Young Pastors

Deceptive Disadvantage: 

Young pastors are at a disadvantage in listening capacity. This is not entirely due to many of them being Millennials, either. Rather, they also suffer from not having suffered all that much, or not as much as they will have suffered by the time they are forty or fifty, and have seen life circumstances that can be trying, like loving and bringing their teens up through the travails and life exigencies of high school and college. 

Suffering drives one to depend on God, and people will not only sacrifice more for their children than for themselves, but suffer more vicariously for their children when they are hit with difficulties.  This pounding is used by God for building maturity.  This maturity enables young pastors to grow in their ability to listen. There is nothing wrong with being "wet behind the ears" (for that is the nature of being low in experience), but it hurts one's growth when he fails to be respectful towards his elders, assuming that his lack of experience cannot be a hindrance to his growth in Christ and Wisdom.

  

Capacity to Enjoy Them: 

One of the most important attributes for a pastor to possess and which God uses to serve the flock is the pastor's ability to simply enjoy the people of his congregation. He has an intentional commitment to those in his flock, and you can see this in the consistency of his behavior, perhaps most saliently in his tendency to listen well, and to linger.  He lingers at the homes of people after a visit, is not the first to excuse himself.  Each member knows well that he has been at that member's home, and stayed hours, talking in depth.  

Investment of Time: A pastor who has been somewhere pastoring for several years and yet has not spent more than a modicum of time at people's homes is missing something key to becoming a fine pastor.  You cannot learn so much about a person if you never visit his home, and if you do visit, then your ability to love him and learn about him is similarly severely limited if you never stay there very long, say never for something like four to ten hours. But modern pastors are busy, and few have stayed as much as four hours talking with one member.  

Young college students go on road trips, where they spend long time periods together.  These young people, even non-believers, form bonds stronger than many pastors form with the members of their flock, even though they have been there "pastoring" for several years.  I find this bordering on malpractice.  Or if not that, then severely limiting, and calling into question whether the pastor in residence has ever truly been called by God to serve as an overseer of a flock.  

I get this also from seminary professors, this skepticism about the reasons and motivations of many seminary students' professed callings, what brought them to study in seminary.  

Degrees of Character: 

I wish there were more degrees or programs not entirely focused on career-yielding, but merely building of biblical literacy. Churches do well when they institute classes towards that end, and having tests and grades is not a bad thing, if it motivates well, and gives good feedback on how much you learned. 

We are called to let our ethics be our worship, as Ezekiel shows. We cannot properly apply the teachings of the Bible if we exclude discussion of ethics, for ethics involves a focus on the application of the Bible to our lives.  Ezekiel shows how a neglect of the focus on ethics does not work out well.  We cannot be only speakers of the Word, neglecting the doing, and calling out each other needs to be evidence based, to be fair to one's brother. Our ethical behavior involves out steady commitment to study of the Bible, prayer, meditation, service in Christ,  and this behavior speaks louder than words at times.