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. 

Tips for Youth Pastors transitioning to Senior Pastoring. Part 2 - Foundations.

One of the things you have to prepare yourself for when you are contemplating moving from being a Youth Pastor to a Senior Pastor is the difference in the weight that you will carry.  Being a Youth Pastor, sitting in the second chair, and overseeing one part of the church body has a certain amount of pressure to it for sure. However, when you scoot over to the first chair and begin to oversee all the aspects of the church, making sure it is healthy and growing, you will feel a major shift in the load that you carry. 

Before building a new house we have to prepare the foundation, before we take a new position in building the body of Christ we have to do the same. 

Today I want to take a look at four things you need to get in order in your personal life, before you add the extra weight of leading a church body. 

1. Your Marriage. 

The reason you need to work on your marriage, is not so that you can become a great Pastor. The reason you need to work on your marriage is because the greatest call on your life is to love and lead you wife as Christ does his church.   

2. Your Family. 

How is your family doing? How are your children? How much time do you spend with them? Do they know you love them? How do you show them your love? Do they have a personal walk with Jesus? How are you helping them cultivate their personal pursuit of Christ? 

These are questions you cannot wait to ask until after you have taking the on the role of Senior Pastor. These are questions that must be answered and lived out before you take the position. 

3. Your Finances. 

If you are currently carrying the weight of debt and financial strain, when you add the weight of leading a church to your life; you will get crushed! 

Let me say that again.

The weight of Senior Leadership added to personal financial strain will crush you. 

Get your financial house in order. I am not saying you have to be loaded. However, I am saying, that you need to be stewarding what God has already given to you, before you add more things to your stewardship portfolio. 

4. Your Health. 

Begin taking time now, to create margin in your schedule to make sure you are healthy. What is your diet like? What is your workout schedule? What hobbies do you have? I have found out personally that when I became a Senior Pastor, it became harder and harder to find time to take care of myself, because I was so busy trying to take care of others. 

The fourth piece of advice I would give Youth Pastor, considering taking that next step on the ministry ladder, is begin to work on yourself. Create time in your schedule everyday to stay healthy spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically.  Because, we can't lead others well, if we are not leading ourself. 

These are just a few thoughts. In part three of this series we will be talking about "Four things you must focus on once you become a Senior Pastor". 

I would love to connect with you. If you have any comments or questions, you can email me at growmoore@gmail.com. 

Tips for Youth Pastors transitioning into Senior Pastoring. Part 1

My wife Veronica and I had the honor of serving as Youth Pastors for more than 22 years. We served in small rural communities as well as mega church student ministry. What an absolute joy it was to roll our sleeves up, training leaders and making disciples of teenagers every week! 

In June of 2013 we answered Gods call to step out of youth ministry and begin the process of planting a church. We officially planted our first Campus (TheCHURCH at Visalia) in January of 2014. Today we have two campuses, one in Visalia, California and another in Tillamook, Oregon. 

One question that I get asked often from YP's that I talk with is, "Do you have any tips for youth guys when they transition and take a Senior Pastor Position?" Now that we have been doing the Senior Pastor thing for four years, I look back and see a lot of things I wish I would go back and do differently and a few things that I think we have done successfully, so I thought I take a the next few blogs to share a few tips based off of some of our life experience.  

Three Things to "NOT DO". 

1. Don't be in a hurry. 

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to hurry the process of becoming a Senior Leader. God has a plan for your life and the life of the church body you are going to lead. Don't be in a hurry. Master the art of serving another mans vision. Learn all of the lessons you need to learn right where you are. Don't take the first available position that seems like a fit, be patient waiting to step into the place and people God is calling you to serve. 

2. Don't think you are ready. 

When we were thinking of planting and pastoring, I remember telling my wife, "We have launched youth ministries from almost scratch, we have served in small and large churches, we have learned our lessons, I am ready for this".  Well, you know what, it took about three weeks of Senior Leadership for me to realize ... "I was not ready".  Oh, I was ready. I mean we were without a doubt doing what God had called us to to, but I was not "really ready". I wasn't ready for the weight of the call. I wasn't ready for all the needs of people. I wasn't ready for entire families to say they love me then leave the church. I wasn't ready for the buck to actually stop with me. I was ready, but I wasn't ready. 

When you finally take that step and become a Senior Pastor, know that God has called you and be confident knowing, he will equip you. But, don't go in thinking, "you got this". You will be at your strongest when you allow God to have it, not you. 

