Gary L. McIntosh - The 10 Key Roles of a Pastor: Proven Practices for Balancing the Demands of Leading Your Church

A fruitful pastor must have a hat rack, one with lots of hooks. In the course of ministry, pastors become accustomed to wearing many hats, but no pastor can wear every hat equally well.

My wife and I vacationed in a resort town in the San Bernardino mountains two hours from our home. Strolling along the tiny main street, we noticed a store selling hatsnothing but hats. I soon started trying on hats of various colors and styles, laughing as I looked at myself in a mirror. Some were too small and sat on the top of my head like a toy. Others were scads too large, drooping over my ears. Once I found the right-size hat, it was easy to select ones that fit well. Though the store offered hundreds of hats, only some fit me well, and few looked good on me.

The different hats that pastors wear do not fit equally well on every pastor. A persons different callings, skills, and natural abilities make some hats fit better than others. Learning to change hats is a challenge. Determining which hat or hats you wear best is a pathway to enlarging your ministry and making it more effective. Devoting a little of your time to everything means committing a great deal of yourself to nothing. Your time is a unique resource. Three human resourcestime, money, and peoplecan limit or empower ministry. You can raise more money and find more people, but you cant multiply time. Its limited. So you must narrow your focus and determine which hats you wear best. Start by taking a personal audit of your life and ministry using the following questions.

1. What did God create me to accomplish? What are my strengths? What am I good at doing? Have you ever noticed that schools (seminaries too) dont encourage you to focus on your strengths? Instead, they focus on your weaknesses. The homiletics professor says, You should focus more on explaining the text, because you need help with explaining the text. Why dont we hear, You should tell more stories. Youre really good at storytelling? This focusing on weaknesses rather than strengths happens throughout our lives, to the point that its become ingrained for most of us. But experts in leadership development point out how great teachers, leaders, managers, and, yes, pastors recognize strengths and focus on them instead.

2. Where do I see Gods blessing in my life? Where have I seen results? Be honest and ruthless. Allow me to share a personal example. I wanted to be a preacher, an evangelist, and a musician, but everyone said I was a good teacher. No one was surprised that I ended up teaching in seminary. I also served as a youth pastor, but kids didnt come. In contrast, whenever I worked with adults, my ministry thrived. It was like God was shouting, Work with adults! With adults, I found success and a great response. No one is surprised I ended up teaching, coaching, and consulting with adults.

To find what God is blessing in your own life, write down what you do, your key activities, and what you hope to see from your activity. Keep a list and then look at it in nine to twelve months. What do you see? The results will show you what God blesses in your ministry. Ask your administrative assistant, if you have one, what you do and dont do well. Ask people around you. If theyre honest and have observed you for a number of years, they can tell you. For example, do you seem to be able to recruit and place people well? Do you start new programs that always seem to falter? Where do you sense Gods favor in ministry?