4 Ways to Be a Great Assistant Pastor

What I wish I’d known then that can help you now.

I Wasn’t Equipped to be an Assistant

While I have been a lead pastor for almost fifteen years (a church planter for the past ten), my first ten years out of seminary were spent serving as an assistant pastor in churches ranging from under 200 to over 2,000 members.

While I loved my seminary experience and learned a great deal about the Bible, theology, preaching, and other aspects of practical, pastoral ministry, I do not remember a focus on how to thrive as an assistant pastor.

Most of the guys I knew were on a track to be pastors, as in lead pastors. Or campus pastors.

However, most of us graduated with jobs as assistant pastors. Yeah, we’d have the opportunity to preach, and some of us regularly. But we were not given the keys to the car just yet.

Those AP days can feel like having a driver’s permit, where there are still siginificant restrictions imposed and boundaries established on just how far you can go in exercizing and developing your driving skills.

Or preaching skills. Or leadership skills.

Those assistant pastor limitations can prove to be a bit frustrating for those of us who think we…