Executive Pastor Trends

I had a conversation the other day with a young man doing research into Executive Pastors. A long time ago I wrote a paper as a result of a meeting we had with a dozen Senior Pastors/Executive Pastor combinations and we discussed the roles and responsibilities for both roles. We dashed off a paper to provide some insights to other churches.

Since then that paper has been quoted around in lots of other places, dissertations and the like. If I would have known that, I would have taken more time with it.

The question the other day was: How do I see the Executive pastor role changing?

My answer is that the role is changing away from the "classic" formulation of Senior Pastor/Executive Pastor combination to strong Execuitve Team combinations with Lead Pastor and multiple persons in Executive roles.

There are still plenty of churches hiring and formulating the single Executive Pastor roles but the shift is moving toward the broader team. Why?

Rougly I see three things at play:

1. The Senior Pastor/Directional Leader role is the one that has really changed. More large churches are really channeling that role more to the communication/vision gifts than the management gifts. With that recognition, that has increased the need for more administrative giftings in the broader team.

2. There is a cultural/organizational shift in the broader culture (at least in the Americas) toward broader teams. It is reflected in business/academia and the wider not for profit world as well as the church. It is not that one leads the other but that the that leaders across these organizations see the need for a broader leadership core.

3. As staff sizes grow, the need for good coaching and supervision and support increases, not decreases. So the spans of supervision need more capacity instead of less. Thus broader teams.

Of course, I may be all wet here, so feel free to hit the comment button and challenge me here and let's talk about it.

More tomorrow on some other church visits back in February.

Comments

[David Copeland]

I believe this is the Spirit shifting us back to the complete use of the five- fold ministry

[Rob Reimer]

Can you tell me some churches that are using this model? Are there any resources out there on it? I've been thinking about going this way, and would like to do some vicarious learning. Thanks.

[Gene Fidell]

How can I access various Executive Pastor positon descriptions?