Pastors, what do you wish you could do more often?

Pastors, I'd like to know you better.

What do you love about your job? (Or, what's the thing you do each week that you enjoy the most?)

What do you dislike most about your job? (Is there a regular task or interaction you dread or don't look forward to?)

What do you wish you could do more often? (Meet with congregants; research; teach; pray; counsel; vacation?...)

What do you wish your congregation did more often? (Read the Bible; pray; spend time in each others' homes; talk to you; ask for help; encourage each other... ??)

What do you most wish you could do (or do more of) for your congregation?

I'd love to see your answers in replies here, but feel free to email me directly at bob@faithlife.com if you want to share privately.

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Bob Pritchett

I'm bumping this in hopes of getting some responses! :-)

Matt Hamrick

Currently not pastoring, but when I return to it soon I will email you my response.

James C.

I love preaching and teaching. This is my gift and calling. Which means I love to study and research and that means I love using Logos. Use it every day and have even convinced a few members, preachers, and friends to pick it up.

I wish I could spend more time in meaningful fellowship. I do this as much as I can but would love more of it.

I don't like confronting members who are in open and public sin. I do advocate and follow through with church discipline but don't like it.

BillS

What do you love about your job? (Or, what's the thing you do each week that you enjoy the most?)

Weekly sermon research & leading Bible studies with a Logos layout & a projector

What do you dislike most about your job? (Is there a regular task or interaction you dread or don't look forward to?)

No dreads, yet I don't look forward as much to most of the necessary meetings that a) organize the work of the church & b) maintain the relationships necessary for the work to get done.

What do you wish you could do more often? (Meet with congregants; research; teach; pray; counsel; vacation?...)

Everything you listed... meet with congregants (smaller group settings), research, teach, pray (which for me includes the only counseling I'll do--healing prayer), & vacation. :-)

What do you most wish you could do (or do more of) for your congregation?

Help us grow in numbers, not just spiritual maturity.

abondservant

What do you love about your job? Basically all of it. But its spending time in the word, and seeing people grow closer to the Lord that keeps me going.

What do you dislike most about your job? Drama. The pay (~10k/yr gross). Answering the phone. I usually make people text me, or else route them through my secretary. I once had a job that centered on the phone, and I hate it. Peoples reticence towards evangelism

What do you wish you could do more often? Lead in, and teach evangelism. This isn't so much an availability thing, more a reflection of peoples attitude toward approaching strangers. But I have a few people that are excited enough to not care about that, and I'll take what I can get.

What do you wish your congregation did more often? Evangelism and discipleship. Flat out my number 1 priority.

What do you most wish you could do (or do more of) for your congregation? Better convey my passion for the gospel and evangelism, so they become more excited and share the gospel with others more frequently. Secondly, I wish I were a better preacher. But I'm working on that. They haven't said anything, that may be my own insecurities. But I suppose we should all be striving for better in that area any way right?

I'm not sure how FL can help with most of those. Is there an app for quelling drama?

1) I would love to spend more time connecting with people, in person or online. Currently our tool of choice is WhatsApp. I don't see us moving to FL Groups anytime soon, if ever.

2) I would love to spend more time perusing the thousands of books in my Logos library. FL could help by

- Providing a better way to browse our own library; perhaps a facet-driven library browser like the other recent tools?

- Helping me get a better overview or summary or sense of the books I have, if I don't have time to read every word and every page.

3) I would love to train up more people to be able to handle the Word of God and lead Bible studies independently. I would love to hand them an app and say "Go install this app on your phone, and it has everything you need to understand the Word of God, dig as deeply as you want, and prepare for Bible study." Currently this tool of choice for us is 精讀聖經 app on iOS, Android, and Windows. It is uncluttered, intuitive, has depth (has original language dictionaries), and affordable (free). For those among us who can handle English, I also recommend them to install FL Study Bible.

Hope this helps,

Peter