I am in my tenth year as a solo pastor. In that time, I have led our congregation through a lot of changes. Our first Sunday together, I candidated for a down and out congregation that had just moved into a newly renovated space. They had already offered the pastorate to someone else, who had decided God wanted him on the mission field instead. I was their second choice. That was August, 2004. In November of that year, the congregation called me to be their pastor.
Five years later, with our lease expiring and our funds dwindling, God led us to another congregation and I was privileged to help lead the two congregations in a merger that resulted in Bedford Road Baptist Church. That process took over 18 months from beginning to end.
Now, after nearly ten years, I finally feel like I have something to give to the next generation of pastors – in the form of a single piece of advice.
If you can live without doing this job, do something else.
I say this in all seriousness and without the slightest reservation.
If you can do something else, do it. The pastorate is not something you do because you think it will be neat or a challenge. It is something you do because there is a fire burning deep inside your gut and God won’t let you do anything else.
Look, I am a pastor’s kid. I know just how much being married to a pastor or having a pastor as a dad sucks.
As a pastor, you will put your family through more garbage than you would ever wish on anyone else. You will have bouts of depression and frustration. You will have days of complete exhaustion. Sometimes, you will cry for no reason other than the disparity between the way you thought your life would go and the way it has.
Make no mistake about it.
You have to be called into this gig.
If you can do anything else, do it. If you can be anywhere else, be there. If there is someone else, then let them do it.
Being a pastor is the hardest thing I have ever done. It is tiring. It is frustrating. It is painful. It is trying. It is brutal. It is emotional.
And I can’t imagine myself doing anything else because God dragged me kicking and screaming into this gig – so I know it is His work, not mine.
Casual pastor-wannabe? Get out while you can, before this thing consumes you. It isn’t for those who aren’t called, because it isn’t about you.
Erik, I totally agree with you. I pastored for almost seven years and it was the hardest job I have ever had. But even now that I’m not in the lead pastor position, my heart is consumed with knowing the Bible, making disciples and teaching. I can’t shake it. I have thought about staying bivocational and getting trained in a profitable trade, but nothing comes to mind that even comes close to how passionate I am about ministry. Sometimes I hate it and yell at God: “Why did you pick me to do this?? I never asked for this @##%@$#@&!!”
But I can’t imagine doing anything else.