On the Long Haul
Plan to stick with this for a while.
Being a pastor is a complicated Calling. The more trips you make around the block the more effective you should be—as long as you don’t always go around the same block in the same way! Serving as a pastor is one of those things that is more art than science. Rome wasn’t built in a day; neither is a fruitful ministry. (Okay, enough clichés!)
Here’s the thing: you won’t really hit your stride until you are in your 50’s. Even if you get off to a great start with lots of effectiveness, there are some things that ONLY come with experience. It is in your 50’s that energy, information, maturity and insight all start to come together. That doesn’t mean that nothing will happen in your 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. It does mean that for all your excitement and energy, the best is down the road.
Plan to stick with this for a while…even when it isn’t going well.
A big part of sticking with it is sucking it up and sticking it out. If you are on the front end of your ministry, no doubt you have come to understand to a degree the challenge of serving as a pastor. Most fellas spend lots of the early years thinking about what else they might do with their lives. I did not become convinced I should be a pastor until after I turned 40.
When you get to those times that you are so confused, hurt, discouraged or intimidated that you want to quit, don’t. There will be lots of difficult days in ministry before you hit your stride at 50 (and plenty thereafter as well), but you cannot hit that stride without going through the first 25 years. Keep your head down and your feet moving.
Plan to stick with this for a while… even if you remain in the same congregation.
A special kind of a long ministry is a long pastorate, that is, to be in one congregation for a long time. Do not assume that changing congregations every five years or so will lead to toward significance. Many of the most fruitful pastors with significant ministries have served the same congregation for over 25 years. Imagine how well you would get to know the congregation and the community, and they you, if you were to remain in the same locale for such an extended time. You cannot build decades long relationships in half a dozen years. If God grants to you, which sadly he hasn’t to me, to serve all or most of your ministry in one congregation, you will enjoy a special realm of effectiveness.
Plan to stick with this for a while… even now planning to finish well.
I do not advocate a “20 something” pastor to think about retirement. Keep in mind that retirement at 62 or 65 is an American novelty. Before you give into that, check out Exodus 7:7.
I do advocate though that even at the front end of a ministry you think about how you might want to serve in your 60’s and 70’s and beyond. Sure there might be a re-deployment from full time work, but there is no good reason not to be greatly fruitful well beyond your 50’s…unless you shoot yourself in the foot. Here’s how pastors do that:
- They do not build a dynamic, personal relationship with Jesus.
- They do not build strong relationships with their wives and children.
- They have a moral failure.
- They quit reading, learning and developing.
- They eat, drink or smoke too much.
- They do not exercise.
- They quit thinking.
One of the saddest occurrences in the ministry is a pastor who loses his ministry, either actually or de facto, just when he should be entering an extended season of significance. What you at the beginning and middle of your ministry will largely determine how you will end. A long, fruitful ministry only occurs when pastors build well in the beginning with an eye to a good ending.
Plan to stick with it for a while.