3 Tips for Starting Strong in a New Year as a Pastor

Around my sixth year of pastoring, I called an older, more experienced, and perhaps more cynical pastor, to get counsel for challenges I faced. I described my situation, and he promptly described my church and others like it as “meat grinders.” He really left me with no advice, other than to contemplate what to do in the meat grinder. While facing a demanding pastorate with only a few years’ experience under my belt, his cynicism didn’t encourage me in the work of revitalization. That was the last time I called him.

Instead of throwing your hands up as though nothing can be done, if the Lord has called you to shepherd a flock, be intentional when it comes to how you do life and ministry. I’m not suggesting you operate mechanically, never flinching as if delivering a product; or that you ignore any realities of what the older pastor called a meat grinder, but I am recommending some ways to stay strong in the ever-demanding work of pastoring a local church. The Lord has put you where you are, so make the most of this time to trust and serve him. Let me offer three tips, with a few comments on each, to help start and stay strong in a new year of pastoring.

1. TAKE A SPIRITUAL INVENTORY AT THE START OF THE YEAR

Businesses do a yearly inventory to evaluate their stock. We need to do similarly to evaluate our spiritual walks, marriage, parenting, ministry, and larger Christian relationships. Two guardrails must be considered. First, beware of too much introspection that digs into every cranny to find flaws leading to despair. We all have ample flaws that can overwhelm us. The point is not to despair but to uncover, to see where we’ve gotten sloppy or cold or lacked discipline or grown insular. Second, beware of glossing over stubborn patterns that keep you from progressing in your life, marriage, and ministry. Sometimes we don’t want to admit those things or do the hard work, by the grace of God, of chiseling them out of our lives. So, guard against running from introspection so far that you do nothing toward improvements.

For instance, if you realize you’ve been inconsistent with family devotions, instead of just saying you’ll do better or beating yourself over the head for neglect, establish some parameters and goals to help you aim for a reasonable and regular pattern of ministering to the family. Ask your wife to help hold you accountable. Maybe ask your kids, too, since they seem to never forget anything! Or if you’ve detected some poor attitudes in areas of your ministry, then ask the Lord to show you the roots of them that you might repent and redirect your focus. Maybe someone has been critical of you, and the sting of their criticism remains. You must die to the bitterness and anger, consider how the Lord has entrusted you with shepherding that critical person, ask the Holy Spirit to enable you to love and care for them, and then pursue opportunities to serve them.

Whatever areas you survey and find room to make improvements, be realistic with yourself. You may not be able to attack all the areas at once. Triage the needs. Focus on the neediest area and give it the attention, application of the gospel, reordering of priorities, and fresh energies that it needs. Then as that area gets on good footing, proceed to the next.

One helpful way for me in taking inventory has been to read through a good book on sanctification, using it as a springboard for working on the wide areas of my walk with Christ. Here are a few books to consider:

• Sinclair Ferguson, Grow in Grace

• Sinclair Ferguson, Devoted to God

• Andrew Davis, An Infinite Journey

• Aaron Menikoff, Character Matters

• Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression

• Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Sermon on the Mount

2. TAKE STEPS TO MAKE PROGRESS IN WEEKLY EXPOSITION OF GOD’S WORD

I recently talked with a young pastor who rightly said, “I want to always be improving in my preaching.” As someone who has been preaching before this pastor was born, I agreed, and told him that’s my attitude as well. But just desiring improvement and making actual progress may be worlds apart. What might you do to make progress?

• Evaluate your weekly preparation routine. Do you allow adequate time to prepare? Are you over-preparing, so that you’re so saturated with information and ideas that you have difficulty communicating clearly? Do you bathe your preaching in prayer? Do you spend time meditating on the text to feed your soul? Do you make good use of resources? Do you just give a doctrinal lecture but not a passionate, well-applied exposition?

• Consider initiating sermon feedback. Maybe you can do this with your staff and elders or with ministry trainees or with members at large. Check out Brian Chapell’s sermon review sheets in Christ-Centered Preaching as a tool to help people wisely offer feedback. Ask some fellow pastors in the community or network to listen to and offer critique of your preaching.

