10 Things learnt as a young pastor

I’ve got a bad back, my hairline is receding and I am two stone heavier than when I got married…I feel thoroughly middle aged, however I am still seen (I hope, and I think!) as a young pastor.

I’ve served in three very different Elim Pentecostal churches and been involved in just about every area you can think of when you think of the church (alas I have yet to be invited to do anything with the women’s ministry, but I hold out hope).

During my 9 or so years in in “full time” vocational ministry I’ve learnt so much, and still know I have so much more to learn. Maybe you’re just a bit younger than I am, in ministry and still have a full head of hair if so, I hope I can give you a few nuggets to chew over and consider that have really helped me.

Of course it goes without saying that all of the below is absolutely meaningless without a healthy devotional life and a thriving relationship with Jesus that you are as excited about off the platform than you are on it. When all is said and done as I (hopefully) sit next to my wife in a wing backed armchair 20 years after retirement, I hope she can see me as passionate about Jesus privately as when I have been/will be when I preach my “best” sermon publically.

I have 10 points in no particular order… ready? Let’s go:

Serve under Secure Leaders

Sometimes this can be much easier said than done. My time in ministry has been marked by what I would coin ‘unusual opportunity’ I’ve been massively blessed.  I am so fortunate to have served under two amazing Senior Pastors who have been totally secure in who they are and of own gifting, because of this, I have been given platforms that by any rights I really shouldn’t have at the time and with the experience I had.

The insecure leader doesn’t leave room to breathe and doesn’t listen to any voice other than their own. Opportunity is rare and chances to explore your gifting and capability is difficult to come by. Where you can, seek out opportunity to serve under leaders you aspire to be around. Look for leaders whose peers and staff always talk well of – especially when they’re not around! This might mean turning down a paid role in one church to do an unpaid internship for 6 months or a year in another. I promise you time spent with the secure leader will pay more dividends than wages for a couple of months will. You’ll learn loads and be given opportunity you may not have otherwise got.

Serving the secure leader will sometimes mean turning down a paid role for an unpaid internship, for a season it is worth it. Click To Tweet

Enjoy your Season

Be absolutely content with whatever area your leader puts you in, you have been put there for a reason – even if it is only to fill a gap! You can learn from everything and everyone. Give as much attention to unblocking the sewage problem as you would sermon prep, give the mop as much love as you would a microphone. There are lessons to be learnt everywhere.

A lot of young leaders start out in kids and youth ministry, if you feel called to senior leadership in the future that is ok and not wrong, but please don’t see your time with children and young people as a stepping stone, see it as a whetstone, sharpening and honing your gifting.

Enjoy your season. If you are the youth pastor, love your kids and don’t push for preaching in the “main service”. If you can learn to preach and hold the attention of a group of 11-18 year olds for 15 minutes, you’ll learn so much that will help you in your communication skills for your future.  

Youth Pastors, don’t push for preaching in the “main service”. If you can learn to hold the attention 11-18 year olds for 15 minutes, you’ll learn so much that will help you in your communication skills for your future. Click To Tweet

Experiment with your style

If one of your current roles or future hopes is to communicate don’t worry about nailing your style week one, and please don’t try and rip off a Steven Furtick or TD Jakes message – remember these guys have been doing what they do for a long time and have honed their craft over many years and services – no one is expecting you to be them, and you shouldn’t either. A good mantra to live by is ‘glean from everyone, copy no one’. Solomon said it himself, “there’s nothing new under the sun” a particular point, or even a whole sermon might speak to you, so make it your own, and where you use someone else’s content, credit it to them, plagiarism isn’t just for university papers! And I also think, a message copied will often come across unauthentic – it’s apparent in your communication what has been birthed in you and wrestled with..

Communicators, plagiarism isn't just for university essays - don't rip off other peoples content as your own. Copy no one but glean from everyone. Click To Tweet

That being said, more than content experiment with your style, just like you would try on different outfits when shopping, try different styles of communication and see what feels and fits comfortably for you – and then be the best you, you can be. It wasn’t until maybe 5 years of regular communication I really felt that I had found my particular sweet spot.

Comparison will kneecap you

I won’t labour this point, we have all heard a hundred messages on 1 Corinthians 12 and that we all serve a particular part to play in the body, it’s true – at least we know it is in theory…Yet every now and again we all feel the creep of a whisper that passes our mind “I wish I could just be a bit more like…”

It’s a deep rabbit warren that you will never find your way out of. You are you, with all your amazing and uniquely given giftings and ability, your job is to cultivate what is in your hands and be the absolute best you that you can be.

Don't worry about anybody else's gifting, you are graced to do something uniquely, find out what it is, then be the best you that you can be. Click To Tweet

This past weekend we had an outreach event at the church we lead, Beki my wife, is also a minister – it was a no brainer for me that she should bring the message. Want a great bible study? I’m your man. Got a room full of visitors and guests? I am passing the mic. Beki has a strong evangelistic and prophetic gift; we saw an AMAZING response and people buzzing about the message that Beki brought…was I gutted I didn’t share the word that morning and get the pat on the back? Absolutely not!

Find your primary gift, lean into it, don’t worry about those running to your right or your left, fix your eyes, focus on the prize. Do you and do you well.   

Don’t let the praise go to your head, it’ll settle down soon

I remember the very first time I got to speak to the adults! It was exciting! I prepared for two weeks, I preached my heart out, I whispered and shouted and had dramatic pauses….and lasted around 7 minutes (I was given 35!) but afterwards everyone was SO complimentary! “Wow that was AMAZING” “You’re so gifted!” “Are they going to let you preach again soon”. I was blown away – having visions of packing out the local football stadium and humbly praying the Isaiah 6 prayer “God send me!”.

