My wife and I were in a conversation recently about our years together. We will celebrate 33 years of marriage this year, and we dated for almost six years. The simple math was a surprise. We have been dating or married for nearly four decades!<\/p>\n
It was a good conversation. But I had my moments of regret. Times that I was too busy for my family. My tendency to want to win an argument with my wife rather than resolve the problem. Failure to slow down and enjoy life. <\/p>\n
Mistakes in Ministry<\/b><\/p>\n
I then reflected on my years when I served as senior pastor of four churches. I have often said that I wanted to write a book entitled Mistakes I Made in Ministry<\/i>. Then I realized it would have to be a multivolume series! <\/p>\n
There are no “do overs” in life and ministry. But there are always opportunities to learn, correct, and improve. So I decided to share with you seven of the key mistakes I made as a senior pastor. Obviously, the list is not exhaustive. Seven just seemed to be a good, biblical number. <\/p>\n
Seven for Starters<\/b><\/p>\n
As I just began thinking about the mistakes I made as a pastor, I realized how gracious most church members were to me. And I realized how my family’s love for me is a total gift of grace. Here are the seven, but they are really just the beginning of many more.<\/p>\n
1. I would spend more time in the Word and in prayer. I would follow the biblical pattern of the church leaders in Acts 6:4: “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the preaching ministry" (HCSB).<\/p>\n
2. I would give my family more time. No one remembers the church committee meetings I missed. My family still remembers those times I was too busy for them.<\/p>\n
3. I would spend more time sharing my faith. Paul told the young pastor Timothy to do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5). Those words apply to all pastors today.<\/p>\n
4. I would love the community where I lived more. I would try to live more incarnationally. I would prayerfully seek to see how I could serve the community rather than see it as a population pool of prospects for my church.<\/p>\n
5. I would lead the church to focus more on the nations. I would lead in helping our church grasp that missions is more than just an annual offering.<\/p>\n
6. I would focus on critics less. Most church members have no idea how many criticisms and “suggestions” a pastor gets each week. It can be overwhelming and distracting. Though I would be willing to listen, I would not obsess about every negative comment that was made about me.<\/p>\n
7. I would accept the reality that I can’t be omnipresent. So many people and groups want the presence of the pastor. Saying “no” can be difficult, but it can free the pastor to focus on some of the priorities noted above, <\/p>\n
For This and the Next Generation<\/b><\/p>\n
While I can’t reverse the mistakes I’ve made, I can endeavor to move forward positively from this day on. Though my mistakes were made when I was a pastor, many of the lessons still apply to me today. And I hope that my mistakes can be a teaching tool for this and the next generation of pastors and church staff.<\/p>\n
This life is so incredibly brief. I am amazed and sorrowful to recall how many times I haven’t been the steward of my life that I should be. But this is a new day. It is the day that the Lord has made. I have a fresh start. <\/p>\n
In His power, I might just get it right this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My wife and I were in a conversation recently about our years together. We will celebrate 33 years of marriage this year, and we dated for almost six years. The simple math was a surprise. We have been dating or married for nearly four decades! It was a good conversation. But I had my moments…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","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":[1,186,177,194,176],"tags":[81,74,113,76],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-answers","category-health-and-metrics","category-lead","category-preaching","category-revitalize","tag-church-health","tag-church-leadership","tag-critics","tag-leadership"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n