The Ministerial Director > Getting Started > Develop Your Own Concrete Sense of Your Work

Chances are that you sought out or were open to this position because of your clear sense of the mission of pastoral ministry. This clear understanding would surface very definite ideas about what kind of Ministerial Director you’d like to be and how the work should be done. You should not be timid about sharing this with your president, but it may be wise to first hear what the president expects from you. Much of what you want to do will likely be on his or her radar as well, and a good way to begin to share your own dreams is to be able to identify how his or her dreams intersect with yours. That lets your president know that you “get it” and that you are willing to do what they ask of you.

Sharing your dreams allow them to see that you also have a vision for this work, and that you need to have some freedom to find yourself in your new position. If you validate your president's thoughts about your work, that gives them more reason to validate yours, which in turn can give you more freedom to take your work as a Ministerial Director in the directions about which you feel most strongly.

In order to do this, you must have really spent some time in thought, prayer, and consultation with other pastors whom you trust, along with some other ministerial directors you might know to really be able to flesh this out for yourself. Make sure you have done as much serious pre-work as possible before meeting with your president.

Finally, take stock of the actual work you are doing every few months to make sure that you are on track, and also to allow yourself a little room to be surprised by important tasks you had not thought of early on that need your time and attention. Next...