After his first five years as the pastor at his church, Tim Raymond shared his five biggest lessons learned:
- Pastoral ministry requires far more courage than I ever dreamed.
- Expositional preaching is a far more effective medium than I ever imagined.
- The temptation to quit the church or quit pastoral ministry altogether is rather frequent, but perseverance is worth it.
- Neglecting important ministries is terribly easy but also deadly in the long-term.
- If there is a strong love-bond between the pastor and his flock – the congregation believes that I love them and I believe that they love me – that will cover a multitude of sins.
He fleshes out his thoughts here.
That is a good list — i think number five is important.
No doubt. That’s huge!