An Interview with My Pastor

Pastoral Interview Paper
Geary Lutz

For the Pastoral Interview Paper, I interviewed the Pastor of my home Church (Lake Ridge Church in Eastlake, Ohio), Randy Whitely. Below is a summary of his responses to the interview questions.

1. Tell me about your call to pastoral ministry.
Pastor Randy said that he had always noticed in his father, and older brother, a certain quality which made people gravitate toward their leadership. Family members would always seek out his father’s leadership guidance at family gatherings, and this always seemed fascinating to Randy. This type of strong leadership was something that he desired, even as a child, to emulate. As he grew older, Randy noticed that he had been given a natural leadership gifting as well. People would naturally incline themselves to follow his instruction and guidance. In college, he had a desire to go into ministry; however, he did not choose to follow this path at the time, but instead became a teacher. He coached football and taught at a school in Hawaii, where he continued to be drawn toward ministry in his Church. He had a strong desire to minister to the youth in the Church, and that desire only grew stronger as he continued to teach and lead the youth group. This desire coupled with his ability to lead in ministry ultimately led to his decision to go into full-time ministry.

2. Which pastoral responsibility do you enjoy the most? Why?
Pastor Randy said that he enjoys teaching the most, because it feeds him spiritually as he is able to minister to others. He said that he enjoys digging into God’s Word in order to prepare his weekly sermon because it allows him to see where God is moving among the members of the congregation. He said that it is particularly nourishing spiritually to hear from members of the Church that the passage of the Word which he has exposited has seemingly been prepared just for them.

3. Which pastoral duty do you enjoy the least? Why?
Pastor Randy said that the administrative details are his least favorite portion of ministry. He said that he enjoys envisioning big picture goals that God has for the Church, but it is draining sometimes dealing with the details of day-to-day Church activity.

4. Describe the amount of time you spend in an average week in sermon preparation.
He said that he spends somewhere between 15-16 hours in sermon preparation each week. This time is divided between Scripture study, meditation, and sermon note preparation. His time in meditation of the Scripture passage often flows into his note preparation, as he prepares to bring the congregation a spiritually nourishing meal.


5. Describe the amount of time you spend in an average week in administrative responsibilities.
Pastor Randy said that he spends an average amount of approximately 5 hours per week dealing with administrative responsibilities. On weeks when there is an elders’ meeting (bi-weekly), this time spent on administrative details goes up to approximately 8 hours.

6. Describe the amount of time you spend in an average week in personal devotions and prayer.
He spends approximately 7-8 hours in personal Bible study and prayer. This time includes an hour spent weekly at the Church’s prayer meeting, where Church members gather together for corporate prayer.

7. What is an area of pastoral ministry that you wish you had been taught when you were in school?
Pastor Randy said that he really wished he would have had training in how to counsel with Scripture. He said that he also would have benefitted greatly from training in “active listening”—listening deeply and intently to what a person is actually meaning behind what they are saying. He also said he would have benefitted from training in how to counsel others through difficult and stressful situations (i.e. suicide counsel, family troubles).

8. Describe your ordination council.
Pastor Randy said that his ordination council was “painful”. He said that he felt that he stumbled through the questions, particularly when someone asked him if “angels could ever be saved?” He said he was helped through the tough questions by the other ministers who were there “grilling” him. He spent three hours under examination by the other pastors, and then they enjoyed a wonderful fellowship meal afterward to welcome him as an ordained minister. He said he enjoyed the fellowship with the other pastors very much and that it was a great time.

9. What is one piece of advice you would give to someone aspiring to become a pastor?
He advised that a young man make sure that he has a rock-solid wife. A successful minister is most often backed up by a stable wife who is able to patiently handle struggles and stress. He should make sure that his wife is grounded soundly before he pursues ministry even further.

10. How do you handle church conflict?
Pastor Randy said he will assess firstly whether the situation truly requires address by him personally. If it does require his involvement, he will gather as many facts as possible about the situation and devise a plan for confrontation and/or solutions. He said he does not like to let problems sit, or else the tensity of the situation will continue to build pressure. When there is conflict within the body, it causes division in the body, which overall weakens the entire body.

11. Have you ever been trained in church conflict? If so where?
No, he didn’t have training in handling conflict within the Church, and this is one of the areas in which he said he would have enjoyed a more thorough training.

12. Do you think forced termination of pastors is a problem in churches today? Why?
He said that he does feel that forced termination is a problem in churches today. He said many pastors are pushed out of churches when they offend the main funding members of the church. He said that early in his ministry, an occasion like this almost occurred with him involving a couple young men in the youth ministry. He attempted to correct them, and they would not heed his counsel, so he was forced to exclude them from participating in the ministry. This offended the parents of the boys, who were some of the main families funding the Church. He said he was pressured intensely regarding his decision, but eventually the boys’ character was brought out into the light for everyone to see. He avoided be forcefully terminated, but he said this tends to happen in a lot of churches. He also said, however, that if a man of God is faithful in his ministry work, God will bless the ministry no matter what people think in the moment.


13. What advice would you give me on how to avoid forced termination?
The advice Pastor Randy gave me was to stay as close to God as I can. He also advised strongly to pursue a strong marriage relationship with my wife. He said that a healthy home makes for a healthy minister, which makes for a healthy ministry. He advised me that if I will be faithful in the depth of my ministry, then God will take care of the breadth of the ministry.
Summary
I enjoyed very much the opportunity to sit down and interview my Pastor. He gave me some very in-depth insights into the life of a minister, and the heights and pitfalls of being in the ministry. I have enjoyed having Randy as a Pastor, and also as a mentor while being a volunteer leader in the youth group at our Church. He has been a constant source of help in coming up with helpful ideas based on his experiences in ministry, and of patience with the youth leaders who are not quite at the same experience level as himself (including myself!). This interview was a great joy to conduct, and I enjoyed discussing with him the main areas in which he had to encourage a young minister. I can see the advice that he has given me regarding my marriage as true wisdom. I have experienced this in my own life already, and I know the importance of putting my wife and children before my ministry work. I also enjoyed hearing what he had to say about what he wished he would have learned in Seminary. I can see the importance of learning how to counsel members within the Church from the Scripture, and learning how to listen for the real problem behind what someone is sharing as a struggle. I hope to put this advice into practice when I attend seminary, so that I can learn how to effectively counsel people from the Word of God. One detail I personally enjoyed hearing was Pastor Randy’s dislike for dealing with administrative details. Though he is gifted for administration, he said that this is a very taxing gift which he doesn’t particularly enjoy exercising. This is personally an area where I need to improve a great deal; I am very “big picture” oriented, and I sometimes struggle with supplying all the specific details along the way. That is why I personally appreciated hearing from someone else that they didn’t particularly enjoy dealing with the details either. I hope to gain more insight from him in the future on how to “zoom in” on the big picture and see more of the details involved in the execution of the plan. Overall, this was a tremendously helpful exercise for me; I enjoyed getting to chat with my Pastor, and I enjoyed hearing thoughts which came from his heart about the joys and perils of ministry work. I appreciate his willingness to be open and available to answer all of the questions I had for him.