

When I began my pastoral ministry in the early 1980s I soon found myself in the church office of one of the senior pastors in our association. As we talked about pastoral ministry he related how he had ignored his family while serving the church. I won't go into details, but that failure on his part was now coming back to haunt him.

I left that meeting with this pastor determined to not make the same mistake. My family would be a priority even if it cost me my ministry. The church I was serving had many pastors in its long history, and if the Lord tarried, would have many more after I left. I was the only husband my wife had, and I was the only father my children knew. I would not neglect them in an effort to climb the "ministerial ladder of success." Today, thirty-five years later, I'm convinced that I made the right decision, and that decision was prompted in part because of that meeting with a more experienced pastor.

Find someone to mentor you. Take them out to lunch and pick their brain for an hour or so. Take plenty of notes. If they suggest something, make every effort to do it. A mentor is giving up part of his or her life to invest in you, and they want to see you taking this relationship seriously. If you'll do this, you will learn some things about ministry you'll never hear in seminary. You will be exceedingly glad you did.

Finishing well

I recently read that one study found that a very high percentage of pastors had ministries that did not end well.  This past weekend I had the privilege of attending a retirement party for one pastor whose ministry did end well.  It spanned over 40 years and included pastoring the same church (the one from which he recently retired from) three times.  In between those pastorates he had several very successful interim pastorates.  His church would not hold the expected crowd so his retirement celebration was held at the local school.  I would estimate the invitation-only dinner crowd at 150-200 people, and I do not know how many people came for the open house earlier in the day.  This individual was not only pastor to his church but to the entire community.

Three denominational leaders, including myself, spoke of our relationship with this pastor and his wife.  Each of us had been profoundly impacted by his ministry and his friendship.  One summed up this pastor's ministry by noting that he had never seen him act in any way but pastoral.  He did not mean by that comment that the pastor had merely acted pastoral, but that he was pastoral.  My experience with him is the same.

My friend never pastored a megachurch nor did he serve in some large metropolitan area. His was a median size church located in a small community surrounded by farm land. He never wrote a book, although he tells me he is writing one now. He was never a featured speaker at a church growth conference. He just went about his ministry serving the people God entrusted to him. When we would eat lunch together everyone we saw wanted to speak to him. He was indeed the pastor to the community.

It is exciting to see a pastor have this kind of impact on his or her church and community.  One can only imagine how many people his ministry has impacted over the course of his ministry.  When it was his turn to speak the words did not come easily.  He was obviously humbled by the love demonstrated in that room and very quickly reminded people that anything he had ever done in ministry was possible only through the power of God in his life.  Reflecting on the evening later I could only sum it up by noting that he was one who has finished well.

I would think every minister wants to finish well, but we need to remember that such an ending to our ministries does not happen by accident.  There are simply too many opportunities over the course of a long ministry to get tripped up.  We can fail to grow and develop as leaders and fail to lead our churches in the vision God has for them.  We can stop learning and fall prey to outdated ideas and ways of thinking.  We can not understand the changes that occur in society and become irrelevant.  We can become isolated and find ourselves involved in behaviors that will wreck our lives and ministries. 

If we want to finish well we must intentionally plan to do so.  We must intentionally seek growth opportunities.  We must learn what is happening in our neighborhoods and in the lives of people and address them from a biblical perspective.  We must commit ourselves to learning new skills that will improve our ministries.  We must develop boundaries that will guide our behavior.  We must maintain balance in the important areas of life - God, Family, Ministry, and Self-Care.  If we do these things we can enjoy a good end to our own ministries.

My friend's ministry really hasn't ended.  He reminded me that night to keep him in mind if I have churches that need someone to fill the pulpit on a Sunday or perhaps even need an interim pastor.  He said that he believes he still has some good ministry left in him.  And, that's the way to finish well.

The plight of older ministers

As I work with pastor search committees I find that many of them are wanting a young creative pastor who will bring new life into their churches.  There are several things wrong with their request.  One, quite often if a pastor does attempt to do anything that will bring new life into a church it is met with resistance.  A church once told me they wanted a pastor who would grow their youth group.  A few months after calling a new pastor I met a member of that church's search committee at a restaurant.  When I asked if their pastor had grown a youth group in the church she replied that he had.  I commented that must have made the church happy, and she replied that it had actually created problems in their church.  Many of the older members were upset because the pastor was spending all his time with the young people and ignoring them.  Some had left the church and others had quit giving creating some financial problems in the church.  That pastor did not last long.

About a year ago I met with the search committee of another bivocational church who told me they wanted a pastor who would grow their church.  I had never done this before but this time I asked, "Are you sure about that?  You do realize that if you could grow this church by doing what you've been doing it would already be growing, don't you?  That means you are telling me you want a pastor who will come in here and turn everything upside down.  Is that what you really want?"  They began to look sideways at each other and smile.  Finally, one of them said, "Maybe we need to think about that for a little while."  The fact is, many older, established churches really don't want a new pastor to bring new life into their church.  They want a chaplain, a caretaker, someone who will love them and be there for them and keep things relatively calm, and if any growth does occur without upsetting things that will be a plus.

The other problem with the original statement is the belief that young pastors will be more creative than older ones.  That simply is not always the case.  Yes, there are some older pastors who are very traditional in their approach to ministry, and they are locked into doing things like they did when they began ministry thirty years ago.  However, there are many pastors nearing the age of retirement who are very creative in their approach to ministry.  These pastors draw from a lifetime of experience and study and are not afraid to take risks and try new things.  Some ministers fresh out of seminary only know what they were taught in their seminary classes which are not known for being especially creative.

I recently had lunch with a minister colleague who is seeking a place to serve.  His concern is that he is in his early 60s, and he knows many churches will not be able to move past his birth year when they look at his resume.  Talking with this person it was obvious that he has great insights into ministry and probably has many more good years to serve, if a church will give him that option.

Reading through the Old Testament it seems that many of God's choicest servants began some of their best ministry in their later years.  It seems a shame that some of our churches fail to see the value in the experience and wisdom that many of our older pastors could bring them.  These ministers who have seen and heard it all could be the non-anxious presence that some of our churches need to be able to move forward.

When I was in my early 50s a denominational leader told me I should try to be where I wanted to finish my ministry by the time I was 55.  As I now work with churches looking for pastors I see some who are willing to consider a person who is approaching 60 years of age, but not many.  Even fewer will consider someone older than 60.    That's a shame because there are many ministers 60 years of age and older who still have a lot to offer a church.  They are sharp, active, and quite creative in their thinking.  They certainly are not ready to retire.  I believe many of our churches would be well served by these older clergy persons.  If your church is seeking a pastor do not automatically discount those whose age might be above your "magic" number.  You could be missing out on the perfect person for the position.  In fact, you could be missing out on the person God has prepared to be your next pastor.