11 Things I Learned the Hard Way as a Pastor

By Chuck Lawless

On April 1, 1981, I began full-time ministry. Since then, I’ve thought a lot about my early days as a pastor – both the good and the bad. Here are 11 things I learned the hard way as a pastor:

1. I really didn’t know how to exegete and preach the Word. I thought I did because I followed the models of other preachers and used sermon outline books. I look back now, though, and I pray God has supernaturally destroyed any sermon cassette tapes that bear my name. Seriously.  
2.  I needed counseling training. I have no question that folks can counsel with only the Word, but I needed help in understanding problems and applying the Word appropriately. I was a single pastor for a number of years, but it didn’t take me long after marriage to learn I didn’t know anything about marriage counseling, either. 
3. I did not know my community. What I realized too late was that I knew the community most connected to my church members. I didn’t know the community completely disconnected from the church world.
4.  It’s easy to avoid accountability in the pastorate. Especially as a single-staff leader, it’s easy to do ministry (or something) without many folks knowing your schedule, your activities, your outreach, etc. Laziness lurks when accountability is non-existent.
5. Evangelistic fire needs fuel to continue burning. I was an on-fire evangelist my first years as a pastor (in fact, I’m sure I was a bit obnoxious at times). Ministry, though, had a way of diverting my attention so my fire…