Three Pearls of Wisdom for New Pastors (or Any Christian Leader)
Dr. Jeannie addresses a new pastors conference and offers three pearls of wisdom as they embark on their ministerial journey.
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I want to share, as I told you, the three pearls of wisdom that I believe will be helpful for you as you embark on this part of your journey. The first one that I would encourage you to is commit to being a lifelong learner, because see, I believe there will be a temptation to believe that we're too busy to continue to take advantage of all the opportunities for continuing education and growth. Sometimes, it's easy to believe that we have enough knowledge, but Proverbs says, "To get wisdom, and if it costs us everything we have, to get understanding."
As we continue in learning, I believe we should also continue in learning about this emotional and relational wisdom that I was speaking of, because what pastors tell me time and time again is while they felt excellently prepared to minister the scriptures and perform their pastoral duties and minister to people in many ways, they felt unprepared for the amount of people problems that they would encounter.
They felt unprepared when congregational conflict came along or how to handle unrealistic expectations and the possibility of criticism. They found it difficult to note how to really build that sense of engagement and motivation and teamwork together towards the mission and the vision.
The first pearl of wisdom was commit to being a lifelong learner. The second one is be bold. By that, I mean allow God's Holy Spirit to flow out of who you are, your unique personality, your gifts. He's only created one you because there can be a temptation to be conformed more to the expectations of others than the path that God is leading us on and who He's created us to be. I'll never forget a woman who came to talk to me, and she was married to a pastor.
She was just exhausted and burnt out and teary when she came to talk to me. As we talked on a while, I began to ask her, "So what part of ministry are you passionate about? What are your giftings and call?" She just looked at me puzzled, and she said, "Well, I just do whatever needs to be done at the church." The fact of the matter was that she had spent so much time doing whatever needed to be done and whatever people thought she should be doing, that she had lost herself and become totally burned out.
Even in pastoring, not every pastor is the same. Somebody here, some of you may have a gift of evangelism that that just gets you excited. Some of you here, somebody here may have a real gift of teaching, and that is just your strong suit. Some may be a gifted storyteller. That's an amazing way to bring the gospel. My encouragement is to use whatever God has given you.
Finally, the final pearl is don't quit. Galatians 6:9 says, "So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up." The very fact that the admonition exist not to quit suggests there's going to come a day when we feel like quitting. A lot of times, I hear people tell me maybe it's time to go on to a different church or a different ministry, or people that are in business, "I tried that. It just wasn't working."
There is a time to leave. There is a season for everything, but I believe what happens quite often is that people tend to give up before the breakthrough comes.
God has set us at this moment in history, I personally believe it's going to be the greatest, but that doesn't mean that it will be easy. I believe it will necessitate bringing everything we have to bear. I like to say connection with God plus emotional and relational wisdom equals transformational ministry.
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