On New and Old Things

Decisions.  Decisions.  Decisions.

Pastors have lots of decisions to make every day.  What to do?  What not to do?  How to do what to do?  Why not to do what you are not doing?

And so on.

In the midst of your decisions pastors need to think through the proper combination of new and old things.

New Things

Start new things in your ministry.  Start a new congregation.  Start a school or daycare center.  Start a new program.  Start a new outreach.  Start a new ministry.

Starting new things does three things.

First, it forces you to rethink old things.  How much of the old things do you need to carry over to the new thing?  And if you don’t need to carry all of the old things into the new thing, should you keep doing all of the old things in the old thing?

Second, it frees you up from worrying about making mistakes.  Lots of ministry is stifled by the fear of failure.  We worry about getting things wrong, making mistakes.  That’s the beauty of starting a new thing.   You can’t make a mistake doing a new thing.  You can’t do a new thing wrong because it hasn’t been done before; there is no set way it must be done.  Starting new things sets you free from the paralyzing fear of making a mistake.  (This isn’t exactly true, but you see the point?  Do you sense the freedom?)

Third, it gets new things started!  Every congregation was started by someone.  Every school or ministry or outreach or program had someone who started it.  You have benefitted enormously from what other people got started.  One of the ways you move your ministry toward significance is by starting something new now for the benefit of someone else later. It’s like your grandma said, “Put something back into the pot.”

Here’s what it takes to get something started: 

• an idea
• some gumption
• you

Some prayer sure helps, too!

Old Things

In your ministry you are building on the history of those who have gone before you in your congregation and those who have gone before you through the centuries.  A lot of smart, spiritual, capable people worked to get the Church and your congregation where it is today.  Don’t take the contribution of the past lightly.  Tradition does count.  G. K. Chesterton calls tradition the “democracy of the dead.”   Do not confuse old with bad.  We do that too much in America.

Having said that, in ministry some old things should be continued and some old things should be discontinued.  Put your thinking cap on to sort out which is which.

Do not change things just to change them.  Zealous pastors run the risk of letting their excitement run rough shod over the past.  Assume that there are reasons for why things are the way they are.  You may have to investigate to find the reasons so that you understand the status quo.  If the reasons are no longer valid, then perhaps make changes.  But even then, if the change is not crucial to move ministry ahead, you might leave things the way they are.  Change calls for lots of energy.  Chits have to be expended.  You only have so much energy and so many chits.  Be very deliberate when it comes to changing things.  Beware the law of unintended consequences. 

Do change the old things that need to be changed.  There is a huge difference between being shaped by the past and being paralyzed by it.  Be careful.  Make sure those who are impacted by the change are involved in the process.  But do make the changes.  Your congregation depends on you and desires you to shepherd them into fresh and new pastures.    

You can find many books on the successful implementation of change.  Read some.  John Kotter, Jim Collins and Peter Drucker are good places to start.

And so…

Which new things to start and how?  Which old things to keep and where?  Ah, that’s part of the art of being a pastor.