Fresh-out-of-college ministers still have some lessons to learn according to Archie Poulos, head of the ministry department at Sydney’s Moore Theological College.

One of them is that Ministers can’t do everything. “I am a great fan of the priesthood of all believers,’ says Poulos. “But clergy feel they are the generalist who has to be the specialist in everything, we need to give them the license to feel they do NOT have to be the specialist in everything.”

Poulos is not knocking his college’s product. “We produce really good graduates, who have some areas they need to keep working on.” So the college is setting up a Centre for Ministry Development (CMD). “We want to help them to keep doing their Bible and theology really well. But when people hit the ground, we need to help them be the best practitioners they can be.”

Eternity asked Archie Poulos: just exactly what do new ministers need help with?

One of the clear issues is the use of their diary. The inability to say “no” , the inability to determine how much time something takes— too many balls being juggled so they don’t do things properly.

What’s an example of the balls being juggled or dropped?

What happens is that you land on the ground as a new minister and almost all of your week is filled up with things that are expected of you– there’s scripture, training of youth group leaders and Bible study group leaders. And and and.

So maintaining of the ministry set up by the previous assistant minister can take up ALL your time. And then the senior minister says “we would like you to do this initiative as well- here is a new area that you can grow”.

So if you have already got a full time job, how can you do the next thing?

The minister will say “I need to keep growing in my relationship with Jesus so I need to make sure I have time to read my bible and pray- that has to come first.

The next thing might be to say “I would have liked to have spent twenty hours on writing my sermon, but I have got to get this down to twelve hours – so what processes can I set in place to do that.”

And then you think “training the youth group leaders is really crucial but is it better for me to put the time into training a trainer for twelve months so they can train the leaders next year- which will give me time to do the next thing next year”.

[Making room for new initiatives] is one of the things young ministers are not good at.

Is one of the problems that clergy think they have to do everything?

Absolutely. That’s the diary thing– the diary is not just how do I fit more into the day- it’s “what are the priorities” and “how am I going to organise my life to make sure they happen?”

Young ministers have to work out when we say “you should be doing this” how can we make sure people have sufficient competence and how do we make sure they have sufficient confidence to keep going.

How come this is not taught during their college years?

All educational facilities have this sort of issue. It’s the phase of life that you are at. People take on board what they need, when they need it… it’s the pedagogical reality. When you are training you don’t often experience the complexities a minister faces. People do student ministry on Sunday which is a fairly narrow piece of time where you learn how to do specific things only. Once you leave college you face a more complex setting – and only when you get there do you pay much attention to it.

But we want to be beside the person when they do get to experience the complexities, to help them.

If I am a pewsitter- what are the symptoms if my minister is struggling?

One of the first things for our new centre will be to develop a tool to help ministers work out where they are struggling and where they are doing well.

One of the symptoms is that they ‘drop balls’ , they take on everything without helping other people take on ministries of their own. Another symptom is the typical depression activities of withdrawal.

So if I can see my minister is struggling what should I do?

Pray- sometimes people don’t do that. Don’t gossip behind their back.

It’s hard, but you have to find a way of talking to your minister. The closest I can liken ministry to is like being an artist or an Opera singer, in that you are what you do. If someone laughs at a painting that you do, you can’t help but take it personally. Likewise in ministry if somebody says “you are not doing well’ in your job, it is a personal attack, because ministry is so relational.

It is good to talk to your minister about your concerns – in a non-judgmental way. How that is received will depend on how much personal mastery the minister has.