Help for the New Pastor: Practical Advice for Your First Year of Ministry

You sit down at your first church leadership meeting . . . and you’re the moderator. Your church expects you to manage its budget. You need to prepare a sermon (or two) to preach every week. A couple wants you to help them repair their shattered marriage. You’re facing one new circumstance after another―with inadequate preparation and no time to adjust. Have you misunderstood the Lord’s calling? Realistic preparation for ministry can go a long way toward allaying the doubt and fear that arise during a pastor’s make-or-break first year. Now a trainer of new pastors, Charles Wingard has more than three decades of his own pastoral experience. Here he gives essential, real-world help for navigating the primary duties of the minister: from sermon preparation and sacraments to visitation, counseling, and hospitality. You may receive a theological education, yet still leave seminary unequipped for the daily work that faces you in your first church. This book provides the tools you need to lead with confidence.

Charles Malcolm Wingard (MDiv, Vanderbilt Divinity School; DMin, Greenville Theological Seminary) is associate professor of practical theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, as well as senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Yazoo City, Mississippi.