Avoiding Pastoral Pitfalls by James Osterhaus

Author:James Osterhaus
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: leighton ford; pastor tips; how to thrive as pastor; practical pastor advice; pastor mental health; pastor anxiety; pastor depression; pastoral leadership; pastor difficult situations; pastor conflict; building trust pastor; pastor skills; what to know about being a pastor; pastor counseling; pastor calling wisdom; pastoral wisdom; pastoring a new church; new church pitfalls; how to survive pastoring new church; church ministry pitfalls; pastor psychology; pastor must have values; pastor mistakes; navigating church leadership
ISBN: 9781496464804
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers

Although there’s little you can do to fight the church culture, the more you know and understand about the unwritten rules, the more effective you will be. One rule of thumb: Regardless of the church culture, always be early to appointments and meetings. It shows respect. Keep in mind that your selection as pastor had much to do with the search committee’s sense as to how you aligned with their culture. If they celebrate that culture, then they will have seen you as aligning very nicely. If they have major issues with the culture, then they will have seen you as a major change agent (although that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll go along with your change initiatives).

Listen Up

Your short- and long-term success depends on other people. The team you’re joining was in place before you arrived and will be in place after you leave. Look for ways to fit in, to build a sense of camaraderie and become a part of the team. Don’t go it alone. You have to work in concert with those around you. That means understanding the personalities and capabilities of those above you, those below you, and those beside you. More important initially is not what you do but rather how you do it. You should focus on five conversations:

The Situation Conversation. Your goal with the “situation conversation” is to gain an understanding of how church leadership sees the state of your new church organization. Is it a turnaround, a start-up, a realignment, or a sustaining-success situation?

The Expectations Conversation. Your agenda with the “expectations conversation” will be to clarify and negotiate what you are expected to accomplish. What is expected of you in the short term and the medium term? Be advised that these expectations will undoubtedly be totally unrealistic, and you will need to begin early to recalibrate these expectations to something that makes more sense. Otherwise, you’ll burn yourself out in the first ninety days.

The Style Conversation. The “style conversation” is about how you and your staff (if you have one) and how you and church lay leadership can best interact on an ongoing basis. What is the preferred form of communication—face-to-face, email, voice mail, memos? How often are status reports expected? What sorts of decisions do they want to be consulted on? Yes, there is church polity that lays out the structure, but within all of these structures is a myriad of individual processes shaped by the particular culture in which you find yourself.

The Resources Conversation. The “resources conversation” is actually a negotiation for critical resources. What do you need to be successful? These resources are not limited to people and funds. Negotiate for resources. As you seek commitments for resources, keep these principles of effective negotiation in mind: Focus on underlying interests. Probe as deeply as possible to understand the agendas of your church board and any others to whom you will need to apply for resources. What’s in it for them?

Look for mutually beneficial exchanges. Seek resources that both support your leadership’s agenda and advance your own.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.