Keeping New Leaders in the Game

By Dave Miller

Ministry is hard. Who can help ministers jump the hurdles in their first few years of service?

After 13 years of ministry, I was fortunate to jump on a start-up and fly all over the United States to consult in churches. I probably visited 400 churches over the five-plus years I was with that organization. I don”t want to exaggerate here, but I believe I heard some version of this phrase more than 200 times: “Please help us find a youth pastor or kids pastor or worship leader or executive or tech director, etc.” It didn”t matter the size of church, denomination, or region of the country.

I came to realize churches and church leaders of all types are isolated and alone most of the time. Despite the conferences, blogs, tweets, and more, most feel as though they have no one to talk to and that no one would “understand.”

This problem is particularly acute in the first years of ministry. Church leaders who are just starting out need a coach. I define coach to our graduates as someone who is five years ahead of them in a ministry and who appears to be doing the kind and quality of work they want for themselves. It”s as simple as spending one hour a month with that person on Skype or a phone call; the newbie asks the questions, and the coach responds.

A coach is a person who supports a learner in achieving a specific professional goal. It”s not discipleship or mentoring (though we need these things, too). Coaching is the act of helping a new pastor stay in the game, to realize he or she isn”t alone, to overcome obstacles and avoid future ones.

They Gave Me the Confidence

I had coaches during my first three years of ministry. I sought them out, and I didn”t even know what I was doing. Glenn, Greg, and Bart are friends to this day. When one didn”t have time to talk, I sucked the life out of another one. They took me to conferences, they had ideas I could steal, and they had leadership tools I could borrow until I developed my own. Most days I was lost, and many times I felt like giving up. 

They gave me the confidence to know they had lived through it, and I would as well.

A year into the journey, I knew ministry was hard! More than two decades later, I now know the truth: doing anything “awesome” is pretty difficult. Thirteen years of ministry, five years of business, and I”m now in year three of my work in higher education””and all of it has been difficult. 

Surely I had heard in college how difficult ministry or any other kinds of work would be, but I wasn”t listening. I am sure I”ve been to countless conferences and sat through sessions about these topics, as well. But it really sank in during my first few years of ministry with Glenn, Greg, and Bart. I was fortunate. I was lucky.

We must stop allowing men and women to wander into the wrong place, all alone, get beat up, and then quit within the first three years of ministry. Those of us who are guiding and encouraging the next generation of leaders should require these young people to have a coach as they walk into ministry. A lot of us should be doing this, too. 

This should be normal. This should not be luck. Let”s work to make it so.

Dave Miller is vice president of advancement with Nebraska Christian College in Omaha. He founded The Institute for Church Leadership, a two-year intensive leadership program based on core competencies, and grounded in a residency program in local churches across America. He can be found at [email protected] or on Twitter @davemillerNC.