I do not have a job description. I have a Letter of Call which offers a general description of the ministry that the congregation has called me to do. The Letter of Call focuses on areas like preaching, sacramental leadership, worship leadership, pastoral care, lifting up the concerns of those in need, equipping others for service and sharing God’s love through word and deed.

One of the joys and challenges of being a pastor is that each day presents new opportunities for ministry and quite often, no two days or two weeks are the same. My week normally has a pattern. Typically, I lead worship and teach an adult class on Sunday mornings. I lead a Bible study and go to choir practice on Tuesdays. I write a sermon and prepare to teach my Sunday School class on Thursdays and Fridays. During the week, I make visits in the afternoons, go to ministry meetings in the evenings, oversee the business of the congregation in the mornings, coordinate with paid and volunteer staff at times convenient for them and engage in my own personal devotion and study. Add a funeral, hospital visitation, service project, a member or family experiencing a crisis, and/or synod event into the mix, and the entire structure of my week changes significantly. Seasons of the church year such as Lent and Christmas, require extra time for planning, preparation and services.

No pastor or congregation can be all things to all people, but thankfully as the Apostle Paul reminds us, “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). Pastoral ministry, at its best, is a partnership between God, God’s people in a particular place and a pastor. Each pastor has a unique set of gifts, competencies and passions and each congregation has an equally unique set of gifts, competencies, passions and mission opportunities. I believe that the key to creating a whole, healthy ministry is discovering and focusing on the ministries about which the pastor and the congregation are passionate and gifted. If you have a pastor who loves senior adults and a congregation full of seniors, then don’t try to start a youth group. Build a healthy senior adult ministry. If you invest time discovering your gifts, strengths and competencies, you will be able to begin to describe the ministry both the congregation and the pastor hope to accomplish and together you can then create a matrix by which to measure progress.

A word of caution about realistic expectations

Each person in a congregation has a set of expectations for their pastor. Many times, the congregations expectations are a compilation of all of these expectations added together, The result is that congregations expect pastors to be skilled worship leaders with inspiring sermons each Sunday, expert educators, compassionate caregivers, proficient small business administrators, fund-raisers, youth ministry specialists even when no youth are in the congregation, and public relations professionals while at the same time pleasing everyone. Pastors can be just as unrealistic. They expect members in congregations to be at least as pious as he or she is. They think that members should be keenly interested in reaching the unchurched, amazingly generous, conflict free and totally devoted to the church.

Neither set of expectations is realistic. Most pastors will bring a high degree of competency in one or two areas of ministry, a reasonable degree of competency in one to two other areas of ministry and very little competency in some areas of ministry. Most congregations are filled with ordinary people who come to church looking to share and receive community, compassion and hope. One way of looking at realistic and unrealistic expectations is to divide a sheet of paper into two columns. In one column put the expectations of what a pastor or congregation is to do and in the other column put the expectations of what the pastor or congregation is not to do. This can provide a concrete way for all parties involved to get a handle on the expectations. To me, a better way forward is to develop a shared vision for mission and then agree upon one or two ministry goals to be accomplished over the next year. I believe this approach is the healthiest and most effective way to undertake the ministry God is calling pastors and congregations to do.

When starting a call process, invest time in discovering the gifts of your congregation. An honest assessment of the ministry those gifts will allow you to accomplish will help you grow forward as a congregation. Don’t worry about what you think you are ‘supposed’ to do as a church, discover what God has gifted you to do, then look for a pastoral leader who has the gifts to help you build on your strengths and develop new strengths in the years to come.

A new idea prospers when one person or a small group of people take responsibility for making sure that the new idea becomes reality. The next step is to form a task team that has a specific responsibility and a shorter, limited term of service. The limited term of service is especially important since around 85% of all people do not want to be involved in a long term commitment of time which is how most committees function. The same people who do not want the long term committee will volunteer for a short term project in which they are interested.

When the Chicago Bulls were beginning to challenge the Detroit Pistons for dominance in basketball, they had a playoff game in Chicago. With around three seconds left, the Bulls got a rebound and called a time out. After the time out, the Bulls were going to take the ball out of bounds at mid court, behind by one. During the timeout, the radio announcers were discussing what to do when one said, “If they do not get the ball to Michael Jordan, they should fire the coach.” They got the ball to Jordan who hit a 3 point shot and the Bulls won by 2. They went with their best player.

In the church, we call a timeout which is a board or committee meeting and most often give the ball to the water boy—the area where we are weakest.

Go with your strengths. Do even better what you are already doing the best.

As I looked around pondering what to do next, I noticed the top of the head of Jonathan, age two, in the back of the church. For some reason, he had stayed with his mother and father rather than going to Children’s Church. Abandoning all my plans, I asked Jonathan to come forward and help me light the candles while the congregation sang all four verses of the hymn we sing while lighting the wreath.. Jonathan and his mother came to the wreath. I took the acolyte’s stick, lit it from the altar candles and picked up Jonathan. Together, we lit all four candles.