• Listen to good preaching. You know those who faithfully expound the Word. Listen to them. If you have a Sunday off, visit them to listen in person.

• Ask pastors that you recognize faithfully expound the Word how they do preparation. Over the years, I’ve made that a regular practice since most pastors love to talk about preaching. I’ve honed my preparation from things I’ve learned in these conversations.

• Read good expositions from Reformers, Puritans, 18th century pastors, and those from the modern era. Don’t just focus on one era. Seeing how others handled the Word in different times will stir your creativity in preaching effectively to your people.

• Listen to the Christ-Centered & Clear podcast, attend one of their conferences, or attend a Simeon Trust Workshop.

• Make sure you plan your preaching three to six to twelve months in advance. That way you know where you’ll be heading each week, unless, of course, there’s an urgent issue that requires a break from your expositional series. I found that doing this liberated me from a lot of wasted time trying to decide what to preach. Usually, it took me an entire day, maybe two, to develop a long preaching plan, but it was worth every minute in the multiplied hours it saved through the year.

3. EVALUATE AND MAKE CHANGES WITH HOW TO SHEPHERD THE FLOCK MORE EFFECTIVELY

You can pastor for years, and at just the moment you think you have a solid handle on it, an issue arises that baffles your pastoral skills. Which means, you never arrive when it comes to pastoring. That’s not to discourage you! Most pastors have good basic skills that serve the church well. But sometimes those skills seem to resemble those of a caretaker rather than a doctor of souls. The busy world of pastoral ministry can drift into caretaking: making the perfunctory call or visit, offering a pleasant prayer, talking about the weather, sports, or world news, but no intentional focus on the soul. That’s why we evaluate and make changes. Take a good look at the flock. Are they maturing in Christ? Is Christ being formed in them, as Paul put it? Are they exercising the “one another” passages in their relationships? Is the church consciously seeking to be engaged in mission? Do members “speak the truth in love” to one another as extensions of pastoral work? Here are few things that might help.

• Pray daily for the flock. Use a members’ directory or bookmark with all the families’ names as a tool to systematically pray through the membership.

• Discuss with your elders, staff, and trainees, ways to improve pastoral care. Take action.

• Read good books on pastoral ministry. Here are a few of my favorites:

  • Grant Gordon, ed., Wise Counsel: John Newton’s Letters to John Ryland Jr.

  • Martin Bucer, Concerning the Care of Souls

  • John Owen, Gospel Ministry

  • William Still, The Work of the Pastor

  • Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed

  • Sinclair Ferguson, Some Pastors and Teachers

  • H. B. Charles, On Pastoring

  • Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry

  • Alex DiPrima, Servants of Christ, Lovers of Men: Spurgeon on Pastoral Ministry

  • Derek Prime & Alister Begg, On Being a Pastor

  • All of Brian Croft, et al., Practical Shepherding series of books

• Attend pastors’ conferences such as Pillar’s Unite Conference or Spring Intensive or International Conference or Feed My Sheep hosted by numerous churches, to stir up the pastoral heart.

• Attend Pillar Regional meetings to discuss pastoring with brothers in the trenches.

• Be engaged with knowing your members, having conversations with them, and discerning how you can best serve them.

• Regularly check out the Resources section on the Pillar Network website. You’ll find a host of useful articles that will (1) spur your pastoral affections; (2) help you strategize for pastoring, preaching, church planting, revitalization, and mission work; (3) point you to a massive number of resources for ministry; (4) give you a jumpstart in areas where you feel stalled; and (5) encourage you as you serve Christ and his church.

If you want to take a deep dive on pastoral ministry, investigate the PhD in Pastoral Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. It’s done in cohort fashion with seminars zeroing in on pastoral work, including pastoral theology, member care and counseling for pastoral theology, historical readings in pastoral ministry, doctrine of the church, and theology of preaching.

It’s worth taking time each year to prepare for pastoral work. We’re constantly growing and adapting, regularly facing new situations and challenges, and recognizing areas where we feel deficient and inadequate. That’s why we pause to reflect, seek the Lord, do a spiritual inventory, look for ways to progress in expositional preaching, and evaluate areas where our shepherding needs adjustments and change. May we be faithful shepherds!