That First Place
Day 10
Welcome to your first ministry opportunity! You must be excited, thrilled, and eager to engage in real ministry!
How is this first place of service different from where you were? Is the state or town different? Is the church rural, metropolitan, or suburban? Are the church members like the people you were accustomed to: old, young, wealthy, poor, blue-collar? There are so many variables.
My husband’s first pastorate was in a very rural location 65 miles from our campus housing, and even that small town was a change, as we had only recently arrived from one of the nation’s largest cities. Almost everything was different for us: regional language, culture, church culture/expectations, church music, dress… I imagine you could make your own list of things that are different. Today, I suggest finding someone to help you; ask about the local culture. Ask more questions, because congregations still seem to think their leaders somehow know all the answers. In reality, we often do not know the questions! Assumptions can be a huge trap for trouble.
Do not compare your home church with this new pastorate. Ask God to give you a love for the people, and that He would enable you to understand them, and allow Him to change them. Ask Him to help you find a place of service among these unfamiliar people. When you find your mind drifting into comparisons, remember there are “different ministries but the same Lord” (I Cor. 12:5).
We must filter our recollections about our life before. That was “then” and today is the “now” you’ve been waiting for, so decide to live in the present. If you are in an environment of seminary or college with others training for ministry, realize most of you face such adaptations. Your peers have few answers or experience. Embrace the new. I think about our first pastorate and thank God for sweet people who were willing to love us and tenderly guide us along the path of ministry.
There is no partiality with God, Romans 12:2. Think of this passage in light of congregations. A congregation of one place (home that we love) and the congregation of the new place (those so different from me, people I hardly know). God is not partial—He loves people equally. He does not choose one over the other, nor should we.
Because you loved your home church, you gave freely of your time, energies, and involvement. Is this how you engage at this new place? Set your heart to choose God’s way. He says in Malachi 3:4, “Then the offerings of (your name) will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in the former place.” Make your offerings where you are, not where you have been. Live and serve in the present; this pleases the Lord. How did you serve before? What were your offerings then? Continue here, and this will please Him.
May your greatest desire be to please Him.
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