3. Don't go it alone. 

As I write this blog, I am preparing a message for this coming Sunday out of Acts 18, where God brings Aquila and Priscilla into Apollos's life, to mentor him and help him grow where he needed to go. Working on the message has reminded me of the important role that mentors have played in my life and ministry. 

Before you become a Senior Pastor, you need to have a stockpile of mentors in your life (like Apollos had) that are helping you grow where you need go. 

Let me ask you a couple questions.

1 - Who are your mentors in life that you can call and they will pick up right away? 

2 - Who are your mentors in life that you may not know personally, but are where you want to go?

3 - Are you humble enough to continually learn from them?

4 - Are you strong enough to listen to what they say and actually apply what you learn? 

The most dangerous place you can ever be as a Senior Pastor is all alone. Find your mentors, listen to what they say and walk out their advice. You will be glad you did. 

Are you a Youth Pastor in transition? Here are four things you need to do when you arrive at your new church.

Transition happens to all of us. Here are four things that you have to do when you arrive at your new Church. 

When you transition from one student ministry to the next, you will see so many things that need to change. That is great but you can’t change everything at once. 

I read a very good book one time that had a phrase that went something like this “The steps of the righteous man are ordered of the Lord.” If you notice, the scriptures do not say the leaps of a righteous man are ordered of the Lord. God orders and ordains our steps … not our leaps.

Coming into town and trying to tackle, facility, recruiting, outreach, discipleship, small groups and team building all at the same time would not be a step – that would be a very large leap. Because of this you have decide to accomplish His vision for your ministry one step at a time.

Four things you need to do when arriving at your new Church.

Step One - Take care of your family. 

The first thing to do when arriving at a new church, is not to change the youth group name, start a new ministry, or take the leadership on a retreat. The first thing to do in starting this new journey is to take care of your family. How is your spouse handling the transition away from family, friends, work and the home you left behind? How are your kids doing emotionally? It is far to easy to say, "Oh kids are tough, they will adjust easily". But the truth of the matter is, moving is tough on adults, let alone a 13 year old. In this transition, make your family your first priority. Give you spouse and children room to grow into the change. 

Step Two – Build relationship with students.
When you first arrive, you will be so excited to get to know all of the students in your new family at the Church. However, they don’t have a clue who you are, what you are like or if they can even trust you. They most likely have gone through several Youth Pastors and they all came in talking about how much they love them, and how God is going to do some great things in the ministry. They have heard it all before. When you first arrive don’t tell them you love them… show them! Take every opportunity during your Youth Services, weekend venues, off day trips, ball games, gatherings at your house and retreats to simply get to know your new friends as well as let them get to know you.

Relationship trumps everything!
Teenagers are your ministry so, build relationships with your students and you will be building your ministry! 

Step Three – Build relationship with parents.
You have to begin to look at everything through the eyes of the parents. You have some incredible families at your new Church. So take some time to establish trust, build friendship, as well as cast the vision of where you are taking the student ministry and inviting parents to bring their teenager along for the journey. 

Talk to parents in the halls of the Church. Set up times to grab a coffee. Go to one of their Children’s games, sit on the bleachers and just get to know them. Other than your relationship with your Senior Pastor, your relationship with Parents is the most important relationship in your ministry, so be authentic, be real, be a servant and get to know them. When you do, they will love you! When they love you, they will make their teenagers come to your meetings!

Step Four – Build the team.
Nothing can be done alone. In order for you to do what God is calling you to do, you must build an incredible team. When my family and I transitioned to a new church a few years ago, we had an amazing summer planned. We also had a brand new launch coming up in the fall, so we took 13 weeks of the Summer to not only cast vision, but to recruit, train, and release new workers into the roles they were going to play at Student Ministry in the fall. 

We arrived at the new Church at the end of May. We took time to build relationships with teenagers, build relationships with parents, we recruited and trained 70 new volunteers and in 13 weeks the student ministry went from 40 students at our first service to 395 when we launched in the fall. 

When Jesus came to the earth, He did not come to promote or push a program, He came to the earth to help people. It is the same with each us us. God did not call us where we are to promote or push some program! He called us to live and to love His people. 

Build HIS people and HE will build HIS church! 

If you want to find out more ways to grow, and build your team, be sure to check out Youth Ministry University. Click (HERE) to find out more.