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Church Ministry & Leadership | Videos

Advice to Young Pastors

by Dr. Thom Rainer | January 24, 2019

Being a first-time pastor or a pastor at a new church can be intimidating. Former President and CEO of Lifeway and a former pastor, Dr. Thom Rainer, offers some advice to young pastors entering a new church for the first time.

The entire video is above, and the complete transcript is below.


When you begin to talk about young pastors, and especially if they’re new at a church, there really is a single, common mistake. You could argue that there are others, but I see one consistently among young pastors. And that is to move ahead without knowing the church well and without knowing the community well. To just go straight ahead with your ideas, your thoughts, all of your plans, your programs, without getting to know people better.

I am not suggesting that a young pastor put everything on hold until he has the opportunity to meet everybody, to go into the community. But I am saying, very clearly, many young pastors lose credibility right away because they failed to take time to get to know people in the church and in the community.

I’ll brag on my son, Sam, my oldest son. He’s one of the pastor sons in my family. And what he does when he goes to a church – he’s been at his current church about 4 years. He goes to some of the longer-term members and he says, “Tell me your story in this church.” And he’ll also say, “Tell me some steps of faith that you really resonate with that have taken place in the church.” And they tell him. It gives him, not only credibility, but he develops relationship and it gives him thoughts about what he can do for the future based upon their stories of the past.

So I would encourage all young pastors, I would encourage all new pastors going into a first situation, take time even in the midst of leading change to build that credibility and get to know the people and get to know the community. It’s an investment, I really don’t think you’ll ever regret making.

Find more from Dr. Thom Rainer at Lifeway.com
Becoming a Welcoming Church

Becoming a Welcoming Church

In almost all of Thom S. Rainer’s consultations, church members perceive their church to be friendly. But as he surveyed guests, he found that the guests typically saw church members as unfriendly. The perception chasm existed because the members were indeed friendly . . . to one another. The guests felt like they crashed a private party.

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About Dr. Thom Rainer

Thom S. Rainer is the Founder and CEO of Church Answers. He served as President and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources from February 2006 until February 2019. He has authored more than a dozen books addressing church health and growth and pastoral leadership. He has pastored churches in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky and Indiana.

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