Executive Pastor–Church of 3,500
Reports to: Senior Pastor (sometimes reports to the governing board)
Direct Reports: Strategy Team, Operations Team, HR, Assistant Executive Pastors, Executive Assistant
Scope
The Senior Pastor is the preaching and directional leader of the church and the Executive […]
Executive Director of Ministries
I. Title
Executive Director of Ministries (also known as Executive Pastor)
II. Reports to
Senior Pastor
III. Role
Operating as an extension of the Senior Pastor, sharing the vision and responsibilities to manage and direct the implementation of the vision […]
Executive Pastor of Valley Community Baptist Church in Avon, Connecticut, 1,400 in worship
Executive Summary
In January 1976, a small group of dedicated Christians began to meet for prayer and discussion about starting an evangelical church in the Farmington Valley, a suburb of Hartford, Connecticut. After five weeks of […]
Executive Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Lindenwold, New Jersey 8,000 in worship
General Summary
To assist the Senior Pastor in the operations, managing and teaching of the church. Reports to Senior Pastor.
Primary Function #1—Ministry Management
Supporting Goals
Oversee and manage the ministry branch of the church. Departments include Youth, Volunteer, […]
When You Leave, Don’t Burn Bridges
February 13, 2018
Hey David … When you recently moved on from your church, you sent out a “keeping you in the loop” email. It was short, factual, upbeat and didn’t throw anyone under the bus. […]
Defining Church Interns
February 10, 2018
Hey David … Do you have anything on internships. What to expect out of an intern and expectations of me as the Student Pastor?
DRF—We don’t have much in the way of job descriptions. […]
Am I Underpaid?
January 29, 2018
Hey Fletch … I’m trying to get a handle on my compensation. Is it fair? Am I underpaid? Please give some advice on comparable salaries for my role.
DRF—There are some great online tools […]
Creating a Ministry Description
January 27, 2018
Hey Doc … My Presiding Bishop is looking to create a role for someone to visit churches inside and outside our organization. This person would stand in for the Bishop when he is […]
Job Description—Executive Pastor—Sample
XPastor has collected various job descriptions from churches, to aid you in preparing job descriptions for yourself or others on your staff. Below is a sample job description that David Fletcher put together, a compilation of […]
Salaries in the Pacific Northwest
January 22, 2018
Hey Prof … This is a hard question. Can you give me some guidance on what kind of salary I might expect as a Senior Pastor of a church in the Pacific Northwest? […]
XP Ministry Description, Church of 750
January 20, 2018
Hey Doc … I’m reviewing my ministry description as an XP. I’m in a church of 750. Can you give any input on it. 25% is Finance & HR, 25% is Working with […]
Want to Reach Millennials? Hire Millennials.
I have seen article after article about how to reach millennials in church, how to speak to them, how to create events for them … it just goes on and on. One thing […]
The XP and a Senior Pastor Transition, Fletch & Neil Miller
Below is a video from the Monday Morning Church Podcast, where Neil Miller interviews Executive Pastor David Fletcher. From David’s experience of being without a Senior Pastor for twenty months, he describes ten steps […]
Volunteer Hiring
Even this title, Volunteer Hiring, probably gets a lot of strange looks and you can hear the words, “You don’t hire volunteers, they volunteer. Their help is a service and a gift to you.” Their […]
Survival Skills for Managing Moral Failures Among Your Leaders
Ministry is more than numbers. Yet church leaders are, by nature, scorekeepers. We use dashboards to evaluate how well we’re doing at church. We use numbers to get to know one another at conferences. What […]
Church Staffing Firms: What Are the Options?
The church is not properly educated when it comes to understanding what their options are in hiring a pastoral staffing firm. Until recently, there was really only one option: Retained Pastoral Search Firms. Understanding the […]
A Preferred Hiring Path
Do you have a preferred path for making a hire at your church? Everything works better with a plan, including the selection of your next team member. The author of this article wrote up these […]
Four Ways to Turn Off Pastoral Candidates
The hiring process of a new pastor or ministry director is like going to a school dance. When you know the candidate, the process is like a high school dance; if you don’t, then the […]
Why the Apostle Paul Could Not Work at Your Church Today
“I wasn’t able to lead my church during the Christmas Eve service this year.”
