Podcast Episode #506
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When pastors leave the pastorate, they inevitably miss certain things about pastoring. Today, we discuss the five we hear most frequently.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- As a pastor, there is a certain fulfillment in preaching to the same people week after week.
- If you’re going to be a part of a local church, give it your all.
- When you pastor a local church, you are a shepherd in the community.
The five things former pastors tell us they miss most about pastoring are:
- Preaching to the same people
- Watching life transformation
- Relationships
- The variety and opportunities for ministry
- Serving the community
Resources mentioned in today’s podcast
Rainer on Leadership is a member of the LifeWay Leadership Podcast Network
Episode Sponsors
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Feedback
If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Scrappy Church.
Except for a short interim prorate in 2014 I haven’t pastored since January of 2011. Health reasons were my reasoning for resigning Pine Grove Baptist Church in Blackshear. The occasions I have had to preach and minister are special. I serve as a deacon now and a strong supporter of my church and its staff.
Thank you for your ministry then and now, John.
I have pastored 6 churches of different sizes for over 40 years and loved serving each of them. For a period of 2 years I worked for the Florida Baptist Convention as a Church Planting Strategist. I loved that job and had many churches started during that time but I missed the pastorate. One of the things I missed most was the work of revitalization. I love taking a church that is lackluster in is mission and leading it back to a mission/purpose found in scripture. In doing this I have seen churches that have lost their way become church planting churches with a renewed evangelistic ministry and Acts 1:8 expression. When this happens excitement returns to the church and joy fills the pastor and congregation.
I totally get that, Dannie. Thank you.
Your video helped give some insight into the current season of my life.I am 28 and was fired from my first pastorate for trying to envoke and motivate necessary changes in a small rural church. I am searching for a job in the marketplace because of financial reasons. Throughout this I have learned, biblically speaking, the pastor is a person and not an office. I can still pastor in the marketplace, even though it looks different, and even if I am not paid to do it.
Thank you, Chase.
What I miss most is being part of a community willing to accept me, not as retired clergy but as a member, contributor and partner. Other clergy see you as a threat although you have no interest in taking their pulpit, only in being a committed supporter of the Pastor and the church. Laity are suspicious as to why you left your last pastorate, even though you are older, retirement age and/or in poor health. Sometimes you feel like you would have been better off to die in the pulpit (not recommended).
My prayers for God to open some incredible doors for you, Bobbie.
Sorry Thom, but try as I will, I’m not able to believe your anecdote about kissing the deceased.
After 60 years of uninterrupted ministry and the age of 82 the results were not good. When ministry is your total life it is not easy to shutdown the daily routines and demands after serving as an evangelist, long-term pastor, college president and denominational administrator. It takes time and it is definitely getting better. We need more definitive understanding on this subject.
Your life isn’t shutting down brother, God is moving you on to bigger and better accomplishments than you’ve ever imagined.
A pulpit supply for our church one time moved me more I think than I’ve been moved in years because his attitude toward what God was doing in his life. His comments I quote were ” I believe God is using me for some of the finest accomplishments he’s ever planned for me to do in my life, some of the greatest moments of being used by him he is doing in my life and will continue till my final breath”
What an attitude ! I hope and pray I can have that perspective also in my final days of life as we continue to trust him to accomplish in us just exactly what he wants to do in us. What an effect we can and will have on others.
I am often moved when I stop and think what a might God we serve by using one person that is always willing to let God work through them and what a difference can be made in the lives of all those they touch.
After 25 years of vocational Christian ministry (but now serving in a hospital administration job), I miss recruiting church members for important ministry roles and opportunities–and knowing all the members of the congregation.
What I missed about not-ministry work by serving in vocational Christian ministry for so many years was what really happens in the average church member’s workaday world (though I thought I knew!)–and why Sunday School leaders missed Sunday School planning meetings so often (I haven’t attended church on a Wednesday night for almost 6 years now, as I work 45 miles from home and leave from the office there after 5:30 PM on most days). But I am available now for speaking assignments at other churches on Sundays 🙂