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. 

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.