30 in 30: Do What You Know

This is part of a blog series that has 30 practical tips for the pastor looking to start or restart well. You can get the entire series as a Kindle book. The landing page will be updated with each new post.

It isn’t time to get cute.

In those first 30 days you need to let people see you as you naturally are. We all have a default ministry style that comes out in our sermons, as we lead volunteers, lead worship, and run a meeting and initially we need to sit in that style.

Let’s say in that initial month you decide to try out a different preaching style. You work with other staff and the community to get some video testimonies that compliment your sermon. It’s a hit but it takes an additional 15 hours on top of your normal sermon prep time. Now not only do you not have 15 hours to spare in those first few weeks, but you will never consistently have that amount of time to spend on something extra.

As good as it may be when you do it in those first 30 days people will expect that as the norm, which really complicates things if you found it to be unsustainable for you personally.

I’m not saying that you have to be all vanilla, but you need to remember that people are getting to know you and aren’t that concerned how creative you are going to be from the start. You already have the job, be yourself and set a baseline that people can get familiar with. Then share that creative vision with others who could help you pull things off down the road.