Winston Churchill once said that writing a book goes through five phases. In phase one, it is a novelty or a toy. But by phase five, it becomes a tyrant ruling your life. And just when you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling it into the public.~Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, Built to Last (New York: Harper Collins, 2002), p.ix.I resonate with that quote so strongly,

Pray that God would lead you in your search. Pray for wisdom and discernment. Pray that He would grant you awareness of key factors for your decisions. Pray that your priorities would be rightly aligned with His for your particular calling. Pray for clarity, and that He would make straight your path to fulfilling your calling in service to His church and Kingdom.Pray that God would lead the search

While I was at the PCA's General Assembly, I had opportunity to spend time with a number of pastors who were either in transition or preparing to enter into it. One interesting fact arose: the perception of a narrow window.Three of the men I spoke with indicated that they felt they were facing a barrier because they were "older" -- which, in these cases, translated into somewhere in their 50s -- and

There has been a good bit going on, writing-wise, and I wanted to give my tens of readers an update about it.To begin with, Doulos Resources released a book I wrote about six weeks ago: For All the Saints... Praying for the Church is a short book that I wrote for congregation-level reading, offering a guide to what specific ways people might pray for the church, the biblical basis behind each, and

Originally posted September 5, 2005The floor examination has a clear purpose: to test your readiness for ministry.Notice: I didn't say, “test your knowledge” or “test your theological acuity.” This is a test of how ready you are for the day-to-day, hour-by-hour work of ministry.A little background-- when a Candidate for Gospel Ministry pursues ordination in the Presbyterian

Ed Stetzer blogged recently about some wisdom he has regarding "interim" pastorates. Ed has some excellent advice for interims and churches calling them, especially when it comes to what it takes to BE an interim and what is reasonable to expect an interim to accomplish. I highly recommend his post on this. (Ed also suggests a couple of helpful other resources on interim leadership.)I, for one, think

First published September 5, 2005Most of the men I know who have remained in ministry for a number of years have done so through the friendships they made in seminary.In whatever way that it has materialized, these men (and often their families alongside them) have maintained friendships with a few very close friends from their seminary years. Those friendships have been a central factor in keeping

My friend and fellow TE in Covenant Presbytery, David Strain of Main Street Presbyterian Church, Columbus MS, offered some good advice for pastoral candidates on his blog today:Think long and hard about different social contexts and what language fits them.Read correspondence before sending it off!Practice humility.Be careful on blogs and Facebook.Tailor your application to specific churches.Cultivate

First published August 20, 2005...I don't know any seminarians who have lost weight or gotten in better shape during seminary.Don't get me wrong-- I do know a good handful of guys that find time to exercise. Even I have found streaks of a few weeks where I've been on the treadmill regularly. But my pitfall is, I would guess, the same as many of my fellow seminarians': some point in the semester (exam

In part one of this series, I addressed why a hand-off (where an existing Assistant or Associate Pastor becomes the new Senior Pastor) is valuable. In part two, I answered the question, "should the Assistant/Associate become the Senior?" In part three, we looked at some strategies for an effective transition of this sort.In this (final) installment, I want to think about planning for succession.The

Originally posted on August 5, 2005You think transition is hard on you? Wait until you see the fallout for your family.Any transition is difficult-- not just for a pastor, but for his wife, children, parents, siblings, former friends... no one is left unscathed. Some friends of mine recently felt the force of this as they moved to seminary: they were doing pretty well with it, until it finally caught

Originally posted July 30, 2005Anytime I'm left waiting in someone's office, I look at what is on the shelves: usually, the books capture my interest the most, though I was once fascinated to find a clean, yet broken, inner-race of a automotive constant-velocity (CV) joint on the shelf of a philosophy professor! (The CV joint is the amazing piece of a car's axle that allows the wheels to spin at different

I've come across a couple of helpful pieces lately that I'll pass along:Church Whisperers-- this group focuses on strategic interim pastoring, which is a sorely-needed ministry and an oft-neglected topic. I really like what this effort is doing. Check out the latest article: "Working Yourself Out of a Job".Congregations and New Pastors: A How-To Guide-- this is a great article for congregations on

In part one of this series, I addressed why this sort of hand-off is valuable. In part two, I answered the question, "should the Assistant/Associate become the Senior Pastor?"Now, let's look at some strategies for the newly named Senior Pastor for an effective transition into the new role. I recommend three essential steps toward moving forward into the new role as Senior Pastor.Deal with changing

