3. Have something else you are good at besides being a pastor.
Jesus was a carpenter. Paul was a tentmaker. What are you? I honestly think that pastors are making a HUGE mistake when the only thing they know how to do is be a pastor. First off – having another skill allows you to be a part of a different community outside of church circles. This is missing today. Because of what I do with social media and web design, I am constantly in conversations outside of the church world with people outside of the church world. They make me better, and I make them better.
Furthermore, I too often see pastors either caught up in scandal refuse to step down or pastors way past their prime (or their time) just refuse to do anything else because they don’t know how to do anything else. Don’t let that be you. Have options. It will make you a better pastor, and it will make you a better person after you pastor.
4. Start the way you see in your heart and mind.
I’ve said this one before, and I’ll keep saying it. I made a strategic error that was impossibly difficult to recover from. I had a vision for the church I started that I felt came from God and honored Scripture, but I started the church in a way that was so far from this vision that I could never quite get it back to where it was supposed to be.
If I had this to do all over again, I’d start with the church in my heart and mind from day one instead of asking people to make the understandably difficult shift back to it 3 months or 3 years after we start. If you know God is calling you to launch a mega-church style ministry, be that way from day one. If you know God is calling you to launch a church focused on serving the poor, be that way from day one. Feel me?
Those lessons are the best I have for you right now.
