Ephesians 4:11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
I have been thinking a lot about my Job lately. I work in a great environment, but one where you sorta have to hold yourself accountable to growing and improving. As a middle school pastor I am a massive list of responsibilities.
The main ones are as follows:
1. Listen and Discern God's voice and movement.
2. Run Programs & Special Events,
3. Manage Staffing,
4. Train and equip Volunteers
5. Provide Direction for ministry
6. Budgeting and Planning
7. Counseling (students, parents, etc.)
8. Provide Content and teaching,
9. Research and understand Adolescence and culture.
...In addition to my own area that I manage I also have some larger organization responsibilities that include weddings, Being on call 1 day a month and a few weekends a year, and weekly meetings.
What I think is unique about the pastoral position is the way that it requires such a diverse skill set. The job requires you that you both manage well, and that you create great content (sermons, curriculum, devotional material, training tools, etc.). I find that it is not easy to do both well, so I tried to prioritize my responsibilities in order to see how I was really doing.
Ministry Priorities as I see them.
1. Manage Staff
2. Equip and Shepherd Leaders
3. Identify and Disciple Student Leaders
4. Everything Else.... (all of the other responsibilities these three priorities do not cover.)
Confession Time:
As I have been evaluating my ministry I found that I tend to focus 90% of my time and energy on the "everything else" category, mostly getting ready to teach on tuesdays and providing the curriculum for sundays.
My problem is that we I get too busy I tend to use my staff, leaders, and student leaders as tools to accomplish everything else... when really as the point leader they should be the main focus of my creative energy and leadership skills.
