I want to know more about you.

Running Rookie Pastor is incredibly rewarding for me and something of a secondary calling for me. Ultimately it isn’t about me. Sure I have used this forum to work through some tough issues from my own ministry past, but this is ultimately about pastoring to other pastors and church leaders.

Understanding a bit more about you will help. The survey is seven short questions, mostly demographic type multiple choice to understand where you are coming from along with a few open ended questions about how I can better serve you.

So if you would please hit one of the links in this post and fill out the survey. I’ll be sharing results in a few weeks.

Thanks.

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.

Really. Really. Awesome.

This was taken the day after delivering our first son after 24 hours of labor. Let me tell you a bit about my incredible wife.

I met her in Freshman Greek class, she sat in the front I sat in the back. She got an A, I struggled and didn’t sign up for the second semester. Thankfully I got to know her and we both ended up running around with the same group of friends. She had a boyfriend back home and nearly from the start I was ecstatic to get put in the “friend zone”.

Over that freshman year we became good friends, despite the fact I was hoping for more. In that friend stage that would turn out so important we laughed a lot. We laughed at each other, at bad jokes and corny movies.

Laughter has always been central to our relationship. One time we got called out in the middle of a lecture hall during freshman ecology for laughing and talking in the back. Joking was how I tried to navigate out of the friend zone.

After she became single and we began to move towards dating, it was the friendship and humor that got us through the potentially awkward transition. Once we started dating we never broke up. We were committed to being friends first and I think that got us through the ups and downs of dating.

When I finally got up the nerve to ask her to marry me, her first response wasn’t to say yes (that was her second response) it was to laugh.

Our first ministry event together was an open house in the parsonage, when we spilled a bowl of pretzels minutes before people we didn’t know showed up to walk around our (their) home I told her: “laugh or cry babe, laugh or cry.” It has become a bit of a mantra for us.

The night before she went into labor we laid in bed talking and laughing about the day.

She is my best friend, my partner in life and ministry, my wife, and the mother of my son. She is incredible.

If you have one tell your spouse how much you appreciate them. Ministry is hard and they catch more of it than they should have to.

When our son let out his first cry we both laughed.

We named him Isaac.

Another great guest post in the Rookie Pastor Paternity Leave series.

3 Things Your Sabbath Shouldn’t be Without

I know the temptation. Every young or rookie pastor goes through it. It’s the “If I do more and take on more and do it well, I’ll get to where I want to go quicker.” It’s easy to do… and it’s good thinking… to an extent.

Sure, as young and green pastors and leaders, we have to work hard. We have to be dedicated to our church, our people, and our God. God doesn’t excuse lazy and we’ll never get ahead with a “Just get by” attitude.

That being said, though, God did give us a command to keep the ‘Sabbath’ holy. Now, don’t get me wrong, I won’t be legalistic and say that it has to be a certain day of the week. For Pastors, it’s not Sunday because we work on Sundays… we work hard. However, God put this Sabbath command in the midst of all the other ones that we Christians consider essential. In the middle of forbidding us to kill and steal and sleep around is the command to keep the Sabbath holy.

That goes for you too… young or rookie pastor!

You and I must find a day to rest… to be… to have a Sabbath. That may look different for each of us. Each of us have a different way of being, of refreshing ourselves, and of resting up. Whatever it looks like, a good Sabbath has these 3 elements (this is my opinion, don’t go looking for these verbatim in scripture, seminary grad …

Continue Reading…

This is part 5 of a blog series called Leading a Small Group.

Curriculum can ruin a good group, but it does not make a good group.

If you are like me and you have some responsibility in crafting the curriculum for multiple groups you know how hard it is to put good curriculum together. If you lead a group though, I think you are putting too much emphasis on the curriculum.

As a general rule of thumb when you are in a book study people want to be watching a video and when you are watching a video they will want more discussion in a book study. So if you are a creator give them what they want and stress variety. If you are a leader relax and accept that there is no perfect curriculum.

I respect and admire those that write curriculum from nothing. It is a gift that serves the larger church very well, but it is a rare gift. Don’t be afraid to adapt the work of someone else. The end product will be better and you will have more time to devote to the real work of small groups, developing relationships.

In small groups there is no such thing as plug and play curriculum. Everything needs to be adapted to fit your specific context. As you pre-game make sure you are changing language to fit your group and adding local flavor.

Make sure that the curriculum serves you, not the other way around. Whether it is an agenda or a list of questions realize that the people in front of you are more important than getting through your sheet of paper.

Life is going to happen and people are going to want to talk about things that aren’t on your curriculum. Always, always, always defer to these things initially. Some may prove to be a useless distraction that need to be moved past and others will be things that need to be addressed and discussed further.

The curriculum is a tool. Use it as such.