Four things Youth Pastors need to focus on when transitioning to Senior Pastor - Part 4 - MENTORING

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.

2 Timothy 2:1-2 

Jesus has called us to make disciples. That will never happen on its own. You have to be proactive. When it comes to making disciples, training leaders, and mentoring others, Paul and Timothy's friendship has always intrigued me. 

Here is a little history on their story. 

Timothy was a teenager when he first met Paul. Timothy's father was a Greek man; we do not know anything about his religious beliefs. But, we do know that his mother and grandmother were faithful Jewish women. They taught the Old Testament scriptures to Timothy when he was a boy. As these Jewish women heard Paul preach, they put their faith in Jesus, and so did Timothy.   Paul saw Gods call on Timothy and invited Timothy to travel with him.

Timothy helped Paul plant and establish churches at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. When Paul left Berea to go to Athens he left Timothy and Silas behind. Paul later sent word for them to come join him. Paul trusted Timothy so much, that he was also sent to Thessalonica to strengthen the faith of believers there. 

Timothy was a person who Paul spent a considerable amount of time pouring into, equipping, and releasing to do the work of the ministry. 

During the 3 years Paul was in Ephesus teaching the people about the amazing power of God, Timothy was there, with him. When Paul was imprisoned in Rome for two years, Timothy was right alongside him much of the time unselfishly taking care of Paul’s needs. By now Timothy had spend around 10 to 15 years with his mentor, Paul. 

Paul thought of Timothy not only as a very faithful friend but also as his spiritual son.

After Paul’s release from prison in Rome, Timothy and Paul traveled to visit friends in the churches they had founded. When they got back to Ephesus, Paul recognized some men in the church were teaching error about Jesus. Paul needed to leave and visit his friends in Macedonia, but he didn’t want to leave the Ephesian church in turmoil. So, he left Timothy, the one he had personally mentored for years, to teach truth to the church there while Paul carried on his mission.

Pauls relationship with Timothy is one that you will need to replicate over and over again in order to make disciples and train leaders to not only help you fulfill your mission but to help them become what God has called them to be! 

Here are some questions to ask yourself on a regular basis.

1 - Who is my Timothy?      (Note - You may and should have more than one.)

2 - What qualities has God placed in them?

3 - What am I doing to sharpen their God given qualities and calling?

4 - What small thing have a released them to do?

5 - Have they proved themselves faithful with the small?

6 - Are they ready for more? 

7 - Who is around them that they can eventually train up as their Timothy?

Here are some things that I (we) currently do to mentor, train the Timothy's around me as well as a couple things we are starting in 2018. 

Staff Members:

1 - Do a weekly one on one with leaders of Departments. 

2 - Do bi-weekly leadership training session with entire team. 

3 - Do random meet ups to check in, coach, live life together. 

3 - Yearly Conference as a team (2018).

Volunteer Team Members:

1 - Weekly team meetings / touch points / prayer with their Department Leader. 

2 - Go Night Celebration and Team Training 5x per year. 

3 - Receive audio of weekly leadership training. (2018)

Four things Youth Pastors need to focus on when transitioning to Senior Pastoring - Part 3 - MONEY

One thing that you cannot afford to ignore as a Senior Leader, is the finances of your church. 

I know people will tell you the church is not a business, it is a hospital. However, let me ask you a question. What does it take to run a hospital? It takes a trained medical staff and money. 

Here are a few things that I've learned (sometimes the hard way) the past few years as a Senior Pastor. 

1. Don't be afraid to talk and teach about money. 

It is not our job as pastors to get people to give money to the church. It is our job as pastors to help people begin experience the freedom that comes from loving the Lord with all of their heart, soul, mind, strength, as well as loving their neighbor as themselves. 

There's not much more in this world that has the potential to ruin a persons heart than money. Because of this, scripture has much to say about money and how we steward it. Even though people get funny when you talk about money, love them enough to talk about and teach biblical truths on this topic on a regular basis. 

2. Help people get out of debt. 

One of the biggest reasons people don't give toward Gods kingdom is, they think they cannot afford it. Most people are so bogged down with debt they are living check to check and totally stressed out at the end of every month. I don't know that God has called everyone to be rich, however, I do know that God wants his children to have peace in their heart. 

As a shepherd it is our job to lead people to the green pastures and still waters that God offers their soul. You need to lead them out of financial depression and into financial peace. 

Besides teaching on financial stewardship in your messages, might I suggest you make Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace class a small group option for you church. This class does not help people get rich, it helps people become free from the mental bondage of bad thinking in their finances. 

Here is a link to FINANCIAL PEACE UNIVERSITY 

3. Have someone more gifted than you handle the church finances. 

As the Pastor you need to have a strong handle on the finances of the church, however, to do that you don't have to handle the finances of the church. 

One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is have someone in your church that understands finances, how they work, and how to steward them well take care of the weekly details of your church budget and finances. 

Just because you are the best speaker in your church does not mean you are the best at handling money, so get a trusted team trained up, and release them to do what they do best, so you can do what you do best. 

4. Be faithful with the small. 

This topic is so BIG that I will save the details for another blog. But, here is the bottom line; if you can't be faithful with stewarding and stretching $5,000 per month in offerings, you will never be able to steward $100,000 per month. So take care of the little, and God will trust you with more. 

