This One Thing I Would Tell You: Journey Members Offer Advice to Those Entering the Ministry
Every month at Journey Pastoral Coaching, we ask our members to answer our monthly Insight Question. It’s an invaluable resource for me as the Lead Coach at Journey as members, in effect, coach me, helping me understand their world and their insights on the church and world.
It’s also one way our members pay to receive pastoral coaching. Finances are tight for young ministers, so rather than add to their burden, Journey lifts the burden by providing free membership. Instead of paying for pastoral coaching with finances, our members pay by investing in our coaching community in five primary ways, including their responses to the monthly Insight Question.
Important side note: Journey can provide this ministry at no cost to young ministers through the generosity of our financial supporters. We are so grateful for their partnership. Would you or your church consider joining them in supporting Journey? It would mean a great deal – to those whom we coach as well as to the ministries where they serve. You can email us at journeypastoralcoaching@gmail.com.
This article is an edited version of a recent Journey Insight Question, asking our members to reflect on what counsel they would give someone about entering vocational ministry.
Here’s the question, followed by Journey members’ responses . . .
The Scenario:
There is a young man or woman in your circle of influence who is about to enter vocational ministry. This individual invites you to coffee and says to you, “You’ve been in the ministry for several years now. Please tell me what I need to do to make it in ministry. I’ve heard that 5 of 10 new ministers quit in the first 5 years. I don’t want to be one of them. What do I need to do to survive – and most of all – thrive in the ministry for the next decade and decades to come?
The Question:
What one subject would you emphasize with this future minister? Think “This one thing you must do – this is the ‘rule to rule them all.’” Don’t talk church growth, leadership techniques, management theory, etc. Talk about being. Talk the Journey mission: “Helping young ministers build strong for a lifetime of healthy and effective ministry.”
The Responses:
Not all of our members were able to participate in this survey, but here are the responses of those who were able to do so . . .
Your first call is always to be a follower of Jesus, so do everything in your power to follow him in every area of your life. Make your relationship with him and your personal discipleship your number one priority.
Remember that God wants you so much more than he wants what you do. Stay close to Him.
Walk closely with Jesus and others.
Every pastor needs a pastor. Find someone who will shepherd you on your journey with Jesus, as you serve Jesus in ministry. Do this or die.
You must seek, find, and nurture your relationship with God, one or two mentors, a group of peers, and a soul friend.
Identity, Balance, Discover the best in others.
The one thing you must do is watch your life and doctrine.
You need to have someone to talk to. Don’t isolate.
Do Inner Work – Spiritually, Emotionally, Mentally. Make a point to work on YOUR issues. Leadership will bring to the surface, our deep insecurities, ugliness, and past.
Find a group of ministers who will keep you accountable, pray for you and lift you up. You can’t do it alone.
Learn to be, and thrive where you’re at. If you get fixated on an idea in your head of what your future MUST look like, you will end jaded and cynical. Let God be God over your future.
You must engage in discipleship: be a disciple, live with disciples, make disciples.
Spend intentional time with Jesus every day.
You must listen to the voice of God over the voice of man. If you don’t know God’s voice you can’t follow His direction effectively.
Your relationship doesn’t depend on your calling. Your calling depends on your relationship.
Give yourself to authentic Christian community.
Check your emotional, physical, Spiritual, and relational ministry pulse on a regular basis. If something feels off, dig deep within to find the cause. If your body, soul, and mind are healthy, your ministry will be healthy.
Be true to who you are. Don’t try to be or become someone else. Be who God made you to be.
All is grace. You can’t perform or offer any service to God that will change his opinion of you. Remember and rest in this daily.
Keep your eyes on Jesus. Not on strategies, or problems, or growth, but on Jesus. If your focus is on other things more than it’s on Jesus, you won’t make it. There will be hard times and in the moments even more so keep focus on Jesus through prayer, the Word and worship.
Connect with Jesus personally regularly. Treat your family like your FIRST CHURCH!
Practice gratitude.
Have someone to walk with who will help you stay close to Jesus, develop grit, and grow.
Keep Jesus at the center of everything. If you lose that center, stop everything and re-center.
Focus on your relationship with Christ above all else, even if it feels like parts of your ministry will suffer because of it. The “effectiveness” of your ministry is God’s responsibility, but it is easy to get caught up working for Him and lose sight of your walk with Him. He wants you to walk with Him first and foremost.
Obey God. A life of ministry is first and foremost a life that is set apart for God’s use.
Learn to say “no”.
You must never quit being a disciple yourself. Ministry is first and foremost a lifestyle of faithful discipleship.
Tend to your own soul FIRST.
Protect your time with the Lord. Don’t let the busyness of life dictate it.
Get a mentor or coach. A mentor will help you see the hidden gifts in you and help fan into flame the full potential God has called you to be. They will also help you grow in your faith, leadership, and self awareness.
Follow Jesus Christ with every fiber of your being, giving highest attention to allowing Him to grow your soul strong in Him. Fight for the health of your soul as if your life depends on it because it does.
FINAL WORD
The wisdom shared above may have been counsel shared with our members by pastors, college professors, or other mature followers of Christ. But even more, it is the fruit of their years of experience in vocational ministry – it’s what they’ve learned living the life. And it is the counsel of many Christian servant-leaders through history.
In reading these “this one thing you must do” words of wisdom, you may say that many of these thoughts are appropriate, even essential, for all believers and they are. But they are even more appropriate and essential for those who lead God’s people – leaders whose ministry to others flows from their soul life, their life in Jesus Christ. If those who lead God’s people are empty shell performers – those who can expertly perform the works of Christian ministry but without an ongoing experience of soul transformation and formation by the Holy Spirit – their ministries may prosper but not because of them; in spite of them. And, as is often the case, in time, the weight of ministry will prove too wearing, too heavy, and the once sparkling preacher / teacher / worship leader will burn out, leaving those whom they led doubting not only their former leader, but often God Himself. How critical it is that Christian leaders take the words of wisdom above and seriously consider them as we all seek to not just survive but thrive in ministry – building strong for a lifetime of healthy and effective ministry.
If you are interested, we asked our members to not only give us “this one thing,” but gave them the opportunity to unpack their thought, telling us more about the why of their counsel. If you would like to read the development of these thoughts, click on this link.
Saddled with large student debt, just beginning to set up homes and start families, and serving in low paying first and second positions, Millennials are those who most desire but can least afford to pay for pastoral coaching.
We are able to do so thanks to the faithful and generous support of individuals and churches like yours who want to see young leaders not only enter the ministry, but remain in the ministry.
Now, more than ever, we need your help.
If you or your church would like to help Millennial ministers across the US and overseas build strong for a lifetime in ministry, please click here to support Journey monthly or with your one-time gift. Thank you.
We also invite you to click and subscribe to our twice-monthly blogs at journeypastoralcoaching.com