It was just a few short weeks into the New Year and I was with a pastor friend from a neighboring community. […]
Should You Hire From Inside or Outside the Church?
Whether you should hire from within or outside the church when a staff position becomes available is a common question. Truth is, there is no right or wrong answer. Watch this video as David Lyons, Founder […]
Personnel Policies and Procedures
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and church policies. Below is the Personnel Policies and Procedures from Parma Heights Baptist […]
Five Common Search Committee Mistakes
In churches, universities and nonprofits across the country, search committees gather with high hopes and the intention to see a great leader chosen to lead their organization. None set out to fail, but in our […]
Necessary Endings
Necessary Endings is a “necessary” read for every church leader, regardless of denominational stripe. While the author and internationally renowned Dr. Henry Cloud […]
Leaving a Ministry You Love
I recently took a new ministry position. As I made the decision to change ministries, I went back and forth since I would be leaving a place and people that I love! Note: If you […]
Living in the Hallway is a Nightmare!
Recently I came across an uncommon word in my reading that I had never seen or heard before—“liminal.” After looking it up, I discovered it is a great definition of a common condition we all […]
How to “Fire” a Church Volunteer
One question I frequently receive when talking about recruiting and retaining church volunteers is what to do about a volunteer who isn’t working out. In other words, how do you “fire” a volunteer? This is obviously […]
Fact: Insurance Costs a Lot and Can Be Very Complicated
I should preface this review of a somewhat painful education with the proclamation that some of the people I enjoy most in the world are insurance agents and brokers. With that said, I think I […]
Leading from the Second Chair—Depression Inside the Church
I was a young 20-something, eager to get ahead, and interviewing for a promotion to Project Manager. My boss at the time gave me this little bit of wisdom as she described the role, “You’ll […]
Employee Handbook
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and church policies. Below is the Employee Handbook from Foothills Christian Church in El Cajon, […]
Where Shall I Focus My Attention?
At the start of the XPastor Online Course on Operations 101–Staffing, I had been in my current role as Director of Ministry Operations at Calvary Bible Church for fourteen months. Calvary is a multi-campus church […]
Human Resource Policy
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and church policies. Below is the Human Resource Policy from Seven Mile Road Church in […]
Personnel Policies
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and church policies. Below are the Personnel Policies from […]
Opportunity Profile
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and church policies. Below is the Opportunity […]
Salary Grid Example
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and policies. Below is a sample of a Salary Grid from a church […]
Should You Hire From Within?
Thinking of hiring internally? When a church needs to fill a staff position, one of the first questions is always, “Do we want to hire someone from somewhere else, or do we want to hire […]
News Release: Succession Planning Video Library
Are you a ministry leader looking for practical insight and direction on the topic of succession planning? If so, I would like to make you aware of a new resource offered by Succession Framework℠. They […]
Stress Relief for Pastors and Leaders
Does it feel like helping others is sometimes hurting you more? Are you taking deliberate steps to manage stress in your life? Everyone experiences stress. Even good events like weddings, births, and graduations create stressful conditions. […]
Questions for the New Year
The New Year brings new opportunities to focus our lives on what and who matters most. In my mentoring and consulting practice, I am working with my clients this month, helping them talk through their […]
How to Deliver Bad News
We all love to deliver good news—a successful event, a budget overage, finishing a building project early and under budget, or a ministry initiative that exceeded expectations. But what do you do when you need […]
Sabbatical Policy
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and policies. Below is the 2005 Sabbatical Policy of the Westminster Church of […]
Sabbatical Policy
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and church policies. Below is the Sabbatical Policy from Bel Air Presbyterian Church […]
Five Commandments of Pastoral Succession Planning
