At The Starting Blocks: Preparation
Join a Church and Follow a Faithful Pastor
By Joshua Chatman | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024The training that comes from joining a church and following faithful pastors is invaluable and irreplaceable.
Elder Before You Elder
By Zack DiPrima | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024Every church needs men who do the work of pastoring before they’re officially recognized as pastors.
Attend to Your Character
By Garrett Conner | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024Our character can be used by God for eternal good—or our lack thereof can wreak havoc.
Listen to Others More Than Yourself: The External Call
By V. Samuel Clintoc | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024In our society, where desires, feelings, and self-impressions are authoritative, it is tempting to anchor the call to ministry primarily in our self-assessment.
Balance Patience and Ambition
By Billy Dalton | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024Churches must train the ambitious patiently, giving them time to show their true colors.
You Aspire, but Are You Willing?
By Raymond Johnson | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024It’s easy to aspire to be a great pastor, but are you willing to do all that it takes?
Candidate Wisely and Honestly
By Branton Burleson | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024Throughout the candidating process, trust God. Remember that he is sovereign and will be with us wherever we go.
After The Gun: First Five Years
Find a Mentor!
By Cheston Pickard | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024Find a mentor—for your sake, for your family’s sake, for your people’s sake, and for Christ’s sake.
Be a Strong and Courageous Young Leader
By Clint Darst | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024God is with you, pastor, and he has spoken. Lean into his presence, and lead with his Word.
Patience! Pick Your Battles Wisely
By Jeramie Rinne | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024Impatient pastors often love the idea of the church more than the people in the church.
Loving Your Family While Leading God’s Church
By Liam Garvie | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024When conduct in the home lags behind the conduct we commend, we’re falling into hypocrisy.
Take Heart: Preaching to Encourage
By Tiago Oliveira | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024As you step into your new church, you are called not only to lead but also to encourage.
Young Pastor, Care for the Older Members of Your Flock
By Dave Kiehn | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024Love senior saints from your heart. They’re a blessing, not a burden.
Make the Main Thing the Main Thing on Sundays
By Bret Capranica | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024I was convinced that the table we set on Sunday would determine the whole ministry, and our main course had to be the Word of God.
Creating Healthy Membership Practices
By Jon Deedrick | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024As a new pastor, there’s a type of triage required of you. Not a triage of what’s urgent (like the triage unit at your local emergency room), but a triage of what’s wise.
Unique Temptations for a New Pastor
By Brian Parks | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024Becoming a senior pastor exposed me to many temptations that I did not expect. Some merely taunted and tempted me. Others I fell for.
Over The Long Haul: The Middle Years
Prepare for Unexpected Storms
By Josh Manley | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024The best time to prepare your people for suffering, persecution, or cultural marginalization is before they face them.
Raise up Leaders
By John Folmar | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to make overseers. However, he often uses pastors to this end.
Persevere in the Highs and Lows
By Clift Barnes | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024Ministry in the middle years offers an opportunity to move forward while looking back at all that God has done.
Every Week I Preach My Guts out and . . . Nothing Changes
By David King | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024We want God to set off fireworks, but he‘s more interested in farming.
Work Hard and Stay Hungry
By Juan Sanchez | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024If we’re not vigilant as years in the ministry pass, the greater the possibility that the monotony of our routines, the burdens of pastoring, or the busyness of ministry will become excuses for neglecting our primary task.
Passing The Baton: Transitioning To The Next Guy
How to Decide When It’s Time to Stay or Go
By Phil Newton | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024Leaving a pastoral charge can be hard. Staying can be hard, too. And deciding to stay or go is more complicated the longer one serves.
Why Is It Hard for Pastors to Let Go?
By Sandy Willson | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024It is vital that our primary identity is as a child of God, not the leader of a ministry.
Plan Your Transition
By Michael Indorf | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024A faithful pastorate should include a plan for how to end and to transition to the next pastor. Yet that plan should connect to and not conflict with the providence of God.
Preparing a Church for Pastoral Transition
By William Spink | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024What a man who pastored the same church for 39 years aimed for and learned as he transitioned.
Support the Next Guy
By Doug Van Meter | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024A healthy transition to «the next guy» depends in part on the «old guy.» He can support the incoming pastor or be a stumbling block.
How Should I Serve My Church after I Stop Being Its Senior Pastor?
By Bob Johnson | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024The year 2024 marks my thirty-fifth year as the senior pastor of the same church. After I step away, how should I be involved in my church?
Finishing The Race
Six Lessons I Learned When I Could Not Pastor
By John Erickson | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024Pastoral ministry is not who we are. It is a wonderful role, but whether or not we are pastors, we are his children, and he is our kind Father.
Learn to Rest
By Wes Pastor | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024How can the proverbial old dog learn to rest? The key is in not retreating completely.
Brothers, Train up the Next Generation
By Mike Bullmore | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024Necessary to faithful gospel ministry is an investment in the next generation of gospel ministers.
Pastor, Remember Where Your Identity Is Found Before You Retire
By Phil Newton | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024The habits and patterns of our spiritual focus in the present will prepare us for the day when we’re not front-and-center.
Anticipating Your Reward
By Omar Johnson | 9Marks Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life | 06.10.2024Don’t focus on the rewards that were never promised to you. Focus on the ones that were promised.
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