Category: Pastoral Leadership

How do you make a decision? Do you know the steps? As pastors we know that our decisions can have an impact, not only on ourselves, but on our congregants, our community, and many we are not even aware of.

If you’re having trouble feeling confident in your actions and wish you had an unwavering self-belief in your decisions, maybe it’s time to look at your decision-making process. Decisions made impulsively or without careful thought might not always turn out the way you hope they will, and this is especially true when you are in a position of church leadership.

Of course, there’s something to be said for instinct and even dumb luck. But what if good decisions were inevitable rather than occasional? Imagine for a moment how it would feel to know you’re right before you even act.

There are steps you should be going through when making a decision. Let’s take a look at those now.

1. Pray

Do you automatically have all the answers? Probably not. Some of your beliefs might be biased, faulty, or illogical. Accepting you might have things to learn is the first and most crucial step to making decisions. Take a step back from everything but the raw facts regarding what you’re trying to decide and lay them all out before the Lord.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. — James 1:5 (ESV)

God is in the wisdom business. Ask Him to give you an open mind, a compassionate heart, and the discernment necessary to make the right decisions.

2. Get the Facts

Do you have all the information you need to make an informed decision? Are there things you need to learn? What about examining the options? Have you considered multiple solutions? Take time to put the work in to gather what you need to proceed with confidence.

Don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? — Luke 14:28 (NLT)

While the passage above refers to money, the principle can be applied to every aspect of the decision making process. What people do you need to complete the process? What skillsets do they need to have. Who is on board with you? Who and what will be impacted by your decision?

3. Consider the Future

Once you have some choices in mind, try to imagine how they’re going to play out. Sometimes what looks good might be a great temporary solution, but you’re going to need to do something different in the long run. If you make a certain decision right now, ask yourself if this will still be a good decision in the morning? What about next week? Or next year?

4. Get Another Opinion

Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety. — Proverbs 11:14 (ESV)

Do you have another minister, a mentor or someone else you can trust whom you could talk to about this? While you might skip this step on the small stuff, it’s worth having someone you trust weigh in with their opinion whenever you make a big decision. They might see something you’re missing. You are not looking for someone you know will agree with you, but someone who has been proven to be wise and will be honest with you.

5. Act

Sometimes the hardest part of making decisions lies in making the actual decision. It’s tempting to go back over the research a few more times or keep looking for other alternatives. At some point, you’re going to need to act. Take your best solution and move forward with it with confidence. You’ve done all the work. Now comes the part where you put this newfound trust in yourself into action. Of course, before you act, return to step #1 and pray, pray, and pray some more!

The best part? The more you run through this process, the more confident you’ll feel about making decisions in the first place and the better you will get at it.

Barry Davis

The Pastor’s Helper

One of the unintended consequences of the pandemic has been the disintegrating weekly habit of attending the Sunday gathering. What should a pastor do when faced with wandering sheep, those who have left the safe pastures of the local church and found themselves in dangerous territory away from the herd?

Let me encourage you, pastor, to consider three things as you seek out wandering sheep.

First, be prayerful.

Paul commands that “supplications, prayers, intercessions be made for all people” because God “desires all people to be saved.” This is certainly true for pastors and their flock. Prayer’s importance lies in the power of the Spirit to work in the heart of the wandering. So, pastor, as we aim to persuade and plead with sheep to return to the flock, remember that in our own strength “our striving will be losing.”

One practical way to do this is to create a list of members whom you haven’t seen at church in a while. Simply pray for them on Saturday night to gather with some gospel-preaching church the next day.

Second, be patient. 

There are at least three types of patience that God produces while we seek wandering sheep.

The first type is pastoral patience with the sheep. There can be great temptation to frustration and anger as call after call, email after email, text after text goes unanswered. The call for the pastor is the same: “Be patient with them all” (1 Thess. 5:14). Wandering sheep often know they are wandering, so a welcoming and gracious call to repentance may be a surprising response.

