Pastoring is Weird
Pastoring is not just weird, pastoring is hard. Statistics show that 85% of seminary graduates who enter ministry will leave ministry in the first 5 years.
The personal site of Jonathan Hayashi
Pastoring is not just weird, pastoring is hard. Statistics show that 85% of seminary graduates who enter ministry will leave ministry in the first 5 years.
Here are 3 reasons why anonymous letters are “useless” and goes straight to the trash pile in ministry settings.
Be willing to make mistakes and learn from your mistakes.
Pastoring is challenging in difficult times so embrace the joy of Christ. (1 Thess 5:16,18).
A strong courageous leader must learn to overcome past mistakes and failures in Christ.
Both church planting and revitalization are very difficult.
Is your church or ministry struggling to reach the next generation?
Just recently, I was told by one of our core leaders in the church that I couldn’t be vulnerable and share about my past as it would get people worried that their leader didn’t “have his life together”.
The last year or so has perhaps been the most disruptive and draining time for any church leader. This perhaps is not only for pastors or church leaders but was the most difficult year to survive navigating through making very difficult decisions.
Leaders can be effective by giving room and not pidgin-holding in a box and limiting others.
The shepherd leaders’ job is as John Calvin said it well, “The pastor ought to have two voices: one, for gathering the sheep; and another, for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the means of doing both.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it this way in his book Life Together, “Those who remain alone with their evil are left utterly alone.”
Pastors today have a lot on their plates and the stresses of leadership, burnout, and moral failures are all too real.
Over the past decade or so, I have been in the second chair and now in the first chair and can see from both perspectives. Without the proper three C’s, teams can be frustrated, apathetic, or even chaotic at times.
What were bits of information that would have been helpful to known before entering into ministry? Here are five things that bible college/seminary did not teach us but has been helpful knowing serving in the local church.
Lately, I have had an opportunity to pull back from all the busy activities of ministry and to simply stop, reflect, and think. Here are three lessons I’ve learned about leadership over the past 10 years.
What’s the strangest criticism you’ve received?
Here are the 10 weirdest criticism I have received in the past 10 years of ministry.
I’m glad I didn’t give up on writing. I am grateful for all the godly people in my life who encouraged me not to pull back on writing this latest book.
Choosing the right system for the right type of leadership is crucial.
We are in the Great Commission by living empowered by the Great Commandment love.
Can spiritual disciplines turn Christians into simply doing a checklist of rules? Or are these tasks weighing down Christians with unnecessary guilt?
Linguists tell us that we actually have not had a thought until we can articulate it through speech or in writing. Therefore, the more we put our thoughts down on paper, the more firmly they are formed in our minds.
My time in seminary was perhaps one of my sweetest moments yet a hardest time of my life. But seminary didn’t teach me everything. It certainly didn’t fully prepare me for ministry.