Students often ask, What does a Christian leader need in order to experience an effective life of ministry in the local church? A key part of the answer has to do with the kinds of people we gather around ourselves.
As I look back over some 35 years of local church ministry, four kinds of relationships (besides God and my natural family) have proven indispensable to the health and vitality of my own pilgrimage as a pastor:
1. Mentors—Young pastors, especially, need seasoned veterans to guide them through their first years of ministry. God was very generous to me in this regard. A youth pastor mentored me in high school ministry. Talbot’s own Dr. John Hutchison was my senior pastor during my first full-time position as pastor of single adults. I went with John on hospital visitation, listened to him preach and watched him lead the church through some difficult times. John even guided me through my first funeral. (I still use the outline from John 11 that John gave me—with his blessing, of course!)
Search the Good Book Blog and you’ll find some great insights about mentoring from Dr. Ben Shin. I strongly encourage any seminary graduate interviewing for a church position to ask what kind of mentoring he will receive if he is hired by the church.
2. Peers—Like certain other professors here at Talbot (Saucy, Russell, Thoennes, Talley, etc.), I do not believe that the local church should be led by a senior/lead pastor. You may or may not agree. Formal considerations about church government aside, we would all do well to minister in community with others who know us well and who have permission to speak into our lives. This is just relational common sense. My fellow pastors at Oceanside Christian Fellowship happen to be some of my best friends. This did not come about by accident. We have been meeting and praying together weekly for over a decade.
My temperament is somewhat volatile by nature, so that I experience more than my share of ups and downs (emotionally and energy-wise) in my life and ministry. Periods of great productivity tend to cash out in periods of weariness and mild discouragement. The stabilizing, leveling effect of the relationships I enjoy with my eight fellow pastors at OCF is only one of many benefits that come from sharing the ministry with peers.