Click the links below for two books that have really helped me. I know they will help you as well. 

The Blessed Life - Pastor Robert Morris 

The Blessed Church - Pastor Robert Morris

So you want to be a better speaker? 9 questions to ask yourself after your message.

As Pastors the most important thing we do every week in ministry is present the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is not something that should be taken lightly. We need to master the craft of effectively communicating the truths of Gods word in such a way that people listen and apply what they hear from us. 

One of the best ways to improve as a speaker is to watch your message every week. I know, you don't like looking at yourself. I know, you don't like listen to yourself. But get over yourself! It's not about you. It's about the message. 

Every week I watch my messages and take written and mental notes.

Here are a few things I look for when watching my messages. 

1. What was my point and did I get it across?

2. Did I speak the Bible in its proper context?

3. What were the action steps for the message?

4. Did the people clearly understand the action steps?

5. Was my humor used to move the point forward or to get laughs.

6. Did I have phrases / ticks that distracted from message?

7. Did I use the stage well?

8. Did I have the right body language for the delivery?

9. Did I speak the truth in love? 

These are a few things I ask myself every week and I have found it has really helped my get better at speaking messages that inspire life change. 

Hope this helps you and if you would like to connect - just drop me an email at growmoore@gmail.com. 

Four things Youth Pastors need to focus on when transitioning to Senior Pastor - Part 2 - THE MESSAGE

When you take the position of Senior Pastor there are going to be a lot of important things vying for your time. Each week board meetings, follow up routines, developing budgets, hiring staff, recruiting and training volunteers, hospital visits, developing small group curriculum, and more will be screaming for your attention.  

With all the things that you will want devote your energies to, you have to understand that there is one thing that trumps all the other things on your "to do list" and that is the preaching of Gods word. 

As a Senior Pastor, the most important thing you will do all week is stand in front of your congregation and present the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here are just a few scriptures to guide you:

I Peter 5:2 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking theoversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

Romans 10:14  How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

It sounds so obvious that preaching is the most important thing you do as a Senior Pastor, however, take it from a guy who made the transition for Youth Pastor to Senior Leader a little over 4 1/2 years ago, you will have to fight very hard to keep private study and message prep as sacred times in your schedule. 

Here are 5 pieces of advice. 

1. Start Now. 

Begin to place a priority on your message prep now. If you can't protect your schedule as a Youth Pastor overseeing one ministry, you will not be able to flip the switch and do it when you oversee all the ministries of the church. 

2. Block off time to Pray. 

If you think your funny stories or eloquent delivery is going to change a persons heart, you are sadly mistaken. Only God can change a heart. With all the things you will be doing, don't ever be so busy that you don't take time to beg God to anoint each word he wants you to speak to His people. 

3. Protect your personal study time. 

You are good at what you do and you probably have some really good messages on a lot of Bible topics. However, I want to encourage you ... don't just skim over the top of a text. Wrestle with it, wring out every bit of context, truth, and application you can find, before you let it go. You can't do that in 30 minutes. Make the time in your schedule for personal study time and protect it at all costs. 

4. Pick a day to write and prepare. 

What is the day you write your message? Don't let your schedule dictate when you prepare your actual message. Let your message prep be the center point of your week and schedule everything else around it. 

5. Spend time practicing it before you preach it. 

Don't let the first time the words from the page come out of your mouth be when you stand in front of your congregation. Practice. Practice. Practice. Musicians practice before they perform, athletes practice before they play the game, you need to practice before you preach your message. 

Practice the pacing of your words. Practice your voice flexions. Practice the delivery of your message and practice how you use the stage. 

Preaching is the most important thing you will do in ministry all week. Don't wing it! You are not that good and God's word deserves nothing less than your best. 

Hope these few thoughts help you as you prepare for Senior Leadership. 

Four things Youth Pastors need to focus on when transitioning to a Senior Pastor - Part 1 - MISSION

STAY ON MISSION AT ALL COST. 

One of the buzz words in ministry the past 10 years is "mission". The reason it's so talked about is because it's so important. When you become a Senior Pastor there are going to be things you want to do and things others will want you to do. However, what you or others want really doesn't matter. The only things that matters is what has God called you to do. 

When we planted the church in 2014 we were on mission. We had a laser like focus. Everything we did pointed toward making disciples. But about 2 years in, we added staff members, new volunteer leaders, and had a lot of new voices speaking into the body of the church.

Looking back at this season, I saw myself drifting away from the mission of making disciples, toward doing good events and trying to utilize the talents around me. I remember trying to figure out, how could we use Dan more effectively? I spent hours wondering and working toward what Rich was really called to do? I gave projects to Jered and Jordan that would help hone their skill sets. During this time we did great women's events, mens events, services in the park and had large gatherings of people on a regular basis. However, the hard truth is, with all the busyness of ministry we were not effective at making disciples. We were spending a lot of side ways energy. We had great events, services and programs, but we were not successful at doing what God had called us to do. 

Needless to say, since then, we have course corrected and are back on mission. (I will break down what we did to get back on track and what we are doing to stay there in a future blog.)                                    

The first piece of advice I would give you as you transition into the Senior Pastor role is... figure out what God has called you to do as a church, then stay on mission, at all cost.