A Letter to a Pastor at the Start of a New Ministry

I’ve had several good conversations recently with pastors who are just beginning their ministries at a new church.  After listening to them, I found myself reflecting on the complexity that’s involved with a new pastor’s getting-acquainted season. Actually, as a ministry coach, that’s what I love to do. I wrote the following letter to any pastor entering a new opportunity.   If you know a pastor in a point of transition, feel free to pass this along!

Dear newly-arrived pastor,

It was good to talk with you the other day. It sounds like you're fully enjoying your entry into a pastor-church partnership that could come to fit you really well. I see you reveling in that. That's rich.  Enjoy this honeymoon season to the hilt. After all, that’s what honeymoons are for (...well, besides that!).

By definition, any honeymoon season will end, allowing underlying difficulties to appear.  Those conflicts will surface differently for you than they have with other pastors who have served your congregation, but they will reappear.  They always do. Churches are like internet providers: the low-cost introductory offer always leads to the point at which the customer is required to pay the full price.   

I don't say this to discourage you—I suspect you already know this--but I want to encourage you to make the most of your "introductory offer" as your congregation’s new pastor to build in place the things that will prove most helpful when that next season does eventually come.  

How might a pastor do that?

Four things come to mind:

First off—prayer. Actually a lot of prayer. If you believe that God has led you to this congregation, then you can assume that he has some important things that he intends to do through your ministry in this church. God’s plans may align closely with the hopes you had when you accepted this call to serve there. Or, honestly, God’s plans may be quite different. They often are. For that reason, I can’t overstate the importance of starting each day, each week, each new sermon series or leadership meeting with a fervent prayer: “Lord, what do you want to do with this?”  And then let him show you.

Let me add a second thought to that—relationships. Relationship-building is extremely important when beginning a ministry, for a number of reasons. You and your family are brand-new in this congregation; you will need to find your place. In addition, we pastors genuinely care about people. That makes it natural to want to form relationships with people.

But here’s something else. If God’s going to use you to lead your congregation forward, your people will need to be able to follow your lead. They will need to know if they can trust you. People can only follow a leader they can trust. And the only way people can begin to trust a leader is through some kind of relationship. That’s another reason why relationships can be so important. I know this might sound merely utilitarian and not very pastoral—but it’s simply true. 

One more thing: you will need key partnerships in the congregation. As the church’s new pastor, you will be granted a certain amount of credibility or permission to do your own thing. That’s important: you will inevitably relate to people differently than your predecessor did. You’ll preach differently. You’ll have different priorities. It will simply feel different for people to have you as their pastor now compared to any other pastor they’ve known.

That’s why it’s good that your introductory season will come with a certain amount of “introductory” credits. These points allow you the permission needed for some of these first adjustments. In a sense, a pastor’s honeymoon season is made possible by these introductory credits.

But here’s the thing: they only come in a limited quantity, while supplies last. By the time those introductory credits run out you will need to provide people with some additional reason to follow where you are leading.

And that’s where key partnerships come in. There are already members in your congregation who have accumulated an astonishing number of leadership credits, often over years of faithful service in the church’s ministry.

And every time you take some bold step in a new direction, people will instinctively look across the room at these high-point holders, wondering what they think of your crazy idea. And if it becomes clear that these key leaders are taking your leadership seriously, then chances are that a lot of other members will too. And if not...well...you can probably guess.

I know that also might sound manipulative, but it’s really just wise. Fair or not, congregations form around key opinion-shapers, and you’re not one of them. Not yet. 

Finally, I really want to encourage you to trust in God as you follow him through this first year. That sounds like a platitude, but a fervent trust in him will be crucial during this new season. Ask him to fill your heart with a genuine love for your church family.

When you feel intimidated walking into an unfamiliar conversation or meeting, remind him that he called you to that moment, and that you will need him to lead you through it.

When your heart grows weary from all of the adjustments you’re making, ask him to renew you so that you can rediscover that his grace is indeed sufficient.

When a conversation or a sermon or some event doesn’t come off quite the way you hoped, let him be the one who carries the heaviest weight of that moment.

When you find at times it feels like you don’t quite have enough faith to keep facing toward him in the face of all of the adjustments you’re making—ask him to give you more. The one who has called us is faithful and will do it.

I’ve got to tell you: I’m excited for you. I’m eager to see what God does through your ministry in this new opportunity!

Ron