Earlier this afternoon I had lunch with my mentor and former Senior Pastor. We ate at this amazing BBQ joint called Dreamland BBQ. If you are ever in Atlanta you got to check it out! I had this amazing salad. It was a salad covered in chopped pork and saturated in ranch dressing and BBQ sauce...this is how salads should be eaten. Anyway it was great seeing my former Senior Pastor. I got to brag on him for a minute. Several years ago this guy took a huge risk when he asked me to be his Youth Pastor. I had very little ministry experience, in fact I was doing children's ministry at the time when he asked me to work with him. But according to him the Holy Spirit told him to ask me to work with him and the rest is history.
I have many friends in ministry whose first experience in ministry was a horrible one due to the Senior Pastor they worked with but I was truly blessed that God paired me with a man that loved Jesus and saw my potential when I couldn't see it. Sure we had some crazy and difficult moments but we supported each other in public and private. We made it through each crazy moment because we were a TEAM. So it was so great to sit down and talk about the past and dream about the future.
One thing that my Pastor/Mentor said ,regarding vision, that I thought was profound was that as Pastors we are great at writing down who we are and what we are about but we are horrible at writing down WHO WE ARE NOT and WHAT WE ARE NOT ABOUT. He encouraged me to write down these two important statements and put them in a place that will be constantly visible. He told me that there will be moments where people and stuff will try to re-direct the vision of the church which in turn will distract me from my mission and purpose. But if I have written down who we are & what we are about and who we are not & what we are not about I will be able to compare those distracting moments to the vision and stay focused. It's important to know who we are but it also important to know who we are not so we don't waste time, resources, and frustrate our people.
As I start this new journey as a Senior Pastor I thank God for my Pastor/Mentor. Honestly I didn't know what to expect from this lunch meeting today other than having a good meal and a great time but as I was thinking about it last night I read this post that Perry Noble wrote about how to be ready to meet with a mentor that helped me get the best out of my lunch meeting today. Thanks Perry for the post it was a huge help. I also want to thank my Pastor/Mentor Sam for meeting me for lunch and for continually investing into my life. Pastor Sam I am becoming a better Pastor because of your influence. Thanks for everything!
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