{"id":826367,"date":"2024-04-17T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T10:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=826367"},"modified":"2024-05-25T07:18:23","modified_gmt":"2024-05-25T12:18:23","slug":"12-things-i-would-do-differently-if-i-were-starting-ministry-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/12-things-i-would-do-differently-if-i-were-starting-ministry-again\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Things I Would Do Differently if I Were Starting Ministry Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month, I celebrated 43 years in full-time ministry. It\u2019s hard to believe I\u2019ve been at this work that long\u2014maybe because most of the years have been great joys. Here are some things I would do differently, though, if I were starting again:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n
      \n
    1. I would pray more.<\/b> Frankly, my current interest in prayer really grew <\/span>after <\/span><\/i>I had been a pastor for several years. My pastoring years would have been different had I spent more time on my knees.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. I would counsel less.<\/b> I thought I had to have the answers for my church members, regardless of what their issues were. Now, I would much more quickly refer my members to counselors more trained than I.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. I would delegate more.<\/b> I burned out more than once simply because I was involved in <\/span>everything. <\/span><\/i>I couldn\u2019t fathom things happening without the pastor involved, so I stayed involved.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    4. I would spend more time outside my office.<\/b> I tried my best to do evangelism, but it was easy to get cocooned in the church world. Now, I realize I won\u2019t reach lost people if I don\u2019t know any.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    5. I would say \u201cthank you\u201d to my wife more often.<\/b> I had served as a pastor for ten years before marriage, but Pam changed everything for me. I realize more every day that she is God\u2019s gift to me.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    6. I would study more for my sermons.<\/b> I really began to dig deeply into sermon preparation only after several years of my pastoral ministry. Seminary\u2014particularly, the years of my doctoral work\u2014was huge for me in this arena.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    7. I would seek ways to be more connected to my community.<\/b> In my last year of full-time pastoral ministry, I also served as a substitute English teacher in our local freshmen school. I would do that again (in addition to other means to get connected) simply so I know what\u2019s going on in my community.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    8. I would spend more time with the senior adults in the church.<\/b> I suppose that might be because I much better understand them now that I\u2019m 63 . . . but I do realize now more than ever how much wisdom there is in that group.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    9. I would listen more to members wiser than I.<\/b> Those folks were typically deacons or other staff members. I look back and see too many times when I missed it as a leader because I didn\u2019t listen.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    10. I would take days off and always take vacations.<\/b> I seldom did either one, especially when I was single. That was not wise.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    11. I would take a mission trip at least once a year.<\/b> My heart for the nations didn\u2019t develop until years after I stepped away from full-time pastoral ministry. I deeply regret that fact now.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    12. I would not allow criticism to distract and discourage me.<\/b> At times, criticism ate at my soul because I carried the burden rather than give it to God. I pray I would not do that now.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Veteran pastors, what would you do differently? <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This month, I celebrated 43 years in full-time ministry. It\u2019s hard to believe I\u2019ve been at this work that long\u2014maybe because most of the years have been great joys. Here are some things I would do differently, though, if I were starting again: I would pray more. Frankly, my current interest in prayer really grew…","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":826371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","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":[1,183,184,190,175,192,181,177,191,14796,180,18470,194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-826367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-communications","category-discipleship","category-family","category-grow","category-how-to","category-international-missions","category-lead","category-mind-body-and-spirit","category-monday-wednesday-featured","category-outreach-and-evangelism","category-prayer-grow","category-preaching"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n12 Things I Would Do Differently if I Were Starting Ministry Again | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This month, I celebrated 43 years in full-time ministry. 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