Podcast

046 – 3 Steps to Becoming a Better Pastor

Posted on August 21, 2020December 4, 2023 by Ryan Sparks

What’s in this Episode?

Have you ever felt stuck as a pastor? Just sort of going through life and not really able to figure out what to do to move the ministry forward? You try all kinds of things, but nothing seems to work. Well in today’s episode, we’re going to share three steps to becoming a better pastor. When you do these three things. It’ll pave the way for the best days ever in ministry. Here are the 3 steps to becoming a better pastor.

Read the Transcript

Dick Hardy 0:25
You know, back when I was a little kid, and I was in elementary school, we used to have what was called the Scholastic Book Club. I mean, did you have that?

Jonathan Hardy 0:31
Yeah, we did have that.

Dick Hardy 0:32
So Scholastic Book Club. If you remember, you’d come home from school with a sheet of paper, or a little brochure and it will have all these books that you could order.

Jonathan Hardy 0:41
Oh, yeah, I loved it.

Dick Hardy 0:42
I loved it. So I ordered, one year, I was always tall and so I thought I needed, and I kind of liked the thoughts of basketball. So I asked my mom, if I could get this book, how to star in basketball, and boom, we got that book. I think I still got it home in the basement. I need to get it off to the grandkids. See what they could roll with it. But the whole point is, it helped a little kid who had big dreams of making it big basketball learn how to be a basketball, player dribbling, shooting, passing and so on. Then later I would go and then as I grew and I began to go down to the Y, YMCA, and shoot free throws in the summer, nobody’s in the gym, and I’m just shooting free throws, shooting free throws. Why? Because I wanted to be a better basketball player. I never did make it big in the NBA. You know, in fact, a little side note here, I married a tall wife because the tall wife is supposed to produce tall sons. So he was supposed to make it really tall and make it big in the NBA.

Jonathan Hardy 1:40
Sorry!

Dick Hardy 1:41
We love basketball. But the whole point is how do you get better? And that’s exactly what we want to talk to you about today in this episode on three ways for you to get better as a pastor.

Jonathan Hardy 1:51
Well, and that really begins with, you mentioned free throws, really begins with fundamentals.

Dick Hardy 1:55
Fundamentals exactly.

Jonathan Hardy 1:56
It’s good for us to go back to the fundamentals and to just, you know, go back to the first learning that we had, and it’s what helps us improve and be better.

Dick Hardy 2:07
It’s true in life, and it’s true in ministry.

Jonathan Hardy 2:08
Yeah, it really is. In fact, speaking of if I can interject here real quick…

Dick Hardy 2:12
You can interject, because you just did!

Jonathan Hardy 2:14
We have a special announcement about ways that we are improving leaders.church next week. So you’re gonna want to stay tuned next Wednesday. The reason I bring that up is because we’re talking about getting better. And not only is leaders.church getting better, but the things we’re putting together for you is going to help you get better.

Dick Hardy 2:33
Exactly, right.

Jonathan Hardy 2:33
So you want to make sure to stay tuned next Wednesday, massive, massive announcement. One of the biggest announcements we’ve ever had, since we started. So that’s exciting. So anyway, let’s get back to the discussion here, how to be better. We’re gonna talk about three steps that are going to help you be a better pastor. So can I kick off?

Step #1: Ask God for Help

Jonathan Hardy 2:52
I think the first thing is it goes without saying, we’re gonna say it anyway, is to ask God for help. You know, whether it’s through prayer, whether it’s fasting and prayer, sometimes we need to get back to the basic disciplines of ministry life or the Christian life. And seek help from God to make us the pastor and ministry leader that he wants us to be. And so, you know, I don’t know how often every pastor does this, but I think pastors regularly need to be praying and asking God for help to continue to be better, maybe a better decision maker, better at making change and implementing things and all the different things that we do on a regular basis as we interact with people as we leave the ministry, we have to constantly be asking God to get better, and that made me and I mentioned fasting, that may mean in fasting. You know, and I know you’re a big proponent of it, obviously, I’m a big proponent of fasting. Because God moves and works in wonderful ways when we exercise those disciplines.

Dick Hardy 3:51
And you really need to be exercising the disciplines. You could get in a rut as a pastor doing the… because it’s a profession for us, you know, it’s a calling, but it’s a profession. And so we’re professional about what we do. But for you in your life in your secret place of being away with the Lord, you need to talk to him. And exercise those spiritual disciplines. This guy, by the way, is the master. And we’ve talked about asking God, when we have a big decision, he’ll say to me, well, have you talked to the Lord about it? It’s supposed to be the dad saying that to the son, the son says that to the dad and I’m so glad for that, because it re-centers you back there on the fundamental that you’ve got to ask God for help. If you want to get better. You got to start right there.