When lighting the candles, his eyes were wide, wide open with one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen. When I put him down, he was jumping up and down, up and down. When he finally stopped, he gave me a high five and got his mother’s hand and danced up the aisle, pausing occasionally to wave at me. As he walked, he told everyone next to the aisle, “I lighted the candles, I lighted the candles.” I could see the smiles on the faces of all in the congregation. This was a powerful moment.

What a great lesson! God helps us at all times of life, even when we completely goof. God provided a little child to save me. That’s what Christmas is all about—a small child shall save us.

• Quick victories require six to nine weeks to accomplish. Quick victories are usually relatively simple but create an attitude of accomplishment in the congregation. Many times, one or two people can achieve a quick victory usually with a minimum of people and financial resources.
• Short term victories require nine weeks to six months to accomplish. These are usually more complex than the quick victories but can be accomplished in a short period of time. Again, one or two people or a small group can organize a short term victory with a minimum of people or financial resources.
• Simple major victories require six months to a year to accomplish. These can be accomplished only by involving at least a small task team working together. Most simple major victories require financial resources and involvement of many in the congregation.
• Complex major victories require one to three years to accomplish. These victories require a significant involvement of the leadership and members of the congregation as well as financial resources.

When establishing goals, each category must be considered. Unless this happens, planning is incomplete. Most groups tend to concentrate only on the simple or complex major victories and loose the excellent momentum provided by the quick victories and short term victories.

2. Be optimistic! You are optimistic because you know that God is acting in our world, our church and our lives.

3. Be hopeful! Hope is one of the most powerful forces. Hope can lead us into the future because we know that as Psalm 23 reminds us, the shepherd walks by our side.

Offerings do not come in the same each month so the board needs to index the congregational income by determining the percentage of income they can expect each month. Start by looking back over the past three to five years and look at the percentage of the year’s income comes in each month. You will discover that most congregations have a specific pattern of giving. Realize that a fifth Sunday will change the shape of offerings and that either March or April will be boosted by Easter attendance. You will see a trend over the years as most months will be consistent in what percentage of the annual spending plan that is given. Instead of dividing by 12, take the annual budget and use the percentage for each month to see how much should be received. By doing this, you have a much better projection of what should be received each month.

The board can do the same thing with expenditures. Items like insurance come at the same time each year. Like offerings, expenditures can be projected based on the patterns from past years.

The funeral director and the cemetery personnel were opening the niche in the columbarium to place the cremains of one of my members. They removed the metal covering and noticed something interesting–two urns were already stuffed in the opening. That taught me the importance of finding the correct niche.

None of the churches, even the large ones which I have served, have been able to do everything. What is important is discovering the niche or niches that the Lord calls you to serve in mission and ministry. Remember, God does not call us to do anything that God does not give us the power to do.

Here’s a wonderful example of discovering a niche. I would like to take credit for finding this fantastic niche but it just happened. God worked in a way we did not expect.

Our church ended up adopting the men’s soccer team at the University of South Carolina at Aiken because one of the young men on the team was a Lutheran from Texas and attended our church. We never started out to adopt the team, but through a series of circumstances, it happened. The women’s soccer team heard about what was happening with the men and their coach shared with us that they really wanted to be adopted, also. Before I left, the women’s basketball team thought that it was a good idea and we adopted them. Once a year, they all attended church. The last time they attended when I was pastor, all but one player (who had to work - attended. Several times a year, we had a supper just for them and invited people from the church. Our congregation attended some of their games together and we even had an ad in the programs. I still have my women’s basketball t-shirt that I purchased to wear to the games.

The article entitled, “Badabing, badaboom - Can doing standup help close the deal?” focused on a company that brings in a standup comedian named Clayton Fletcher to teach employees comedic technique as a way of making them better public speakers. “Fletcher runs through a list of rhetorical devices commonly used in standup routines. He explains how to establish a roll structure, or a succession of punch lines, and how to set up a reference to a previous joke, known as a callback.” The owner of the business says, “Many of the skills used in crafting a standup routine . . . are essential for winning over prospective clients. ‘If you’re a good comedian, you’re probably a good presenter.’”

Now I don’t tell jokes when I preach, but like standup comedians, I tell stories, talk about life and make observations on society as a way of connecting my story, the congregation’s story, and God’s story revealed in scripture. When I started preaching, I remember watching Robin Williams doing standup and noticing how he would always reference something from the beginning of his act as he was finishing up. At the time, I didn’t know he was doing a “callback”, but I recognized that it was a helpful way to highlight a point and I incorporated it into my preaching. As I listened to observational comics, I got a sense for how to look at the ordinary events of life from a different perspective. As I listened to storytelling comics, I got ideas for how to share an illustration in a way that draws the congregation into the story and while the content of my preaching has more to do with Tom Ridenour than with Robin Williams, the rhetorical devices used by standup comedians have definitely had a helpful influence on my sermon structure and delivery style.