{"id":715455,"date":"2020-07-07T22:23:27","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T02:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=715455"},"modified":"2020-07-07T22:23:27","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T02:23:27","slug":"six-things-you-inherit-as-a-new-pastor-at-an-established-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/six-things-you-inherit-as-a-new-pastor-at-an-established-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Things You Inherit as a New Pastor at an Established Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to your new church. Most everyone is excited to meet you. Few will remember your first sermon, but many will tell you it was great. If your church is going to vote on you, then the percentage of \u201cyes\u201d votes is likely to be high. The reason is simple. The vast majority of church members want to follow a good leader, and they want their church to thrive. But be careful. Don\u2019t fall into the trap of thinking every day will be like the first.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019re at an established church, which means there are a few things already in place. During the leadership honeymoon, you\u2019ll begin to figure out exactly what you are inheriting. You will want to tweak something. Some of your church members may think you are moving too quickly. Some will put you on a pedestal. Most will go with the flow. The \u201cnew\u201d label will drop from your title.<\/span><\/p>\n

Considerate pastors understand what they are inheriting before people stop introducing them as the \u201cnew pastor.\u201d Here a few examples of the things you inherit as a new pastor of an established church.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You inherit people<\/b>. Don\u2019t miss this. You lead <\/span>people<\/span><\/i>, not <\/span>processes<\/span><\/i>. There will be plenty of established processes to discover, but you should know the people first. And if you don\u2019t love the people where they are now, then you don\u2019t deserve to lead them now or later.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. You inherit a culture<\/b>. Some people will be new. Some will be long standing members. Others will show up your first day and stick with you. Others will leave your first day. The culture of your church, however, is likely deeply rooted. Culture is created by people, but it\u2019s also bigger than any one person. No individual\u2014including the pastor\u2014will change the culture quickly.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. You inherit a staff<\/b>. It\u2019s important to understand the influence of the staff on people and culture. A newer, younger staff is often less influential than a long-tenured staff. And the culture of the staff may be quite different than the culture of the church.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. You inherit a schedule<\/b>. At one church I pastored, the second service began at 10:55am. I asked a few people, \u201cWhy the extra five minutes?\u201d Every answer was different. No one agreed on <\/span>why<\/span><\/i>, but everyone agreed on <\/span>what<\/span><\/i>. The service started at 10:55am.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. You inherit expectations<\/b>. If your new church has 400 people, then you have 400 different sets of expectations about you. These expectations are an amalgamation of ideals, previous leaders at your church, personal preferences, and favorite pastors and church leaders in culture.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. You inherit traditions<\/b>. Some things stick for generations because they are good for generations. Other traditions need to go. Figuring out which traditions are good, bad, and ugly can take time. Don\u2019t assume your gut reactions to church traditions are correct. Take the time to learn why they exist.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Your new church will welcome you. The first day, first week, first month, and perhaps the first year will go well. Use the time to understand better what you are inheriting.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to your new church. Most everyone is excited to meet you. You\u2019re at an established church, which means there are a few things already in place. During the leadership honeymoon, you\u2019ll begin to figure out exactly what you are inheriting. Considerate pastors understand what they are inheriting before people stop introducing them as the \u201cnew pastor.\u201d Here a few examples of the things you inherit as a new pastor of an established church.","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":715456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"0","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[195,177,196],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-715455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conflict-and-people-problems","category-lead","category-staff-and-organizational-issues"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSix Things You Inherit as a New Pastor at an Established Church | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/six-things-you-inherit-as-a-new-pastor-at-an-established-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Six Things You Inherit as a New Pastor at an Established Church | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Welcome to your new church. 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