And I preached some more, and some more, and the comments and praise got less, and less….and less, actually sometimes people from the congregation were telling me not how good I did, but instead on what I should say! Honestly, my sermons were getting much, much better, and I was still getting ‘well dones’ particularly from my senior pastor, but nowhere near as much as when I had first started out. Was my anointing escaping?

No. People were just getting used to me, and that’s a great thing. No longer was I the young lad starting out, now this is Mike and this is just what Mike does, and they were absolutely correct. It’s what I believe I’m made to do. The praise doesn’t get less because you get worse, the praise gets less because you are doing what you are called to do and people don’t feel like you need constant affirmation anymore, and that’s a beautiful thing.

Little insight for you, I’ve spoken to guys in their 50’s and 60’s who have been preaching since their late teens and they still get off a platform after speaking week in and week out and wonder if they did ok, or if what they were trying to put across came across. It’s just part of being human! If your Senior Pastor did well, or if something they said particularly spoke to you, tell them and thanks them, they will appreciate it. If they really didn’t do well please don’t tell them when they have just walked down off the platform (they leave an awful lot up there, even when the sermon hasn’t gone as well as they’d hoped!)

Your senior pastor still gets of the platform and wonders if 'that went ok!?' if they've done a good job, appreciate them and tell them. An awful lot of themselves are left on the platform after preaching. Click To Tweet

Prep at year 10 like you prepped on day 1

Preachers, we’re in the business of souls. We cannot and must not forget this. I mentioned earlier my first sermon took AGES to write. My sermons still take AGES to write! Why? Because I haven’t got any better at prep? Not at all, I’ve got much more efficient. It is because I take my calling very seriously, and I also want to honour the people who faithfully show up not because they have to, but because they want to week in and week out, hear from their pastor. Consider, in a culture where the average attention span is 8 seconds we really can’t take lightly the fact that people are willing to sit for 30-40 minutes to hear what you feel God has said. Don’t skimp on your preparation or get familiar and blasé about your calling. 30 minutes before the service isn’t a good time to start thinking on what to talk about.

Prepare every sermon like you prepared on day one. Don't lose the wonder, excitement and the weight of responsibility entrusted to you as a preacher. We are still in the business of souls. Click To Tweet

Yes the nerves get less, yes you are more comfortable in your skin, but the end goal is still the same – to help people encounter Jesus, this is massive. A mentor once said to me, ‘preach every week like this week is the last time someone is giving God a chance to speak into their lives, then imagine that, that person is your son or daughter’. It’s a weighty responsibility. Lean into it, enjoy it, give it your everything.

Have selective hearing

The role of a pastor is a complex one, there will be a few times you have to force a smile and laugh along as someone says to you ‘don’t you only work one day a week!’.

From being the worlds greatest orator to the fourth emergency service, being expected to know about complex insurance contracts to managing staff and volunteer teams. From being a marriage, parent and grief councillor to dealing with complex mental health issues – just about everything will cross your desk. There’s a lot to think about being a pastor.

Give yourself permission to have selective hearing. Hear everyone, but only listen to those who have, or have been given authority to speak into your life. Click To Tweet

Everyone will have an opinion on what your job is and how you should do it, hear everyone, but have permission to be selective in who you listen to. If you are a young pastor on a team, make sure you have clarity and clear expectations of your role from your Senior Pastor or line manager. They are the most important voices in your role, nod and smile to everyone else.

Say yes to the stretch and no to the rest

As you get established and grow in your gifting chances are other opportunities will come your way. Some of those will be scary, big and will stretch and grow you. Some will look great and stroke your ego but will totally distract you. Always say yes to the things that will stretch and grow you if it isn’t at the detriment of your ministry in the local church you are planted and covered by. Say no to the things that may look good but will rob your time and attention from your primary ministry. Speaking engagements aren’t a sign of success, faithfulness to those you have been called to lead is.

Say yes to thing that will stretch you in your gifting and talent. Say no to the the things that will distract and deter you from your primary ministry. Click To Tweet

Learn from the good and the bad

When we are learning and training, we are desperate to see and learn things that we aspire to, many times I have sat at conference and furiously scribbled notes about something I’ve seen that has inspired. We often don’t do this about the bad things we see, more often than not this just turns into a juicy bit of gossip after a meeting for an hour and is then forgotten. However, when we take note of things we see that we would maybe do differently and are taught by them too, we learn TWICE as much.

If you can learn from the good AND the bad things you see, you will learn twice as much. Click To Tweet

Life is a classroom and we always need to be attuned to learn something whether its how to do something better, or how not to do something at all. Always be looking to lean in and learn more.

You don’t (and don’t need to) know everything, and that’s ok

It is absolutely ok not to know everything. Our natural propensity as leaders is to want to have an answer for everything we are asked or sought out for, and when we don’t have the answer to appear like we have the answer. Einstein once said ‘The more I know the more I realise how little I know’, I can so relate to this.

It's ok to not have an answer for everything. Don't be afraid to say 'I'm just not sure, let me come back to you on that' it's easy to see through a blag! Click To Tweet

Starting out I always wanted to be right, always wanted to have the answer, always wanted to be seen as the fountain of all knowledge and it was stupid. There is so much liberation in saying, ‘I’m actually not sure on that, can I check it out and get back to you?’ Trust me you will save a lot of time being straight up and not trying to blag an answer. Be honest, be integral and have permission to not know everything. No one does!