Help for the New Pastor

Practical Advice for Your First Year of Ministry

Charles Malcolm Wingard

• Publisher: P Publishing
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781629954677
• eBook ISBN: 9781629954684
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

The first year of ministry is make-or-break for new pastors. Get the primary duties of the minister—sermon preparation, sacraments, visitation, counseling, and hospitality—right from the start.

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Understanding Your Call to Ministry

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OBJECTIVE: To consider carefully what it means for you to be called to gospel ministry.

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BEFORE WE BEGIN, I’ll touch first on the foundation—your call to ministry. Unless called by God, you must not enter the pastorate. Each sermon you preach, each act of pastoral care, and each prayer for your flock must be faithful to your calling.

Even if you are already ordained, I recommend that you read this chapter. Both veteran and new pastors need to consider the gravity of God’s call. But when you are just beginning to sense that God is directing your steps toward pastoral ministry, careful thought about calling is especially critical. The cares of life and ministry can rob even the most devoted pastor of the urgency that once marked his ministry.

There’s never a bad time to think about what it means to be called to ministry.

Since this book has the new pastor in mind, I’ll begin with the critical question: “Am I called to pastoral ministry?” My aim is to make sure that you have thought carefully and prayerfully about the life and work of the pastor.

If you’re uncertain, I want to help you discern whether in fact you are called. To pursue pastoral ministry without a proper call will hurt you, your family, and the church of God—outcomes from which I want to protect you.

Consider the Office of the Minister

To understand your call to ministry, you must first think clearly about the office. What is the nature of the minister’s office?

A good place to begin is with the scriptural titles given to ministers. Each one is a window into the soul of ministry.

As an elder, the minister serves as a father in the church, and his life is distinguished by maturity, wisdom, and godly character. As an overseer, he skillfully administers the affairs of the church. As a steward of the mysteries of God, he handles the Word and sacraments with reverent care. He is a preacher, a herald of the gospel, and an ambassador, earnestly pleading with sinners to be reconciled to God in Christ.¹

The minister is also a shepherd (pastor) and a teacher.²

As a shepherd, you will feed, guide, and protect God’s church. Your responsibilities will not be discharged from a remote and secure location. Instead, you will place yourself alongside God’s people—living in their community, bearing their burdens, sharing their joys and sorrows—all the while interceding before the throne of grace for their welfare. You will take your cues from the Lord himself, the mighty God who tends his flock like a shepherd and gathers the lambs in his arms.³

You will be present with them to instruct, pray, counsel, admonish, and encourage. During your ministry, you may learn to use letters, podcasts, blog posts, and emails, but there is no substitute for being physically present with your people.

A minister is a shepherd, but he is a specific kind of shepherd: a teaching shepherd. God gathers, saves, sanctifies, and sustains his flock by his Word. Whether in pulpits, homes, hospitals, or jails, you will always be teaching.

Consider the Trials of the Minister

The literal shepherding of sheep is rewarding but arduous work. So, too, is shepherding God’s church.

I love my work. I never wish that I were doing anything else; more satisfying work is unimaginable to me. My desire is that you would enjoy the work of the minister as much as I do, but you won’t unless you are firmly persuaded of your calling.

Here’s why: you will face trials, hardships, and spiritual enemies that will tempt you to run away. There is no escaping adversity. Unless you are firmly persuaded that God has summoned you to pastoral ministry, you will falter, grow weary, become discouraged, and fail.

John the Baptist was not a Christian minister, but the last of the Old Testament prophets—men who were called by God to proclaim his infallible Word. One Gospel writer describes him: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John” (John 1:6). Had John not been convinced that he was called and sent by God, he would have crumbled under the privations of the wilderness. Or, fearful of the consequences, he would not have preached repentance to adulterous Herod and Herodias. And had he somehow, through strength of will, persevered in speaking the truth to them, he would have later succumbed to despair in the torments of Herod’s prison.

John’s suffering was uncommonly intense, far more so than yours and mine will ever be. Nevertheless, the sufferings that accompany your ministry will be real, and unless you are convinced that God has sent you to your congregation, your work will become unceasingly frustrating, leaving you bitter and burned out.

Consider the Internal and External Call of the Minister

God called John in an extraordinary manner, but he calls his new covenant ministers in a different way. How does God call his ministers?

Students of the Word have long observed that God’s call is both internal and external. Internally, God is at work, renovating the life of the one he calls. Externally, the Lord is preparing the church to call and welcome his minister. The internal and external aspects of God’s call are inseparable. Throughout the entire process of discernment, you want to examine your life and listen to your church.

