There’s a movie entitled “Miracle” that came out in 2004 that tells the story of the 1980 USA hockey team and their journey to winning a gold medal at the Olympics. Towards the beginning of the movie, the head coach, Herb Brooks, is in the process of choosing his team for the Olympics. There are plenty of people on the Olympic committee offering their opinions on who Coach Brooks should add to the roster. They suggest the best scorers, the best defenders, and the best passers. But finally, Coach Brooks silences them all with one line. He says, “I’m not looking for the best players. I’m looking for the right ones.”

As pastors, we’re always trying to improve our speaking skills so that we can effectively and impactfully communicate to our congregation each Sunday. That being said, here are five ways you can be more confident as a speaker and a preacher. 

Prioritization is an interesting topic. Most believe they prioritize well, but, in reality, it is very tough to properly prioritize the myriad of things in our lives. As pastors, we are constantly being pulled in a million different directions. Our staff needs our input, encouragement, and motivation. Our congregation needs pastoring, counseling, and shepherding. Our families need our love, attention, and support. Plus, we also need to do things for ourselves, like spending time in the Word and prepping for our next sermon series.

In a previous blog post, we talked about how important it is to balance spiritual and Scriptural depth along with application in your sermons. Too much of one without the other can leave your congregation wanting more, and that’s the last thing we as pastors want our members to experience when they walk away from one of our sermons.  

There are many different styles of preaching and delivering messages to a congregation. If you’ve been in ministry for any amount of time, or even if you’ve just attended church for a while, you know how pastors can vary in the way they present information. 

Being a pastor is no small feat. It’s a job that comes with immense pressure, responsibility, and challenging situations. But I don’t have to tell you that. If you’ve been working in ministry for any amount of time, you know this to be true based on your own experience.

Over the past couple of weeks, the topic of multigenerational church congregations has come up quite a few times. Clearly, it is a topic on the minds of church leaders, but if you are not familiar with this concept, let me clarify. A multigenerational church congregation is a group of people from a wide range of age groups. There is no particular age group that dominates the church on a given Sunday as you can find people ranging in age from infants to the elderly. 

We’ve talked before about questions you should ask when you’re interviewing someone for an open position on your church staff, but what about if you find yourself on the other side of the equation? What if you’re the one being interviewed? Well, not to worry because we’ve got you covered. Here are some tips to keep in mind when you’re prepping for an interview on a church staff.

No matter what field you’re in, there is always going to be potential for someone to give negative feedback on the work you’re doing. In the case of being a pastor, this negative feedback tends to come more frequently due to the nature of the work as a communicator of God's Word. It may seem as though everyone has an opinion about what you’re preaching on, how the services are formatted, how the church is being led, etc.

Growing up, many of us had this thought, “If I could just land a job I really want, then I’ll be happy with work.” We assumed that if we liked the work we were doing and we were in a job that we enjoyed, excelled at, and were passionate about, that would be enough to give us a good work experience. And while that’s a huge part of it, we all know that there’s more to it.