Read part 1 of 2 here.
7. Promote people who don’t self-promote / Don’t promote people who self-promote.
Inevitably as a Pastor, you are approached to support, say a good word about, or promote an event, musician, or itinerant speaker. Do your congregation a favor: weed out the people who push too hard or push their book or music project too much.
Do them another favor: put people in front of them whose work is excellent but doesn’t get promoted due to the author’s/musician’s (sometimes too extreme) humility.
8. I really dislike writing reports, submitting receipts, and filing forms.
This is where Marge comes in… she always answers my paperwork filing questions… even though I ask them every time. (She also tells me the 4-digit office door access code that I seem to forget disturbingly often.)
9. I need to pray a lot more.
Abe is our Pastor of Care. His constant emphasis on prayer, and knowing that he is praying for me regularly has been of great value to me. To be honest, I have been a “private prayer” guy my whole life. It wasn’t until last year when I came on staff at the church that I was regularly put into a situation where I had to pray publicly. I am very thankful for that.
10. Working with clergy from other denominations is easier than I thought it would be.
There is a surprisingly strong common thread of evangelicalism among the churches in my community. Once a month I meet with other ministers in the community. There is usually about a dozen to 15 of us at these meetings. We hail from a variety of faith traditions ranging from Reformed to Anglican to United to Mennonite to Pentecostal to Old Colony Mennonite, and yet somehow we manage to eat together, pray together, work together, and impact our community for Christ.
This has been one of the most pleasant surprises of the past year.
11. People who are desperate are more receptive to the Gospel.
I had the pleasure of leading two young men to Christ last year. Both are struggling but growing… slowly. Both found their way to me at their lowest points in life. They’ve tried the drugs, the girls, the money and figured if there was nothing better than that they might as well call it a day.
For all the time we spend trying to convince people who appear to have it all together (which is of value of course) we miss many opportunities to speak to people the world considers screw-ups who are ready to become disciples of Jesus Christ.
12. Jesus is the answer.
Again, this is not something I really ‘discovered’ this year, but as a staff team, we seem to be waking up to the immensity of this truth together. and we are starting to put it into practice in new ways. This does not mean we shirk the difficult work by saying “Oh, Jesus is the answer!” and then running to a more pleasant task. It means that we are doing the difficult work of making Jesus Christ the center of all that we do – from children’s programming to preaching to youth ministry to personal evangelism.
I am looking forward to the next 12 months and hopefully I will learn at least another 12 big things.
Read part 1 of 2 here.
More From The Ascent to Truth
- A Detailed History of the Future 1 – McLuhan, Postman, and Source Material – Talking about music is like dancing about architecture…
- Donald Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz” (2) – I AM THE PROBLEM – Talking about music is like dancing about architecture…
- 5 Things About My Dad (1) – The Value of Acting Like a Child – Talking about music is like dancing about architecture…