Step #2: Watch and Learn From Other People

Jonathan Hardy 4:40
That’s right. Another thing that I think is really helpful if I can move to the next one would be to watch and learn from other people. So obviously, we start with asking God, seeking help from God, but then also looking to learn from other people. That’s a massive thing. Massively important thing for us to do because there are people out there that have gone the road we have already been on. They’ve learned the… they’ve experienced the things that we’re getting ready to experience. They’ve already charted those waters. And so rather than us reinventing the wheel, let’s learn about what other people are doing. Now, I’m not talking about copy pasting, or just because there’s some fad out there that some church is doing that we go do that. That’s not what I’m saying. But I am saying that from a pastoral perspective, as a ministry leader, how is this person leading? How is this person navigating a situation they’re facing? How are they dealing with these particular issues that they’re facing in the church? You could go down the list of all these things.

Dick Hardy 5:38
Well and the fact is, you don’t know it all. I don’t know. You don’t know it all. And when you get to the place where you think you do, by the way, I can tell tell you this, that that becomes the greatest risk. When pastors I watch when they go over 50 in age, they think that people think they’re supposed to know it all. You Don’t. You don’t and you’ve got to learn from other people.

Jonathan Hardy 6:03
You have to stay fresh mentally all the time. In fact, I encourage you to check out Episode Three, where we talk about the seven ways for a pastor to stay mentally fresh. But one of the things that you just mentioned that really kind of made me think of this example is I have a pastor, that I know that he’s been preaching for years, he’s been in ministry for I mean, decades. And he still listens to every message he preaches, because he’s trying to get better as a pastor. He wants to get better as a preacher, even after years and years of doing this. And so that’s just one example or illustration. But maybe it’d be encouragement to you that maybe there’s things like that, doesn’t have to be that, could be that, but are there things that you could be doing as a pastor that will help you constantly get better? And so one of the ways to do that is to watch, listen, learn from other people.

Step #3: Build Up Other Leaders

Dick Hardy 6:55
You know, and along with that, I think comes the building up of other leaders. I remember when I went to work for a guy in Des Moines, John Palmer, great guy, good friend. And early on, because I had been there as an administrator, you knew when you were younger, and then went to work in a men’s ministry and came back as a Pastor. And he says, as a pastor, I want you discipling somebody all the time. There’s always at least one person that you’re investing yourself in. And I will tell you, that was one of the greatest pieces of advice he ever gave me was to be pouring myself into someone else. Does that mean I had it all together? Of course not. I’m in this journey with you of learning and trying to continue to get better. But it’s critically important that you’re building other people up. And you’ve seen it in your life.

Jonathan Hardy 7:45
Well, absolutely. I think this is one of the keys for churches just in their overall effectiveness, is you have to be investing in others. You have to be building up leaders, especially, which is kind of what you were mentioning there is getting these this leadership team built up where you’re having other people carry or walk alongside you, linking arms with you to move the ministry forward, because we can’t do it on our own. And so if we want to get better, we have to be building others up to come alongside.

Dick Hardy 8:11
And that really then takes you to the point of empowering other people. You know, we talk at length here at Church Tips about bringing volunteers on, developing leaders out of those volunteers. Well, that happens, because you’re building in to those people. And when you’ll continue to do that, you’re going to see good things happen, and you’re going to get better as a pastor. See, that’s the point of what we’re talking about here. You get better when you help build others, even though you don’t have it all together, you will get better by doing exactly that.

Recap:

Jonathan Hardy 8:42
Well, let me just recap. Just for our listeners here. The three things that we suggest to do to get better as a pastor is simply this: first, ask God for help. And second thing is to watch and learn from others. And then the third thing is to build up leaders. When you start doing that, you’re getting back to some of those fundamentals, but you’re able to To move the ministry forward and see great days ahead, when pastors do that. Again, we want to remind you, this coming Wednesday, this very next week, Wednesday is going to be a massive day. Be sure to tune in, put it on your calendar, don’t forget, we want to make sure to get the word out to you about the things that are going to help you be a better pastor and ministry leader.

Dick Hardy 9:21
These are going to be great opportunities. I’m going to tell you this thing has gone to a whole new level and you’re really going to want to tune in to what’s available to you.

Jonathan Hardy 9:28
It’s going to be very exciting. Let me close this up with a quick review. We have an anonymous review from person on the Church Tips podcast, they said, “this podcast is so practical and helpful to pastors and church leaders. I can actually use this stuff. Love it.” Well, I want to thank you, Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous who gave us that review. And we would love to get a five star review from you. Leave a comment and you could be the very next one that has your review read here at Church Tips. So with that being the case, thanks so much for being with us today. We’ll look forward to seeing you next time.

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Podcast

046 – 3 Steps to Becoming a Better Pastor

What’s in this Episode?