Pastoring with Patience

So, the church voted unanimously to call you as their new pastor. You’ve been on the job now for six months. They bought you new office furniture, they have delivered meals to your home, and have helped your wife and kids to fit into their new church family. They are eager to hear your preaching and seem to be open to your leadership. People are inviting their friends to worship. Life is good. But, you are not yet the pastor.

Yes, you hold the title of pastor, you have the training and calling of a pastor, but you are not yet the pastor of the church. You haven’t been embraced as the pastor of the church, and you won’t be for five or six more years. Thom Rainer has listed six reasons why it takes five to seven years to be embraced as the pastor of an established church.

My purpose in writing today is not to identify the reasons it takes so long, but to urge you to be patient as God is making you into the pastor your church needs and is making your church into a body that can and will follow your leadership.

The best years of pastoral ministry, we are told (and I can attest to that conventional wisdom), come sometime after year five, six, or seven, but most pastors never make it that far. In my work with pastors, it seems to me that a lack of pastoral patience is one of the greatest obstacles to long tenure.

Here are some steps patient steps you can take as a pastor.... Read More