Originally posted in July, 2005: Who are the people in your neighborhood?Sing along if you know it: Oh the postman always brings the mail, in rain or snow or sleet or hail...The Sr. Pastor I worked with in Roanoke had an interesting experiment going on when I started: he would stop for gas at the station less than two blocks from the church property and would routinely ask the attendant for directions

My friend Doug did an interview with me via e-mail about my process of candidacy and transition. Part one is here.Here is part two:8. Briefly describe your experience of transitioning into your role as pastor?It's still going on, in many ways: most studies have shown that pastors don't really become as effective in their ministries as possible until seven years in, and that they don't effect significant

Well, it is "new" in that it has just been posted here.A few years ago, I wrote a few posts on how a church can prepare for a new pastor; these posts were themselves the result of a series of sermons and Sunday School classes I taught on the subject at a church I was serving in pulpit supply at the time. After I had written these, and received a good bit of positive feedback on them, I re-formatted

I've been blogging for four and a half years, with well over 300 posts. Somewhere in there is some decent stuff-- and, while I'm still writing new stuff, I'm going to start occasionally re-posting some of the older ones, particularly when they are timely.And, since many who were seminarians a week ago are no longer seminarians, but now are seminary graduates, I'm going to re-post my series on making

In part one, we considered why the hand-off is valuable. In this post, I want to consider the question, "Should the Associate/Assistant become the Senior?"There are numerous circumstances in which the answer to that question ought to be a resounding, "YES!" and only a few in which the answer ought to be, "no." Think of it this way: below are some diagnostic questions about the Assistant/Associate Pastor

Some pastors are apparently being let go during this economic recession, because their churches aren't able to pay them anymore (or at least, they aren't able to pay them adequately). Thankfully, I have not encountered this personally, nor has anyone that I know, to my knowledge.However, I am greatly encouraged to see this: in my denomination (the Presbyterian Church in America), we have an "agency"

One of my "dreams" for the church is that pastoral transitions would go more smoothly for most, if not all, churches. I am convinced that one way for this to happen more frequently is if the transition is a planned "hand-off" of the outgoing Pastor's rather than a "from-scratch" restart of pastoral ministry every time the Senior Pastor (or any other pastoral staff member) leaves. I want to focus on

A friend of mine recently learned-- the hard way-- that he was in a type of position I call the "unintentional interim." Here's the lay of the land: the pastor that served this congregation before my friend was their pastor for several decades. He was beloved by his people, and served them faithfully. This isn't to say that there were not surely more difficult times, but over their many years together

It's been a long time since I've blogged about how churches can do a better job with their search processes. I admit that my focus has been on candidates (and even primarily on the transition from seminary to a first ministry) for some time now. I think my horizons will broaden over the coming months, starting with this post.I'm a big fan of writer Malcolm Gladwell; I think he's not only one of the

Many seminaries have held graduation ceremonies in the past week; others will be doing so in the coming week or so. I don't know how many of my tens of readers are still in seminary, but to all of you who have recently graduated: you have my deep and heartfelt congratulations. You have completed an accomplishment of no small substance, and I commend you on your work and diligence to see it through.Along

A few articles, posts, and other such have come to my attention recently that those in transition (or considering it) may find interesting. How a Presbyterian Minister Should Resign. Good thoughts here on the way that a resignation is approached-- not in a strictly businesslike manner, but with care and consideration for one's responsibilities as a Pastor and Presbyter. PCA Ministerial Glut. Back

My second key piece of advice for those in transition was to take time to get to know the people and businesses near the church.I'll stick with this advice, and think it is valuable part of a good transition. l will say, though, that the ways that these opportunities may manifest themselves are more than I initially suggested.For example: one of the best opportunities I've had to get to know the people

Back in the summer of 2005, I wrote a series of posts for those who had recently placed on the idea of how to start your ministry well. Having recently made a transition-- and having completed my first 90 days-- I thought it would be helpful to re-examine those sage bits of advice and see how much I still agreed with what I said back then!Transition tip #1 was to focus on building the relationships.

I was examined by the Credentials Committee of Covenant Presbytery today, and they approved me for recommendation for ordination. This is huge, and it really feels great to get this step behind me. My friend Michael compares the completion of ordination to the struggle that consumes the movie Poseidon Adventure-- not a bad analogy.Almost anyone emerging from seminary and entering ministry will be "ordained"

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you probably know that I started it as a repository for data, insights, and interaction with the research that I started in 2004 on pastoral placement. I initially did that research for personal reasons (e.g., I wanted to know how to place well!) but quickly became burdened for anyone who is going through a pastoral transition. As I've continued to study