Weedon's Miscellaneous Thoughts for New Pastors

1. Pray the daily office: Matins and Vespers and the assigned Psalms and daily Scripture readings will sustain you in ways you cannot even begin to understand.
2. Pray specfically for your parishioners - see the previous post for a suggested way.
3. Confess your sins to a father confessor.
4. Learn and respect the traditions of the place you serve.
5. Read a little from the Book of Concord each day - and check the German or Latin if you have the ability.
6. If you have a wife and children, enjoy them! They are precious gifts of God.
7. Spend time for each sermon with Luther's postils - the House are better than the Church postils.
8. Chemnitz is your friend - let the study of his Loci and Examen be ongoing in your life.
9. The Fathers are wiser than you are: spend time with them each day also. Don't settle for the Schaff stuff that is online. Buy some individual books from the Patristic Series of Saint Vladimir's Press and read them a little each day.
10. Have the patience with your people that you hope and pray God has with you.
11. Do not let a year pass without rereading Walther's *Law and Gospel.*
12. Read poetry - real men do!
13. Never forget that the goal is not success, but love.
14. Let haughtiness die; it never serves God's purposes and everyone agrees that it smells very bad, so never be afraid to tell others you were wrong and to ask their forgiveness.
15. Don't you ever neglect your sick and shutins; or speak poorly about your confirmands!
16. Take comfort that the saints in heaven pray for you and their prayer is mighty and effectual with God.
17. Preach shorter sermons - lose the padding and just give them straight law and Gospel.
18. Don't forget that union with God in Christ is what sanctification is all about.
19. Don't use a fake voice in the pulpit or leading the liturgy; "stained glass" voices merely irritate the flock.
and lastly:
20. If the royal priesthood of the baptized can exist only by the continual forgiveness of sins, remember that the office of the holy ministry can continue to exist only in exactly the same way. Therefore, preach Jesus and the forgiveness that is in Him, and believe what you preach.