1,400 Articles from 325 Leaders
Listed from the most recent
A Believer’s Journey of Financial Sanctification
Every follower of Jesus has a before. The time when they do not know the Lord. Then, there is a moment when a person crosses from death into life, from self-rule into surrender. We [...]
Kairos or Chronos? The Question Every XP Needs to Ask
There's a moment most Executive Pastors know well. The budget is ready. The team is (mostly) aligned. The calendar says now is the time. And yet something feels… off. The church isn't ready. The [...]
Negotiating Church Contracts Is a Stewardship Issue
Church leaders are often careful with large expenses like building projects, staffing plans, and major ministry initiatives. Many churches quietly lose money in smaller monthly contracts that renew year after year. Copier leases, online [...]
Is the Minister’s Housing Allowance Now a Bum Deal?
Synopsis This article tests the common belief that the Ministerial Housing Allowance is a major tax windfall for pastors. The process ran dozens of 2017 and 2025 tax scenarios, comparing pastors with similarly paid [...]
The Staff Member Most Likely to Quit Without Telling You Why
A few years ago, a church I served brought on a new operations leader based on a strong recommendation. He came from construction, where he had built a reputation for finishing projects ahead of [...]
Is Your Church Website Ready for AI Search?
Something Has Changed The year was 2004, and my wife and I were filling out paperwork to take home our very first cell phone. The helpful assistant asked if we wanted to add texting [...]
How to Clean and Care for Your Church Baptistry: A Complete Maintenance Guide
This is the best article on baptistries that I have ever seen. First, every XP should read this article to understand and appreciate the work of the facility manager, and to know the risks [...]
What is the Role of Your Church Board?
Giving Caeser what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s My family loved the growing church in Wisconsin we were attending in 2001. One day the senior pastor pulled me aside and asked, [...]
Helping Your Senior Pastor Finish Well
One of the most strategic—and often overlooked—things you can do as an Executive Pastor is help your Senior Pastor get to the finish line well. I get a particular kind of phone call several [...]
The Executive Pastor’s Guide to FMLA: Managing Risk with Mission-Minded Stewardship
For the Executive Pastor, leadership is often a balancing act between the business of the church and caring for its members. Few things test this balance like the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). For [...]
Church Donors Get a New Federal Tax Break in 2026
On the federal Form 1040, Americans generally have two choices when filing taxes: take the standard deduction or itemize deductions. Many American tax filers do not itemize and, therefore, did not receive a tax [...]
Understanding Federal Requirements for Church Vehicles
A church in Texas was traveling with 34 passengers on a multi-passenger bus when tragedy struck. An accident occurred, resulting in fatalities and severe injuries to church members. But the nightmare didn’t end with [...]
Starting Scripts To Have Courageous—and Crucial—Conversations
This article was originally written as a follow-up to a talk called, Facing the Elephants with a room full of Executive Pastors at the XP-Seminar. But whether you lead a church, nonprofit, team, or [...]
5 Warning Signs of Leader Burnout
Burnout is a real risk for many pastors and ministry executives. In an effort to satisfy external or self-made expectations for advancing the Kingdom, leaders may consciously or unconsciously make tradeoffs against their holistic [...]
Why Healthy Churches Still Feel Disorganized
Understanding the Hidden Architecture Shaping Ministry Introduction In a previous article, Architectural Leadership: The Missing Discipline in Executive Pastoral Ministry, I introduced the idea of architectural leadership—the discipline of designing the underlying structures that [...]
Dreams of Serving Others and the Origins of XPastor
If you have a dream for how to help others, get started. Do it! That’s what Fletch did in 2003 when he launched XPastor. Phil Taylor and Tyler Drewitz interviewed Fletch to talk about [...]
You’re the One to Start the Succession Conversation
How Executive Pastors Can Help Each Type of Senior Pastor Begin the Smart Succession Process There's a conversation happening in churches all across the country, or more accurately, a conversation that needs to happen [...]
Implementing Great Ideas After a Conference
Did anything change after that Conference? That is Tim Samuel’s question. He has attended the XP-Seminar for many years. Tim offers a practical perspective about coming back from any event and trying to implement [...]
Using Fletch’s Compensation Pyramid
An excellent Compensation Study needs methodology. I developed the XPastor Compensation Pyramid to provide rock solid methodology. Just as I use the pyramid in XPastor Compensation Studies I perform for various congregations, churches around [...]
Finding Real Encouragement: A Battle Plan for Your Soul
The enemy has a strategy, and it’s devastatingly simple. If he can get us discouraged, he can get us disappointed. If he can get us disappointed, he can get us distracted. If he can [...]
Hiring an Auditor for Your Church
Last year, I was on a call with a church leader who told me, confidently, We get an audit every year. As we talked, I asked a practical question: Do you have a plan [...]
How to Write a Resume That Church Leaders Actually Want to Read
I’ve read a lot of resumes over the years. Usually late at night, between meetings, or with a half-cold cup of coffee nearby. And here’s what I’ve learned: most resumes don’t fail because the person [...]
Be as Ingenious as a VW Bug
You face issues, complications and problems all the time in your church. It’s not a question of whether they will be solved; you have to solve them for ministry to go forward. It’s a [...]
Architectural Leadership: The Missing Discipline in Executive Pastoral Ministry
Introduction I remember sitting alone in my office late one evening after another long staff meeting had ended in quiet frustration. No one had said anything unkind. No one had raised their voice. Yet [...]