The second type of patience is procedural, relating to how quickly one may pursue church discipline. If you are in a church that practices church discipline (that’s good!), be slow in employing it on wandering sheep. Be quite sure, insofar as you can, that this member has truly abandoned the fellowship of the church and has no intention of returning. A good rule of thumb: the less you know, the slower you go.

Lastly, God desires to grow you in patience and gentleness. Seeking the lost is one way Christ conforms his servants to his likeness. Unlike Jesus, we are not naturally disposed toward gentleness and kindness, patience and understanding. So God often places difficult, seemingly unreachable people among us so that he may grow us to be more like his patient Son. Pastor, embrace the sanctifying work of God as you seek to shepherd the flock God has entrusted to you.

Third, be persistent. 

Prayer is essential, but so is pursuit. So after praying, keep reaching out. Don’t give up. Keep calling, texting, and emailing. Your persistence is a secondary means by which Christ seeks out the wandering. It is a privilege to be used by our Lord to bring back what is rightly his. So, pastor, as you grow weary in pursuing, remember that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim 1:15) and “to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). If that wandering sheep belongs to Christ, have confidence that “the sheep follow him, for they know his voice” (John 10:4).

Nick Gardner, Capitol Hill Baptist Church

Article orginally appeared on 9marks.org

By Joe McKeever

This is not the final list. I’m still learning.

Most of what follows about leading God’s church is counter-intuitive. Which is to say, it’s not what one might expect.

In no particular order….

One. Bigness is overrated.

“It doesn’t matter to the Lord whether He saves by the few or the many” (I Samuel 14:6).

Most pastors, it would appear, have wanted to lead big churches, wanted to grow their church to be huge, or wanted to move to a large church.  Their motives may be pure; judging motives is outside my skill set. But pastoring a big church can be the hardest thing you will ever try, and far less satisfying than you would ever think.

Small churches can be healthy too; behold the hummingbird or the honeybee.

Trying to get a huge church to change its way of thinking can be like turning around an ocean liner.  Even so, the Lord’s teachings about the mustard seed (see Matthew 13:31-32 and Luke 17:6) should forever disabuse us of the lust for bigness.

I will spare you the horror stories of pastors who have manipulated God’s people and lied about numbers in order to create the illusion of bigness.  Forgive us, Father!

Two. Lack of formal education in the preacher is no excuse.

The pastor of the small church often has far less formal training and education than he would like. As a result, he often feels inferior to his colleagues with seminary degrees. I have two thoughts on that…

One.  It’s a mistake.  He can be as smart as they are and more if he applies himself.  Let the Lord’s preachers not be overly impressed by certificates on the wall or titles before their name.

Two.  He can get more formal education if he’s willing.  Some of our seminaries have online programs that make seminary education practical and affordable.

My dad, a coal miner, had to leave school after the 7th grade. But he never quit learning.  He took courses and read constantly. When God took him to Heaven, Dad was almost 96. Our mom had to cancel four or five magazine subscriptions he was still taking and reading.

Some of the finest preachers of God’s word I’ve ever known have had little formal theological education.

Three.  There are no lone rangers or solo acts on the Lord’s team.

He sent them out two by two. (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1)

The preacher who says pastors are not allowed to have friends and thus shuts himself off from colleagues in ministry has bought into a lie from hell that causes him to deceive himself and limit his ministry.  While a pastor may choose not to have close friends among his own members, there is every reason for him to make friends with other pastors and ministers who serve the Lord well.  Failing to do so limits himself and hurts the kingdom work.

Furthermore, he must have co-workers alongside him. Paul needed Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, and many others. Read the last chapter of I Corinthians and ask God to forgive you for trying to do this work alone.

Four. Doing a job by yourself is easier than enlisting and training someone else, but it’s violating your calling.

“Make disciples,” said our Lord.  That mandate calls for us to help people come into the kingdom, then nurture and grow them to the point they will know the Word, can share the Word, and can make disciples of others.

Barnabas did not find it convenient to leave Antioch and travel to Tarsus “to seek Saul” (Acts 11:25).  But in doing so, he connected the man called as an evangelist to the Gentiles with the opportunity of a lifetime.  We are forever grateful to the best disciplemaker in Scripture, Barnabas!

