My First Year in Ministry (and the Lessons I Learned)

As this year draws to a close, I reflect on the end of my first year of ministry. Figuring out what to do in a new position is tough, especially when your boss is God…

Here are the highlights of my experience as a first-year music minister!

 

The Prelude: Getting Started

 

When I first started, I had to learn a lot in a very short amount of time. Chief among them was an endless number of names and faces. Looking back, that may have been my greatest struggle starting out, just trying to recall who everyone was and what ministries they were attached to. I tried to prioritize folks in my music groups, but that was of no consolation to Sunday morning congregants I’d met two or three times already.

 

It was pretty embarrassing to go up to someone before or after a service and say something like “what brought you here this morning?” or “thanks for coming” to adults who had been attending longer than I’d been alive.

 

I also had to find my place in the office environment. Not sure if I 100% have pinpointed what that is even now, what my role is among the staffers, but I’m certainly more comfortable than I was. Really what I learned was how to take authority over my ministry area.

 

After graduating college, I realized that I was an expert in my field compared to the average churchgoer. It was a total culture shift from the college environment where I was a student. Now, I’m a teacher.

 

I had to learn how to own that reality.

 

It was easy to do that for choir, I had two degrees and tons of experience conducting going in, but it was less easy taking ownership over the “congregational choir.” Leading the congregation into worship, being the authority in that setting was much different than running music rehearsals and performances.

I still defer a lot to the pastor in worship, as well I should, but less than I did in the beginning. It is a lot of pressure having to decide what to sing, in what order, trying to discern how best to lead people into a corporate dialogue with God.

 

With encouragement from my friends and colleges, I think it fortified my spirit and helped me to make those tough decisions week-in and week-out during my first year in ministry.

 

The First Lesson: Help!

 

The lesson I learned in this first part of my year-long ministry journey was that I had help, but also that I needed help. I couldn’t have made it through as well as I did without the daily support of my pastor, my music team, and my wife.

 

My pastor was instrumental in helping me develop priorities in my ministry, putting God first and self last. He has been and continues to be a sounding board for my terrible ideas…

I shouldn’t say that, sometimes they’re awful ideas.

Being able to see the way that he sees the world is like being able to slip on magic spirit glasses every day. It’s pretty awesome and humbling, and I am grateful for his influence in my life.

 

The help I received from my music team, my music groups and planning team, was equally important.

The constant feedback from meetings or rehearsals, the lessons I learned about dedication from folks who had been honoring God with their time and abilities for so long, invaluable. I look forward to our rehearsals because of them, getting to be in their company is the highlight of my week. Their energy sustains me, their hunger for excellence refines me, makes me want to be better. And I am better for it.

 

Finally, I learned to take help from my wife, help I didn’t always want but I did always need. I’m sure husbands out there can relate.

She’s awesome and smart and beautiful and insightful and opinionated and she is absolutely everything I’ll ever need. Without her constant encouragement when I was down in the dumps or sass when I was up in the clouds, I don’t think I could have made it. Something about always having someone in your corner, it really does make you stronger, braver. Thank you, sweetheart.

 

The First Big Event: Holy Week and Easter

 

The first big event I had to plan for was Holy Week, which includes Easter.

 

This meant a full week of special worship events leading up to a big service on Easter Sunday, featuring all the musical ensembles of the church and a separate handbell concert. I think in all, the choir alone was responsible for something like four months’ worth of music condensed into one week of performances. It was a lot of music.

 

Not only that, but I had to figure out how to arrange everyone on and off stage for those events…

…how to advertise the upcoming services…

…how to program solos and duets into the worship experience…

…and a ton of other things that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise.

 

In all, it went very well because I asked for help AND…

 

The Second Lesson: Plan Ahead!

 

I planned ahead.

 

This was the second lesson I learned during this important season, the need for planning ahead. With so many important things happening in such a short amount of time, it would have been absolutely disastrous if I would have waited till the last minute to prepare or plan things.

 

Learning all the Easter music took months.

I had to plan in January what I would start in February to be ready in April.

