Someone — perhaps Eleanor Roosevelt — once said, “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”
I’ve made plenty of those mistakes. If you’re interested, you can learn from mine.
I aspired to pastoral ministry at an early age. I sensed, as Charles Spurgeon described, “an intense, all-absorbing desire for the work … an irresistible, overwhelming craving and raging thirst for telling others what God has done to our own souls.” I began to study and gain experience, examined my life against the biblical qualifications, and sought counsel from others.
At age 24, I became the solo pastor of a small church. God has been gracious, but I made many mistakes along the way.
Here are six things I’d do differently today.
Slow Down
Honestly, I had no business becoming a pastor at age 24. I was in such a rush to become a pastor that I didn’t put in the requisite time to learn under the faithful ministry of older pastors. I’d gained a little experience, but not enough. I wish I’d slowed down and put in my time.
My son is an apprentice carpenter. To become a Red Seal carpenter, he has to complete 7,200 hours of training over approximately four years, combining 6,480 hours of on-the-job training with 720 hours of classroom instruction, and then pass the Red Seal exam. You can’t rush your way into becoming a carpenter, and you shouldn’t rush your way into becoming a pastor either.
I wish I’d apprenticed longer, serving under older, wiser pastors. It would have made me a better pastor in my youth.
Learn from a Healthy Church
I also wish I had spent more time in a healthy church. I’m not criticizing the churches I joined in my youth, but I hadn’t put in enough time seeing healthy ecclesiology being lived out. I wish I had spent more time in a church learning the ropes, observing elders meetings, asking questions, and learning how healthy churches function.
You can read good books, and I’m thankful for them, but it’s often better to see how the principles in a book are applied. I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know about how a healthy church should work, and it hurt my ministry.
Retain the Languages
I still occasionally have dreams that I have a Greek or Hebrew test in the morning, and I’m not ready. Neither language came easily to me, but I put in the hours and committed to keep and use the languages in my ministry. Sadly, I’ve lost much more than I’ve retained.
“Treasures are waiting,” writes Steve Mathewson. “So go find your Hebrew Bible. Dust off your Greek New Testament. Take up and read! It is nothing less than an act of love for God and his Word.”
I wish I’d spent more time maintaining my Hebrew and my Greek.
Focus on Character and Theology over Fads and Practices
I read a lot about how to do ministry. I attended conferences. I wanted to learn the skills of ministry. Nothing wrong with that: pastoral skills matter. But I began to neglect what mattered most: my character and theology.
Paul was right: “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:16). I paid too much attention to pastoral skills and ministry fads and didn’t pay enough attention to the issues of my soul and to growing in my knowledge of God and his word.
It took time, but I began to learn to deal with the issues of my soul — hidden issues like pride, impatience, and anger. I also began to focus less on how-to books and read deeper, better books.
Enjoy the Small and Quirky
I had visions for what ministry would look like. I hoped that I could rid myself of small churches and quirky people.
Now, I wish I had enjoyed the small and quirky. Smaller churches come with smaller burdens. Pastoring a church of any size is an immense privilege and responsibility, and unless we learn to be faithful in a small church, we’re not ready for a bigger one.
Pastors are in danger when they start to think they’re too good for a small church or a certain kind of people. I also wish I had learned to enjoy some of the eccentric people I got to pastor, some of the difficult deacons, the bad solos, and even some of the difficult meetings. God doesn’t call us to pastor in an ideal church; he calls us to pastor the people he’s given us, and I wish I had a greater sense of the privilege I had to pastor these people at the time.
Make a Long-Term Plan for Preaching
I remember thinking I’d be able, eventually, to preach through the entire Bible. If God gave me 40 years of ministry, and I preached 40 sermons a year, that would give me some 1,600 sermons to cover the 1,189 chapters of the Bible.
It would have been possible, but only with a plan.
I most likely have less than a decade left, and there are entire books of the Bible that I’ve never preached. I wish I’d created a plan that would eventually allow me to preach through the entire Bible over the course of my ministry.
I’ve made other mistakes, but these are some of the top changes I would make if I started over again. Learn from my mistakes if you can, and then thank God that he still chooses to use us despite our weaknesses and blunders.
