So You Want to be a Pastor?

[This is from October 2024.]

A young man the other day told me he wanted to be a pastor and asked me what advice I had for him.

Here’s a condensed version of what I passed along:

1. Know the Bible backwards and forwards, inside and out. The Bible is your life. You must master it and be mastered by it. Knowing the Bible and knowing how to the apply the Bible to people’s lives is the heart of pastoral ministry. There is no substitute for wide-ranging study. You can’t teach what you don’t know, so be a diligent student of Scripture. Whether this education is formal or informal, you need to be rigorously tested for your academic abilities along the way. The pastoral office loses respect when unlearned, untested men are allowed into it. Pastors should be men who have proven themselves to other pastors. They should be rigorously vetted in all kinds of areas (including godliness/spiritual maturity), but proving yourself as a competent teacher of God’s Word is essential. You will learn to teach and preach only a bit by reading books about them; the best way to learn how to teach and preach is simply do these things on a regular basis, get feedback, and work at honing your skills.
2. Develop habits of self-discipline and integrity right now. Character is more important than giftedness. Holiness, more than giftedness, makes you a powerful weapon in God’s hand; your people will benefit more from your example than your gifts since they can imitate the former more than the latter. Develop natural and spiritual gifts as best you can but do not rely on them. The qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 are almost entirely oriented towards mature Christian character so use those texts as your blueprint for the kind of life you are building. You need to be able to say to your people, “Follow me as I follow Christ. Imitate me as I imitate Christ.”
3. Gain some life experience doing something else for a while, and then go mentor/apprentice under godly, faithful, mature, experienced pastors for several years. Don’t put all your eggs in the pastoral ministry basket; developing other skills and some savings will make you more versatile and anti-fragile. When the time comes, the best way to learn pastoring and preaching is to be around men who do these things well. Make sure you have a mentor – or even several mentors – who can guide you along the way. A network of pastoral relationships will serve you well once you are in ordained ministry. You need a band of fathers and brothers you can rely on to give guidance, hold you accountable, and provide encouragement.
4. Marry well. A pastor’s wife is either his greatest asset or hindrance in ministry. A man whose wife is an embodiment of Lady Wisdom will enrich his ministry beyond all measure. She will be his biggest cheerleader, his toughest critic, and his most trusted advisor. It is not good for a pastor to be alone (in the vast majority of cases). Your wife and children will be bound up in your calling; the pastor’s family always comes under intense scrutiny. Make sure they do not come to resent it. Your wife needs to understand what is involved in your pastoral calling, including the need to show hospitality. Your family is, in a very real sense, your resume – proof that you know what you are doing. If you cannot manage your own household, how can you manage God’s household?
5. Work on your leadership skills so that you can be the kind of man other men would willingly follow into battle. Too many pastors, at least in the Reformed world, are spineless nerds. They are all brain and no backbone. We need pastors who can speak and lead with courage and confidence, pastors who inspire other men to be faithful, pastors other men want to follow not because of the title they hold but because of the trail they blaze.