The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
We're all about helping create a healthy, positive, and spiritually positive environment for church staff members and leadership teams.
The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Should You Hire an Executive Pastor?
Ever wondered how your church could operate more efficiently and grow more sustainably? On this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, Todd Rhoades uncovers the pivotal role of an executive pastor (XP) in church leadership. Learn about the diverse responsibilities that XPs shoulder, from overseeing day-to-day operations to implementing the senior pastor's vision, and how their specialized skills in finance or HR can be a game-changer for your church. We'll discuss the benefits, such as freeing up the senior pastor’s time and enhancing your church’s capacity for growth, as well as potential drawbacks like the cost of hiring an XP and the importance of clearly defined roles.
But that's not all—we're also diving into how to build a dynamic church leadership team that empowers your staff and aligns with your mission. Todd shares valuable insights and practical advice on fostering a leadership environment that nurtures growth and ensures mission fulfillment. Plus, you can always reach out to Todd directly at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com for personalized support. Tune in for a comprehensive guide that will help you determine if an executive pastor is the right fit for your church and how to cultivate a thriving leadership team.
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Hi there, welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom, and I am happy and honored to be your host here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Thanks for joining me today. We're here every day, monday through Friday, for about five to seven minutes of just some one-on-one talk, just you and me talking about church leadership things, staffing, any kind of thing that hopefully you'll find interesting as you work in your church setting. This may apply to you, it may not, but we're going to talk about the executive pastor role and whether or not your church should have an executive pastor role. Oftentimes we call this probably just at least I do, maybe just because I'm lazy executive pastor has I just counted them out six syllables. So sometimes we just call it XP for executive pastor and it's relatively the XP or operations pastor, but different kinds of XP's and executive pastors. Every church has a different job description for an executive pastor, so this is going to be a very 30,000 foot level, but overall, most of the time executive pastors take more of a day-to-day operational role. A lot of times they'll manage staff. A lot of times they will be in charge of implementing the senior pastor's vision. Some executive pastor roles are much more operational, doing facilities and finance and kind of non-ministry, but more business-oriented things. Other executive pastors are more the chief of staff, kind of head of ministry carrying out the senior pastor vision role. So there are many different types of executive pastors and XPs. But today's question is really, if your church doesn't have an XP, is maybe this the next hire that you should make? What are some of the potential benefits, maybe some drawbacks, to having this role added to your leadership team? So let's dive right in and explore some of these X factors of XPs.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's talk first of all about a few of the benefits of having an executive pastor, and a lot of times churches will say when should I have an executive pastor? We're 200, we're 300, we're 500. I think it varies. Most churches larger, I would say, than five or 600. Most churches have they might not call it an executive pastor, but they have someone that kind of does the role of an executive pastor. Now, anywhere between two and 500 is usually where we see churches maybe for the first time, saying, hey, this might be really beneficial. So this is really who I'm talking to here.
Speaker 1:If you don't have an executive pastor and you're thinking about hiring one. Here's some potential benefits. Number one if you're the senior pastor, you're probably the one advocating for an XP because it's going to free up some of your time. An XP can handle administrative tasks and staff management and operational details and that really allows, if you're the senior pastor, more to focus on the preaching and teaching and division casting and pastoral care those kind of things. The other thing NXP does is he or she can bring some very specialized skills. A lot of times XPs have expertise in areas like finance or HR, project management, strategic planning. That can be invaluable really for a growing church. A lot of churches are hiring XPs out of the business world because those type of candidates with that type of experience are maybe filling a gap that church really needs filled. So that's an option for when you do decide to look for an executive pastor. Another reason they provide some leadership and some support. So an XP can provide some leadership to staff. They can mentor some younger leaders and offer a sounding board for the senior pastor. They can also enhance your church's capacity for growth Just by taking some of the senior pastor. They can also enhance your church's capacity for growth Just by taking some of the senior pastor's responsibility. An executive pastor can help free up some of that capacity for the church to expand both its ministries and its impact. Okay, so those are the positives, but okay, this is a big but.
Speaker 1:Before you rush out and hire an executive pastor, here's some potential things you should think about as far as maybe some potential drawbacks. And first of all is cost. Obviously, you're adding another person to your team, so there's going to be some costs associated with that, but executive pastors typically command a higher salary than most other staff members other than the senior pastor. So it's really important to consider first of all, look at your budget. Can your church afford this additional expense? And many churches can't until you get to a certain budget level. So make sure that you check your budget.
Speaker 1:Second potential drawback is the potential for conflict. If roles and responsibility of the senior pastor and executive pastor are not clearly defined, it can lead to confusion and power struggles and even conflict. And I'm going to add even something more to that the potential for conflict is there if there's not a good match personally between the senior pastor and the executive pastor. These two people are going to have to work hand in hand, and really they're going to be partners in crime for leading the church. So if there's any kind of personality conflicts or any kind of competition between the senior pastor and the executive pastor, that can be a real drawback. And then finally, just consider that there could be a change in dynamics. Adding an executive pastor can significantly change the leadership dynamics of your church. It changes not only for the senior pastor but it changes for the rest of the staff as well, because now they've got almost like some middle management right. They've got other people besides the senior pastor that they have to talk to, maybe report to. So it's important to prepare your staff, prepare your church members and volunteers for this transition as well, so that everybody understands those new roles and responsibilities.
Speaker 1:All right, so how do you know, todd? I hear you asking me, todd how do you know if an executive pastor is right for my church? There's no one size fits all, but here are just a couple things to consider and then I'll do my bottom line for today and I'll get you out of here. But the first one we already mentioned is is your church large enough to justify the expense of an XP Generally churches with a staff of 10 or more in a budget over a million dollars might benefit from an XP, and I find that maybe the budget is maybe a better indicator than staff size or even church size, just from a financial standpoint. If your church is under a million, it might in an annual budget.
Speaker 1:It might be really difficult for you to be able to include an executive pastor in your budget. Here's the other consideration I would say If you're the senior pastor, are you willing to delegate some of that authority and trust another person in your decision making? If you're a leader that likes to hold things tight-fisted and not willing to delegate or give up some authority and to trust other people, then an executive pastor it may not be a good plan for you. It might be something that you really need to consider. Okay, so here's the bottom line Hiring an executive pastor absolutely hear me here.
Speaker 1:It absolutely can be a game changer for churches that are ready for it. But it's not a decision that you make lightly. You need to carefully weigh the pros and cons and seek wise counsel, and if you need some wise counsel and you're just teetering back and forth one day, yeah, man, I'd love to have an executive pastor, the next day, no, I don't need one. If you'd like to have some professional guidance to help you walk through the pros and cons, I'd love to help you do that. You can reach out to me anytime about this or any kind of other staffing or hiring, firing, those kind of decisions that you need to make and just need an outside set of eyes and ears on your situation.
Speaker 1:Reach out to me anytime. I'd love to chat with you. My email address is podcast at chemistry staffing. I'm here to help you. However, I can build a leadership team and a staff that will empower your church to both thrive and fulfill its mission. So I'm here for you. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Okay, thanks so much for listening. Hope you'll join us again tomorrow, right back here on the healthy church staff podcast.
