Nine Recommendations for Young Pastors

In thinking of my early years as a pastor, I have become aware that a youthful zeal can be both good and not-so-good. A young pastor may come into a church with an iconoclastic attitude. That being:

“Everything that was done in the church prior to my time is highly questionable; I am the first one who is going to do everything right!”

This attitude not only infects the young pastor’s view of every ministry in the church, but it also colors his respect for the leaders of the church that called him.

Yet, Paul wrote:

1 Pet 5:5, “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.’”

So how can a young pastor enter a church and have discernment without becoming pridefully iconoclastic? Here are nine recommendations for the young pastor:

1. If at all possible, do not change any scheduled program or ministry during your first year at a church. You will have plenty of opportunity to effect change through a loving pulpit ministry and by adding those things you feel are necessary.
2. Do not speak negatively of prior pastors or their ministry, even if the situation commends such speech. You need people to be gracious to you, both now and in the future. So model grace by being gracious to your predecessors.
3. Get to know the leaders of the church, in so far as is possible with you. Listen to them. They likely know the church and the area culture far better than you do. And your longevity depends on your developing positive relationships with these leaders.
4. Visit your people. Develop a regular program for visiting every member and regular in the church. This visitation is quite different than evangelistic visitation, which is also important.
5. Love your own family first. If you are married, make sure that you listen to your wife. She will bring a third party perspective on your ministry that you need to hear. Also listen to her as it relates to family time. While it is always a struggle to balance family and ministry, let her know that she is the priority.
6. Implement change very slowly and cautiously. Know the attitudes of the leaders of the church to any course of action before you bring it up in public. To know their attitudes in advance means that you have been doing recommendation #3.
7. If you want to do something important to you, such as evangelism, you do not need permission to evangelize. Do it! And bring along others as you find those who are interested. It is easier to add activities to your ministry in the church than it is to bring in the sweeping change of a brand new program for the entire church.
8. The best and most lasting changes are spontaneous. As you minister the way God is leading you, God will provide opportunities and open doors for which you did not prepare—nor can prepare—because they are not on your radar screen. All that you will need to do is encourage people in the ministry situations that will supernaturally arise through God gifting His people. Then watch God at work!
9. Love your people. Love the church. Love their community. You can’t teach love, and you can’t fake genuine love. Pray for love and plead for love. For as a pastor you really need to love your people!

Hopefully these few ideas can be a blessing to a young pastor entering the ministry.