6 Critical Steps To Take In the First 90 Days As Pastor

by Michael Watkins

A couple of years ago I read the book the First 90 Days. Michael Watkins unpacked the important considerations for a manager moving into a new leadership position. Today I'd like to offer my own suggestions for a new pastor.

With over 20 years of experience as a senior pastor and almost a decade in ministry-equipping academia, I have often reflected on the most important first considerations for a new pastor. The first great task of the Church is to fulfill God's command to take the Gospel to the world. Coupled with that is the mandate to bring those who come to faith into Christian maturity. In light of these two priorities, what are the most important first steps for a pastor to take when he begins work with a new congregation? 

1. Clarify expectations. A new pastor needs the church to be clear about what he expects from them, and clear on what they expect from him. The lack of understanding and clarity on the front end has created unnecessary difficulties for way too many churches and pastors.  

2. Encourage the church family to embrace their responsibility to invite lost and unchurched people in their spheres of influence to join them for worship. The most effective outreach for any church is the satisfied member who cares about the people inside their circle of influence.

3. Study the church and seek the Lord to know what messages need to be preached. Even as Jesus had a specific word to and for each congregation addressed in Revelation 2 and 3, He has a special Word to each congregation today.

4. Challenge each member to take seriously their role in the church. This would include encouragement to be faithful in their daily devotions, witness, character development, stewardship, and consistency. Each member is either building up or tearing down the Body of Christ (the Church) by their attitudes, actions, behaviors, participation, and words. Personal responsibility must be taken seriously!

5. Be diligent to ensure that the necessary infrastructure is in place to effectively support the ministries of the congregation. Without the supporting team, any organization can collapse under its own weight.

6. Ask yourself and the church tough questions. For each congregation, the questions must be asked: 

• What does God want us to be and to do? 

• How are we gifted to fulfill the will of God in our locale?

• In what areas does God want us to minister and serve?

• What does God want to accomplish through us in this time and place?

• What potential does God want to birth into reality here and now?

• How can we effectively cooperate in fulfilling the Great Commission in our generation? 

• What does God want to do in our midst that will help the watching world know that God is real?

These are the six steps I think are critical for the first 90 days in the pastorate. What do you think? Do you have anything to add to the list? 

Are We Playing Church or Being the Church?

If you’ve found my blog, you may know that I’ve written two textbooks on Baptist history. The Baptist Reformation is the interpretive history of the Conservative Resurgence in the SBC. A Matter of Conviction is the history of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and Baptist influence in helping to shape Western civilization.

I haven’t spent much time in recent years poring over Baptist historical texts, but in recent weeks I’ve been preparing to teach a course at Lenexa Baptist Church on "The Baptist March Through History: Who They Were and Why It Matters," so the history of the denomination has been on my mind.

While at Cross Church in Rogers, Arkansas last week, Dr. Ronnie Floyd asked me a salient question: "Who are we as a denomination and what are the critical issues that we must face?" I answered that we are a denomination in search of an "identity." Across the board, I am not convinced that we really know who we are, what we should be doing, or why it matters.

Peter Drucker, famous business thinker, is known for stating,"The first question is this: what business are you in?" I am not at all convinced that the vast majority of our 40,000+ churches and our 16 million+ members of the SBC know how to answer that question. Many might tell you that we should be fulfilling the Great Commandment, the Great Commission, and the Great Contrast (being salt and light in a decaying culture). But the issue, however, is in what we DO; everything else is just religious talk. 

When everything is said and done, there is a lot more said than done. 

Until each local congregation determines what business it is in and aligns its actions with its answers, I see a continued drift.

If the goal of a local congregation is simply to keep the institution from going under, pay its bills, take care of itself, and perpetuate its old guard leadership structure, it is not even in its essence fulfilling the biblical definition of church. The first step in helping the denomination clarify its identity, is to help local churches clarify what business they are in.

If a local church is not thinking and acting strategically on how to:

-Win the lost to Christ

-Disciple those who are won

-Worship God authentically

-Minister to its people and community in which it resides

-Participate in the great task of world evangelism

-Engage in cultural renewal

it is not only falling short of its biblical mandate, it may be simply playing church without being the church. 

These things delineate the business we are in. So, how about your church? Are you being the church, or playing church?