Solo Pastor: Understanding and Overcoming the Challenges of Leading a Church Alone

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Pastor Darin Kirkman I wanted to let you know that we have really made some huge changes in the last few months. We are seeing new people every week and we had a leadership meeting with 23 in attendance. Pastor ______ is doing well and God is doing amazing things. Thanks for your support, prayers and love for the church!

Lincoln City Church

How far will our resources stretch? As with building a building or fighting a war, beginning a new ministry and then running short on resources will lead to failure. Too many failures in a solo-pastor church create a fear of taking future steps of faith. A shortage of resources doesn't close the door on new ministry, but it does mean serious effort must be given to weighing the resource demands and costs. Part 1 identifies the challenges of solo pastoring, the relational character of solo-pastor churches, and the nature of leadership in those churches.

Paul could just as easily have included “single or married” in this list of status markers that have been swept away by the new, complete and eternal identity found in Christ. Married, single, Scythian or otherwise, our Christian distinctiveness rests completely in the character and work of Jesus. Maybe you think I’m being overdramatic. “Being a solo pastor can’t be that hard,” you might say. But Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs for a reason. When the apostle Paul traveled on his missionary journeys, he took along people to help him. Jesus and Paul recognized the dangers of solo ministry. Ministry is supposed to be teamwork. If your pastor is flying solo, it’s important that you know these dangers too. Small Congregation

Solo Pastors: Here Are The Rest Of Those Ways To Keep Your

Solo pastors are almost always in small congregations. A church needs an average weekly attendance of 76 people for each full-time staff member. Half of the churches in America have a weekly attendance of less than 75. Most churches are small and they have solo pastors. There are s ome struggles unique to small churches – not enough money, limited and aging facilities, and not enough volunteers. So the solo pastor often takes on more than one person can possibly do. Pastors do a lot! No pastor sets out to do this, but it happens, over time, to too many of us. I’m talking about getting tough, hard, contemptuous, sarcastic, and cynical. I’m talking about emotionally, and sometimes physically, isolating yourself from all except a few individuals. Exhaustion will likely result in a ministry project with insufficient strength to survive. Pace the church's ministries so your people don't burn out.If the vision is too broad, it'll be like placing multiple ladders against numerous buildings. Which one do you climb first? Which is the most important? Which deserves the investment of time, personnel, and energy? With too many ladders to climb, you'll end up frustrated, with a sense of failure. You could do many good things this year, but you are not likely to do them all. I recommend McIntosh’s book to all solo pastors, especially those at the start of their ministries in smaller churches. I’ll start by saying it again: No one will do this for you. No one can do this for you. You are the steward of your own heart, your own health, your own sanity, your own godliness, your own joy. “Choosing joy” isn’t so simple, but a joyful life does involve a choice. Your choice. For you. Pardon my bullet points, but we can only list these today: I am saying that churches with solo pastors often, inadvertently, “kill” their pastors, in the sense of rendering them unable to continue effectively in local church ministry.

Solo Pastors: Here Are 7 Ways To Keep Your Church From

Be enough of a mystic to obtain great joy and peace and satisfaction from God’s presence. Stay in the Word of God long enough to get your “blesser” blessed. For some, singleness may be a very specific calling from the Lord. For others, being unmarried may be an intentional lifelong choice. Still others may be single simply because circumstances have not afforded an opportunity for marriage. And while it may be that some may remain single for immature or selfish reasons, the same remains true of marriages. Single pastors are well aware that being solo in Christian ministry brings with it both benefits and challenges. For an unmarried pastor, benefits include flexibility of time, freedom to make independent decisions and priorities, and the ability to devote uninterrupted time to study or ministry events. Also beneficial can be the availability of time and energy for pastoral visitation that married clergy may no longer have. A single pastor may find it less challenging than her/his married counterpart when considering a change of employment since accepting a call to a different, and sometimes distant, community is not nearly as complicated without the additional factors of a spousal employment or children’s school enrollments. Not to be overlooked is the simple truth that solo clergy enjoy dinner invitations, take home doggie bags, and appreciate restaurant meals out at a rate far beyond that which married pastors might enjoy – with or without kids!Since that is true, it follows that being called and equipped to ministry does not hinge on marital status. In His fully human incarnation, Jesus submitted His divine self to be a servant (Philippians 2.6), and lived out that ministry as a single man with rich relationships. Peter was married. Paul was single. Priscilla and Aquila were marriage and ministry partners together. Whether single or married, each of these giants of the early Church chose to follow Jesus, and were used powerfully by God for the spreading of the Gospel. Single pastors and married ministers alike need to explore their fitness for ministry based on Scriptural principles, not lifestyle stages. Get your legitimate needs met. I’ve been learning from studying the Birkman (personality assessment) Method that when I get the legitimate needs of my personality met – mine are “literary” and “music” – I have the resources to do the things I need to do that drain my joy (like tending a mailing list). It is important to realize that “single” is not the same as “solitary.” Single people serving the Gospel enjoy a variety of meaningful relationships with people, including other singles, married persons, couples and whole families. Real ministry happens within the context of relationships, and single pastors are as capable of experiencing and contributing to relationships as any married clergy might. A few days ago, I enjoyed lunch out with a friend after a Sunday worship service. My friend is a pastor. She is a woman. She is also single. Not surprisingly, as we talked about our lives and friendship, elements of these three life circumstances – single, woman, in ministry – appeared again and again. Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about singles and ministry.

The Solo Pastor: Understanding and Overcoming the Challenges

Closer observation revealed that the real meeting began after the adjournment of the official meeting. It was there the same people, with coffee in hand, would weigh the matters introduced in the formal meeting, and by consensus, either validate the decisions of the formal meeting, or overrule them. His congregation considered the official meeting a polite concession to their pastor.” So without scolding pastors or churches for the current reality, let’s get down to those seven ways – some of which are much better than others – to keep your church from killing you. Please don’t do this. Your church deserves better. Your Lord deserves better. God didn’t call you into the ministry so you could be a placeholder. Being a solo pastor is a bit like free-climbing. The way forward is hard and often risky. The personal sacrifices and stress on one’s family are difficult for many people to understand. We have to do this. We are called to it. Something inside drives us forward. Love compels us to shepherd the sheep.Let us, then, follow the diverse example of the early Church and celebrate our gifts regardless of whether or not we have a ring on our finger and children in our home, setting an example for our congregants and the world around us that our lives find meaning and purpose not in our lifestyles, but in the salvation and redemption we find at the Cross!