Five. I cannot lead people to do what I’m not doing.

God did not send me to be a talker, but a doer. Not as a coach only, but as a player-coach.  It is enough for the disciple to become like the teacher, said our Lord.

So, as a pastor and church leader, my job is to show them how. Not just tell them.  (James 1:22 and I John 3:18).

Six.  Not only is it hard to get started tithing my income or sharing my faith (and a hundred other discipleship things), God likes it that way.

Watch the butterfly emerge from its chrysalis.  The struggle, we are told, is a necessary part of its development.

Only people of faith and determination will set out to learn to tithe and witness and understand the Bible, then stay with it  until they are able to do it well.  Everyone else drops by the wayside, intending to wait until it’s easy.  In doing so, they’re asking for and expecting what never was and never shall be.  “Without faith, it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).

The members of your church need to be reminded that God does not need their money.  He is not suffering from a cash flow problem. God is trying to grow disciples.  That accounts for the hundreds of teachings on money in the Word. When are we ever going to understand this? When are preachers going to quit fearing criticism and teach stewardship until people do it!

Seven.  God makes His leaders servants, not bosses or lords or bigshots.

I keep running into husbands who want to lord it over their wives because “God made me the head of the home and told you to submit!” Such men may call themselves believers, but they are pagan to the heart and have probably never been saved. They certainly don’t know the first thing about God’s word or Jesus’ heart.  If they did, they would know that they are sent as servants. “Even so, Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.”

Bullies on the playground or dictators in the pulpit are cancers on the body, and must not be tolerated.  The parable of all parables on this subject is Luke 17:7-10.  We must keep saying to ourselves–even when we have done everything Jesus required– “I am only an unworthy servant; just doing my duty.”

Eight.  The more righteous we are, the less we will be aware of it.  “Moses knew not that his face did shine” (Exodus 34:29).

I said to the 75-year-old saint in our church, “Marguerite, you are the most Christ-like person I know.”  She didn’t flinch.  “Oh honey,” she said to her young minister, “if you only knew.”  I did know, in a way, but have learned a hundred times since:  Those closest to the Lord are the last to know it. The nearer to the light we get, the more imperfections and blemishes we will see.

Beware of ever thinking you have arrived. “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

Nine. The Lord’s servants who serve well are going to run into the buzz saw of opposition from the nay-sayers, do-nothings, status-quo lovers, and carnal. That’s no fun, but it’s not all bad.

Reading the mandate of the disciples in Matthew 10:16ff, we cannot say we were not warned.  But it has ever been this way.  We are swimming upstream in a downstream world.

Jesus prepared us for this by saying that whoever receives us is receiving Him, whoever listens to us is listening to Him, and whoever rejects us is rejecting Him. (See Matthew 10:40 and Luke 10:16.).  If being treated like Jesus is not enough for us, we’re in the wrong calling.

Ten.  Not only does the Lord allow His choice servants to suffer sometimes, He even plans for that to happen. See Matthew 10:16ff.

Caesar ain’t coming to  your revival, preacher. So, the Lord is going to be needing someone to get arrested for preaching. Then, when the high and mighty ruler has to decide on this case, he will order the saint in chains to “tell us what you’ve been preaching.” That’s how it worked with Paul (see 2 Timothy 4:16-17), and how it has been with His choice servants ever since.

When Paul and Silas were falsely charged, then beaten and jailed, even though their backs were open wounds and they were hungry, tired, and hurting, “about midnight, they began praying and singing hymns of praise to God. And the other prisoners were listening to them.” (Acts 16:25)  They’re always listening and watching when God’s people suffer unjustly.  That’s a fact which God uses to reach many for Himself.

No one wants to suffer.  No one volunteers to hurt. But sometimes it’s the only way.

What God’s faithful must never do is groan and bellyache and say, “Why me, Lord?”  Your suffering may turn out to be the highest compliment the Father ever gave  you.  Early believers rejoiced they were counted worthy to suffer.  (See Acts 5:41).

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