Who Needs an Executive Pastor Anyway?

Called and anointed leaders have served as shepherds of their congregations since the early church. Some would say even as early as Jesus’ charge to Peter to “Feed my sheep.” (John 21:15-18)

Executive pastors, in contrast, have been around for a mere 40 years. (It was in the early to mid-eighties when the concept began to catch traction.)

The role was in response to a need caused by the modern church growth movement (1970’s) where churches for the first time were growing to the hundreds of attenders and many growing beyond 1,000 in attendance. By the early 1980’s hundreds of churches had broken the code to pass 1,000.

The Senior Pastor could no longer effectively keep up with all the demands of staff, ministry design and leadership development, and at the same time — cast vision, remain fresh and creative in communication, cultivate stewardship and generosity etc. There became a need, in a manner of speaking, to divide the Senior Pastor’s job in half.

It was still a relatively new idea in comparison to the long-standing concept of the shepherd as the spiritual overseer of the flock. Variations of the executive pastor role continue to evolve as the church changes to meet the needs of growth and culture.

Understanding the role and whether or not you need an executive pastor begins with clarity of definition.

The best starting place is to separate what is often combined – that is, the church Business Administrator (in very large churches more commonly known as CFO or Director of Operations) and the Executive Pastor.

Business Administrator or Executive Pastor?

The following seven points will serve as a general job description for the Business Administrator. (Director of Operations)

Each church can adjust the title and responsibilities to meet their own needs and align with the gifts and skills of the person hired.   

Director of Operations:

1. Church finances
2. Buildings and grounds
3. Information technology
4. General office management including insurance and some HR, such as the Employee Handbook.
5. Security and safety
6. Legal matters
7. Special projects

In contrast, the Executive Pastor (hereafter as XP) takes on more the role of staff coach and director of ministries. Depending on the size of your church, the XP may have some additional responsibilities including a primary ministry role.

The role of Executive Pastor is relatively new compared to (Lead) Pastors who have served as shepherds of their congregations since the early church. How do you know if you need one?

When to Hire

If your church does not yet average close to 1,200 in attendance, it’s probably a little too soon for you to have an XP. This is not a dogmatic number, but it is a well-tested guideline.

If under 1,200 it’s certainly too soon to have an XP that does not also carry at least one primary ministry responsibility other than specific XP roles.

When churches hire an XP too soon, they often ask the person to do both the role of business administrator and XP. This makes sense financially because you can’t justify (or afford) two salaries, but you will likely run into a common problem.

The person you have in that dual role is better suited for either Director of Operations or XP, but not both. This may be okay when the church is smaller, for example, from 750 to 1,000, but as you approach 1,200 or so, it’s not the weight of all the work that will get you in trouble, it’s that he or she is not wired or gifted to do both.

You may think the solution is simple. When the church crosses 1,200 — 1,300 or so, hire the other role. It’s not that easy. In nearly every scenario I’ve consulted the incumbent is asked which role they want, and most often they choose XP. The problem is that in many cases they are better designed for the role of Director of Operations. Now you have an awkward situation.

If you are convinced you want these positions before 1,200 or so in attendance a better solution is to hire a part-time Director of Operations and a full-time XP who also carries additional significant ministry responsibilities.

The options for the XP to carry a major ministry role are areas such as leading the small group ministry or outreach or perhaps all the frontline ministries from ushers and greeters to parking lot attendants. The choice is based on need and gifting.

As the church grows, the XP hires staff and begins to delegate and empower those roles, and the Director of Operations slowly increases hours to a full-time role.

By the time you are averaging 1,800 in attendance, you are probably late in adding an XP to the team.

What does an XP Do?

From a macro point of view there are three primary areas of responsibility for an XP, all underneath the larger umbrella of serving the senior pastor by removing major responsibilities from his plate.

Director of Staff and Ministries: (XP)

1) Chief of Staff / Staff Coach – Taking responsibility for staff morale, culture, hiring, training and development, teamwork, performance, salary administration, etc.

(Depending on the size of the church, some of these areas are done in partnership with the senior pastor.)

2) Ministry design and implementation – Taking responsibility for leading the strategic design of the ministries the church does (and does not do,) evaluation and continual improvement of those ministries, systems and processes, monitoring stats, etc., in alignment with the vision of the church.

The primary ministry areas are generally: Spiritual formation, Outreach, Next Gen (children’s and student ministry), Worship and production, and Hospitality / Front Line ministries.

As the church grows (typically passed 2,000 – 3,000) in attendance, it begins to slowly add key staff to oversee areas such as Human Resources, Communications, Marketing, Social Media … and trust me, the list goes on…

3) Leadership development – Taking responsibility for staff development, and if this is a sweet spot for the XP’s gifting, also taking ownership of leadership development for volunteers as well. (Staff development is repeated from #1, but it’s such a large and significant responsibility it needs to be recognized on its own.)

Executive Pastors are not primarily administrators. They serve as pastor to shepherd, pray for and coach the staff; and give leadership to the ministries of the church.

When you add general problem solving, and any request of the senior pastor for specific ministry initiatives to the three stated areas of primary responsibility, this becomes a robust job description as your church climbs up to and over 2,000 in attendance. 

When I joined the team at 12Stone, we were averaging about 1,400 in attendance. The way our former senior pastor Kevin Myers, (now Founding Pastor) describes the transition is that he gave me half of his job.

Pastor Kevin was then able to invest his time and energy more deeply into prayer and hearing from God, overall vision and leadership, primary communication of weekend messages, developing stewardship, and passion for evangelism.

An Executive Pastor should free up the Lead Pastor to invest more time and energy into prayer and overall vision and leadership of the church. 

When a church should not pursue an XP:

• If the church is not large enough.
• If the senior pastor has difficulty releasing authority and empowering.
• If the church has recently selected or is in the process of hiring a new senior pastor.
• If the senior pastor views staff development as a “non-essential.”
• If the board sees this as an answer to jump-starting a church that has plateaued or in decline.
• If the senior pastor has lost interest in most things other than preaching.
• If the church seeks a solution for a pastor who is highly focused on ministries outside of the church.
• If the church board or senior pastor sees it as an answer to resolving relational conflict.

Good reasons to pursue an XP:

• The demands (scope and breadth) of the ministry have grown significantly due to the increasing size of the church.
• The pressure is rising, things are falling through the cracks, and the pastor is not able to focus and develop their greater gifts.
• The senior pastor is wired to delegate and empower authority and major responsibilities to see the church continue to grow.
• The staff and ministries would benefit in clear and measurable ways from the addition of an XP.
• You sense God’s favor on the idea.

An Executive Pastor can be of great value to your church, if you hire the right person, at the right time, for the right reasons.

Of course, much more detail could be presented, but this is a great starting point of conversation and consideration of an XP.

You will need to figure out what works for you, but these tried and true, field-tested thoughts can help you make a good decision as you consider the role of an XP.

One additional note:

Depending on the preference of the Lead Pastor and the gifting of the XP, as the church continues to grow into the many thousands, there often comes a point where the job is too big for one XP.

This usually introduces the idea of a newly selected Lead Team of which there are many options for structure. Sometimes comprised of several XP’s or Director level leaders over significant areas of responsibilities.