Examine your life. Is there evidence of God’s internal call? Look for:

• A clear understanding that you possess the scriptural qualifications of those set apart to minister God’s Word;
• An awareness that the Holy Spirit has created within you a compulsion to perform the work of ministry; and
• The gifts and abilities necessary to fulfill your ministerial duties: an intellect capable of serious and sustained study, the ability to teach clearly, a love for God’s people, and the conviction that gospel ministry must be your life’s dominant work.

Listen to your church. What about the external call? As you examine your life, also listen to your church. Do the elders concur that you are, in fact, called to ministry? Are they willing to recommend that your presbytery make you a candidate for the ministry? Do your seminary professors see the intellectual gifting and godly comportment of a minister? Are churches providing you opportunities to preach, teach, and exercise other ministerial responsibilities? Are they affirming the spiritual value of your work? After the time of testing is complete, is there a congregation ready to call you as pastor? Your calling is complete only when presbytery approves the congregation’s call.

Consider the Character and Skills of the Minister

Now let’s think about the character traits and skills you must possess. Timothy and Titus were young ministers sent to serve in Ephesus and Crete. In Paul’s two letters to Timothy and one to Titus, he establishes the divinely approved pattern for the minister and his work.

Two specific lists of ministerial qualifications are found in these letters, in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:5–9. As you read these passages, keep in mind both the internal and the external aspects of your call:

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. (1 Tim. 3:1–7)

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. (Titus 1:5–9)

Let’s examine these qualifications.

Conversion

The minister “must not be a recent convert.” But he must be a convert! An unconverted minister is worse than useless; he threatens the existence of a congregation. His prayerlessness and lack of concern for the things of God and for the spiritual welfare of the people of God are an abomination to the Lord.

Are you converted? Are you persuaded that you are lost and condemned, apart from the mercy of God in Jesus Christ? Have you forsaken all hope of salvation by your own merits? Are you trusting alone for salvation in the righteousness and blood of the Savior? Are you conscious, day by day, of your need for divine forgiveness and the renewing power of the Holy Spirit?

When you were admitted to the communicant membership of God’s church, your church’s elders examined you. They sought clear evidence of your faith and repentance. Now, at every step in the ordination process—from your first meeting with presbytery to the calling of a local congregation—you will be asked to supply a credible testimony of faith and repentance.

Aspiration

“If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.”⁴ Do you have an inward compulsion to shepherd God’s church? Does ministry shape your heart? Can you echo Paul’s testimony: “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”⁵

Someone has said that a man should not be in ministry if he can do any other work. That doesn’t mean that you are so wretchedly unskilled that you couldn’t support yourself in another occupation. If that were true, we would be a sorry lot. What it does mean is that because God’s calling has obligated you to ministry, you can never be content in a vocation that precludes gospel work.

When I am interviewing associates, I am always looking for men who love God and the work of ministry. The reason is simple: when God calls a man to gospel work, he creates within him a love for ministry. That passion is evident to the one who is called; it must also be evident to the church that calls him.

Skilled Leadership

The minister “must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” Of course, this requirement includes raising children in the fear and admonition of the Lord—but also much more. Many ancient homes included business operations, complex financial arrangements, and the supervision of personnel (household servants). If a man managed these affairs poorly, he would also be a poor manager of God’s church.

Every job you undertake, every course of study you pursue, and every child you raise reflects upon your fitness to lead. Throughout your preparations for ministry, you build a record. Are you meeting these challenges competently? Do your church and your presbytery recognize your competence?...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword by R. Kent Hughes
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Understanding Your Call to Ministry
• 2. Preparing for Pulpit Ministry
• 3. Preparing and Delivering a Sermon
• 4. Practical Advice on Preaching
• 5. Leading Worship
• 6. The Sacraments
• 7. Church Administration
• 8. Growing through Conflict
• 9. Home Visitation
• 10. Practicing Hospitality
• 11. Counseling
• 12. Weddings
• 13. Hospital and Hospice Care
• 14. Funerals
• 15. Your Denominational Duties
• 16. The Character and Habits of Effective Ministers
• 17. Small Things That Yield Big Results
• 18. A Long and Fruitful Ministry
• Appendix 1: Advice for Student Preachers
• Appendix 2: Tips for Seeking a Pastoral Position
• Readings in Preaching and Pastoral Theology
• Notes
• Index of Scripture
• Index of Subjects and Names