 

Also, advertising all the special things for Lent and Easter was only successful because I put it on the calendar early…

…and I let people know what was going on beforehand.

 

I avoided a lot of confusion because of the preparations I made well in advance, and as a result, things went much smoother.

 

The Summer Months: General Time

 

After a super busy April, May marked a transition toward a totally different feeling season: Summertime.

The summer months are tricky for church music groups. Kids are taking a break from school, teachers too, and so parents want to go on vacation.

 

With folks going out of town unexpectedly, it makes preparing for rehearsals and services much more difficult. I ended up letting everyone take the summer off.

 

Letting the music groups take a break for a month was hard for me, especially since I was worried about retention. I thought maybe if I let them go they would never return. To my surprise, the opposite actually happened!

 

I think we lost three or four, but upon our return, I think we gained that number back in new folks, and the numbers just kept on increasing. This taught me my third lesson…

 

The Third Lesson: Rest!

 

The lesson I learned from the Summer Time was the importance of rest.

The choir needed it, I needed it, everyone needs it. I wanted to keep everyone going, to continue all the momentum we had built up, but that could have led some to become burnt out.

 

Too much for too long will cause even the most dedicated, the strongest willed folks to become exhausted. I was on the brink of collapse, and it wasn’t until I was forced to stop that I realized how tired I had become.

Rest allowed me to recover, but also gave me space to develop new things. I formed new small choirs out of coffee groups, new instrumental ensembles out of students on holiday. I helped soloists get ready and perform special music for service. All these things were made possible because I had made time for rest. Maybe that doesn’t sound like rest to some of you, but it was to me. All I had to do for these temporary groups was to rehearse them for an hour or two in preparation for service.

 

I spend maybe 5 to 6 hours a week on score study for my three music ensembles, and not having to program or study music for them gave me a lot of rest. And it gave them some rest too, rest enough to come back strong for the next big season, Christmas!

 

The Main Event: Advent and Christmas

 

Christmas came quick this year!

 

I’m sure every minister, pastor, worship leader says that same thing. Doesn’t make it feel less true.

 

Resting during the summer meant we had to play catch up, but we were more than able to brush the dust off the old music folders and get back to singing and playing with excellence in no time.

 

Although I think there was less to do during Advent and Christmas, it felt like more. Folks seem to place a greater emphasis on Christmas, although I don’t think they would articulate it like that.

 

I started seeing more new faces the closer December got, and I think we had five or six new families join the church within a month of Christmas. That was very humbling to me…

 

The idea that God was calling folks so strongly at this time of year. I just had to make myself available to shake their hand after God brought them through the doors.

 

It got me to thinking about all the possibilities for both the local and the universal church, and it taught me a valuable lesson.

 

The Fourth Lesson: Dream Big!

 

Christmas taught me to Dream Big!

 

The congregation, the pastor, the music groups, they all pushed me to go further, do more during this season. This push caused me to dream God-sized things for the music and worship of our church in my first year of ministry. It gave me courage to challenge the choir with harder music, the praise band with new styles.

 

This unanimous call to be better and do more helped to move the church into some unknown but powerful waters of unity in worship.

 

Unity that married tradition and newness.

 

God has great and powerful things in store for folks who, with willing attitudes, open hearts, and firm foundations, say “yes” to God’s calling.

 

My calling was to dream God-sized dreams over the worship of the church. I also had to be willing to go out on a limb and challenge myself and others to answer the call.

 

Let me tell you, God does not disappoint.

 

God did not once disappoint me this year, my first year in ministry. I dare say he will never disappoint to teach me new lessons in every new season. I know that the four lessons I learned, to take help, to plan ahead, to rest, and to dream big, are all lessons I can take with me forever.

 

My hope is that the experiences and the lessons I learned in my first year of ministry over 2017 will inspire you in some way in 2018.

 

Let me know what lessons you learned this year on my Facebook page or in the comments of the Youtube video above. Don’t be shy, I would love to hear about your great experiences in 2017!

Go in peace.