The truth is that we are all interim pastors. There will come a day when you are no longer the pastor of your church. The key to a successful pastoral succession plan is to start […]
Five Reasons to Avoid Questionnaires When Hiring
Do you like filling out questionnaires? I don’t. The only time I fill them out is when I have no other choice. But what about when it comes to hiring? Is it a good idea […]
Staff Compensation
Determining how to compensate your church staff is not an easy task and we can easily find ourselves at one of two extremes. We can treat our church staff the same way many businesses treat […]
How to Develop an Effective Employee Handbook
In this webinar, Fletch interviewed Eric Rojas, the XP of Christ Community Church, a multisite, 5 campus church of 5,500 in the western suburbs of Chicago. Eric has been on staff at CCC for almost […]
The Termination Process
Understanding that termination is a difficult process to execute, we as human beings never want to engage in those conversations. But before even approaching the process of termination, I looked through Scripture and found countless […]
The Hiring Process
One of the most exciting and challenging aspects of working together in a staff context is finding the right hire to fill an open position. The excitement comes from understanding that the staff group/team is […]
True Confessions of a Decent Horse
“My good Horse, you’ve lost nothing but your self-conceit. No, no, cousin. Don’t put back your ears and shake your mane at me. If you are really so humbled as you sounded a minute ago, […]
Planning to Weather the Storm
The only good thing I can say about hurricanes is, unlike many other of nature’s forces, they give you some time to prepare. Preparation, however, means different things to different people—some stay, some evacuate, some shutter […]
A Ten Step Process for Hiring Church Staff
I’ve hired a handful of staff members in my time; however, I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that I’ve never committed the full process to paper—all in one place. After processing the XPastor Online Course material […]
Eight Ways to Respond When Facing Rejection
You will learn more about a person’s character when they face rejection than when they face success. It’s easy to feel enthusiastic, fearless, and prideful when we feel successful. However, being rejected or feeling defeated […]
Sabbatical On-Ramps and Off-Ramps
One of the keys to a successful sabbatical has nothing to do with what you do on your sabbatical itself, but everything to do with how you transition into and out of it. For twenty years I have […]
Staff Your Church for Growth
Gary McIntosh’s book, Staff Your Church for Growth, is ambitious in its broad coverage of topics related to developing a team to […]
Overtime and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
Do you believe in slavery? Because we believe in the dignity of all people, we have enacted various laws to protect our workers. Whether you want to read this article or not, you need to! […]
All Rise—Church Staffing
I am not an XP yet, but I do hope to be one when I grow up. In my pursuit of knowledge about the role and […]
Exited Pastors: The Ruined Landscape
I have lived through hurricanes. When I was much younger, growing up in Florida, there were several times when my family huddled together in our boarded-up home, lighting candles when the power went out and […]
Pastoral Review Plan and Forms
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and opportunity profiles. Below is the 2012 Pastoral Staff Evaluation Plan and forms […]
The Interview Process and Sample Questions
To get to the in-person stage of the interview process, the candidate has successfully gone through one or two phone interviews. Below are some ideas for how the in-person interviews should proceed. Included are some […]
The Spiritual Benefits of a Sabbatical—For the Servant and the Kingdom
Just the word Sabbatical conjures up all sorts of mystery. You might be contemplating whether you should take a sabbatical—if your church provides one for you. Perhaps you are thinking of asking for a sabbatical […]
Interviewing the Church … While They Interview You
I have worked at two different churches full-time and have learned, through my experiences, how and what to look for in a church. I do not consider myself to be an expert but want to […]
Overtime Pay in the Smartphone Era
The Fair Labor Standards Act exempts employees employed in an executive, administrative, or professional capacity from the minimum wage and overtime pay provisions. To be covered by one of these exemptions, an employee must perform […]
A Plan for Beating Burnout
Burnout is a major problem for many non-profit organizations, and it seems to be growing. Are volunteers just getting more lazy and irresponsible, or is there really something to burnout? Everyone gets tired once in awhile from hard […]