Recently I had the privilege of leading an a workshop at the AGKidmin Conference.
I spoke about building your ministry for the eventual time that you leave your position.
One thing I was taught early in my ministry career is that you are always replaceable. You are not going to be where you are forever. Most likely there was someone before and there will be someone after you. You are just the steward of the ministry and it is up to you as to what condition it’s going to be in when you leave.
You can download my teaching notes below.
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One of the biggest questions in kidmin is how much you should be compensated for your work. After all, Paul wrote to Timothy:
"Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain, and the worker deserves his wages." — 1 Timothy 5:18
The problem is that many of us love this work so much we'd do it for free. But we also have families to support, ministry costs to cover, and real time invested week in and week out caring for our kids and families.
One question I’m asked often is what should you do when you’re called to ministry? I understand the question. There are a lot of different ways to get started. And it’s not always clear what the next steps are.
It’s so exciting when you’re just starting out in a new ministry position. You have all these forms to fill out, people to meet, relationships to build and systems to learn. People are looking to you for fresh vision and comparing you to the past. One of the biggest questions they’re going to ask you is “what will you change?”
The first 100 days of any new position is the most important. So much so that they even wrote a book about it.
One of the best ways I’ve started well is to have a meeting with all the leaders of the church or ministry. I’ve done it at the last 4 churches I’ve served. But why are these meetings so important?
How did you get your ministry job? Were you a faithful volunteer that worked your way into a job? Were you an outside hire that found your way through relationship? Or did you find a lead on a job board somewhere and landed where God wanted you to be?
In any case, there is one document that you need to at least get your foot in the door.
Your Resume.
In about a week from this writing, I'll mark one year as a Lead Pastor. It's been a long road to get here. I spent 15 years as a kids' pastor, then served at two more churches as an executive pastor before God called me to this role.
Now that I'm in the big chair, I can say with confidence that things look different from here. I'm just as busy as I was in kidmin, but the scope, the worries, and the challenges are bigger. From what I've observed in other leaders at this level, I know I'm just getting started. Still, I wanted to share five things this first year has taught me