7 Essential Practices for Effective Pastoral Ministry

Often, as pastors we become passengers in our week, driven by our schedules. Over the past week, the three of us have had a break from that weekly schedule, and it has allowed us to reflect on how it dictates our work in ministry. Through our discussions we have put together a list of healthy habits. Though these are not the “end all, be all” we believe that these are 7 weekly essentials to having an effective ministry. In later posts, we will describe each of these in more detail.

1. Prepare a quality sermon that is relevant to our community and culture.

• A pastor’s number one job in ministry is to prepare, and deliver, a quality sermon. If we don’t take the time needed to properly prepare our sermons, then we cannot expect those in worship to understand the message that is being brought, nor the vision we have for the church.

2. Be intentional about our vision-casting.

• As the leader of the church, we must work with our lay leadership teams to cast the vision of the church.

3. Create a culture of accountability to worship attendance.

• Make worship attendance important and a part of the culture of the church.

4. Be accountable to our own spiritual formation.

• Sermon preparation is NOT personal bible study! Carey Nieuwhof said at a recent conference that some church members are more faithful to studying Scripture than pastors are.

5. Be intentional about sabbath time.

• Not taking our time of personal rest can affect our ability to be effective in our ministry.

6. Engage in one community outreach.

• Be intentional about spending time outside of your office to better understand the needs of your community and how your church can meet those needs.

7. Be intentional about time with you support network.

• Pastor’s must be connected to a group that will support, and challenge us to become more effective in our ministries.

Over the next week, we will be discussing each of these topics in more detail. Our hope is that you will join us in making the decision to change our habits to become more effective, in our ministries, and in our personal walk with Christ. The three of us have covenanted to hold each other accountable with weekly conference calls to make ourselves better pastors too.

Shalom.