maturity

Well, I've gotten through an entire calendar year now, at least from a ministry programming standpoint. I think the word that best captures it is this: humbling.

This is the pattern for me: I thought I knew / I didn't know as much as I thought I did / I didn't know as much as I needed to know / the things I do know are still the things that matter the most. How much sense does that make? A lot to me, but perhaps not a lot to anyone else.

The steepest learning curves? There have been two. First: practical, earthy, everyday knowledge. Managing and forecasting a budget towards effectiveness, growth, and clarity. Utilizing various multimedia tools creatively and coherently. How to observe what other ministries do in a way that is both appropriately critical and appropriately helpful to my own. Learning how to organize and manage a calendar, communicate with a team, and honor life outside of ministry.

Second: working from a low position. Better first to understand and serve rather to critique and judge. Figuring out which hills are there for you to die on, and which hills are there for your education. Earning trust instead of deserving it. Having the courage to be silent rather than speak your mind. Discerning how to help before learning how to lead.

And yet, the things that I do know are the things that matter the most. And that is encouraging. Living life in God's presence--my presence to his Presence, moment by moment--matters. Encouragement and exhortation toward that life is worth the cost. Protecting that life from the packaging or trappings of culture matters. Producing disciples--from either side of the faith line--matters. Preaching the Bible matters. Serving the community matters. Being local and not copied matters. These are the things that I know, and these are the things that matter. Not that the things that I didn't know and had to learn don't matter; it's just that they don't matter as much.

And that's my (brief) summary of year one as a young pastor.