U40 Ministry Leaders Podcast

Many younger ministry leaders will find themselves serving in established churches. Sam Rainer, the pastor at West Bradenton Baptist Church, is one of the leading voices about the established church, which he defines as "churches who've been around a long time, have a presence in the community, and have standing programs or ministries." We talk about two of the obstacles from his book Obstacles in the Established Church, and how younger ministry leaders can serve faithfully.

You can follow Sam on Twitter at @SamRainer where you can learn more about the Revitalize Network. You can also grab a copy of his book from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Obstacles-Established-Church-Leaders-Overcome/dp/0692289852

One of the areas many pastors and ministry leaders feel the need to grow in is leadership. Today I'm getting to hang out with Dr. Angie Ward to talk about growing as a leader. Angie is the leader behind the Church Matters website and the Church Matters podcast. You can connect with her at churchmatters.com.

Picture this - You've been through a long search process, you've prayed and interviewed and visited a church. You've been voted on and called. You've packed your house and moved. And you find yourself in your office on your first day. What do you do? In this week's episode, Dan Sardinas (Guest #1) from Northwest Baptist in Bradenton FL and I are talking about how to get a good start in the first 90 days.

You can see more about a good start from Scott's book "Start Well" available on Amazon in print or Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Start-Well-Scott-Douglas/dp/0997886196

It's nice to be back! This week's episode is with Stephen Keene, pastor of Southside Baptist in Shelbyville TN. We're talking about how churches and ministry leaders can navigate the social media world. One of the biggest takeaways from Stephen: sometimes pastors need to live like it's 1992, and not live through social media. We also talk about how churches can use social media as an effective outreach and connection to their communities.

One thing that a lot of ministry leaders, especially younger ones, take for granted is their physical health. We're young, we're still active, we play pickup ball or run 5Ks, and we still have our original knees and shoulders. We're not facing pacemakers and dentures, so we often overlook and ignore taking care of ourselves physically. But as pastors, we have a responsibility for our physical health because when we're not in good health, we're not able to be as effective as God would have us be in our churches. If we're constantly sick or dealing with major issues, we can't spend time investing in people or preparing to preach.

This week's episode is a reflection on something that a lot of young ministry leaders struggle with: watching others have success. It might be a VBS that saw an entire elementary school get saved, or a community outreach event that doubled attendance, or a church that gives its pastor a car for his anniversary. The biggest takeaways I wanted to share in this episode are: Cultivate a heart of gratefulness, and to be Faithful to your calling.

There's an article on my blog about this as well, you can find it here: http://www.scottmdouglas.com/blog/pastors-dont-resent-others-success

Office hours are a touchy subject for ministry leaders. In this episode, we look at 5 factors to consider in a pastor or ministry leader's approach to office hours:
1. Your greatest asset is your availability
2. Work/Life Rhythm
3. You will likely have unrealistic expectations
4. Find your prep groove
5. Regularly Communicate

In the episode, I mentioned an article by Thom Rainer about minimum time expectations for a pastor, here's the link: https://thomrainer.com/2013/07/how-many-hours-must-a-pastor-work-to-satisfy-the-congregation/

This week's episode is all about doing or receiving evaluations in ministry. You can find some resources for personnel manuals, evaluations, improvement plans, and more on scottmdouglas.com.