Help for the New Pastor: Practical Advice for Your First Year of Ministry
Overview
Your first year of ministry brings brand-new challenges—often with inadequate preparation and little time to adjust. How do you moderate meetings, manage a church budget, and counsel struggling congregants, all while preparing sermons every week?
The new pastor’s time is also inundated with something else—advice! Too much of it! Where do you begin? What you need during your make-or-break first year is practical, realistic preparation for ministry. Drawing from more than three decades of his own experience, Pastor Wingard gives essential help for navigating the principal duties of the minister.
Find the tools you need to get established in your ministry and lead with confidence.
This is a Logos Reader Edition. Learn more.
- Provides essential help for navigating the principal duties of the minister
- Addresses common questions
- Includes advice on cultivating interior life and disciplines
- Understanding Your Call to Ministry
- Preparing for Pulpit Ministry
- Preparing and Delivering a Sermon
- Practical Advice on Preaching
- Leading Worship
- The Sacraments
- Church Administration
- Growing through Conflict
- Home Visitation
- Practicing Hospitality
- Counseling
- Weddings
- Hospital and Hospice Care
- Funerals
- Your Denominational Duties
- The Character and Habits of Effective Ministers
- Small Things That Yield Big Results
- A Long and Fruitful Ministry
- Appendix 1: Advice for Student Preachers
- Appendix 2: Tips for Seeking a Pastoral Position
- Readings in Preaching and Pastoral Theology
Top Highlights
“Here’s why: you will face trials, hardships, and spiritual enemies that will tempt you to run away. There is no escaping adversity. Unless you are firmly persuaded that God has summoned you to pastoral ministry, you will falter, grow weary, become discouraged, and fail.” (Page 3)
“Nevertheless, the sufferings that accompany your ministry will be real, and unless you are convinced that God has sent you to your congregation, your work will become unceasingly frustrating, leaving you bitter and burned out.” (Pages 3–4)
“The work of a pastor is diverse: leading worship, preaching, teaching, evangelism, missions, home and hospital visitation, counseling, calling on potential members, training leaders, fund-raising, and leading building campaigns. I wouldn’t want to do any one of those tasks exclusively, but taken as a whole, pastoral ministry is deeply satisfying and the variety of work is continually refreshing.” (Page xiii)
“Unless called by God, you must not enter the pastorate. Each sermon you preach, each act of pastoral care, and each prayer for your flock must be faithful to your calling.” (Page 1)
“A man who can’t preach should not be a pastor, for preaching is the pastor’s preeminent work.” (Page 13)
I cannot conceive of anyone from whom I would rather receive counsel on the practice of the Christian ministry. . . . Even if you have been in the ministry for a long time, there are things to be learned and relearned here.
—Ligon Duncan, Chancellor/CEO, Reformed Theological Seminary
This book is simply excellent—extremely practical and exceedingly wise. The writing is clear, direct, and full of good sense.
—Kevin DeYoung, Senior Pastor, Christ Covenant Church
This book will prove uniquely useful to new pastors. It cuts through the fog and confusion of the early days in a new church and lasers in on what simply must be done and how to do it well.
—David Murray, Professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary
- Title: Help for the New Pastor: Practical Advice for Your First Year of Ministry
- Author: Charles Malcolm Wingard
- Publisher: P&R
- Print Publication Date: 2018
- Logos Release Date: 2020
- Pages: 206
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Subject: Pastoral theology
- ISBNs: 9781629954677, 9781629954684, 9781629954691, 1629954675, 1629954683, 1629954691
- Resource ID: LLS:HELPNEWPASTOR
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:29:43Z