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 Senior […]
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 times a […]
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 […]
There’s a conversation happening in churches all across the country, or more accurately, a conversation that needs to happen but often […]
Transitions are no longer occasional disruptions. They are becoming the defining leadership challenge of the next decade. Founder exits, board assertiveness, identity collapse, marketplace crossover, and rising leader isolation are reshaping what change looks […]
… with Clarity, Confidence, and Spiritual Wisdom
Based on his extensive coaching experience with church succession and over 1,000 interviews with Senior Pastors and Successors, he has identified common missteps that can be easily avoided with a bit […]
Ministering as an XP, Dr. Nathan Baxter loved ten hours of his job. Those one-on-ones with staff fueled him; the rest of his responsibilities slowly emptied him. Naming that truth started a two-year journey out […]
Most churches wait too long to talk about transition, specifically succession. Momentum stalls, relationships fray, or a beloved leader quietly burns out. […]
I read a book in 1999 that posed this question: What are the odds you will finish well? I have never forgotten how it impacted me. I went on to develop a leadership coaching model […]
Dave has coached 72 large churches through Senior Pastor Smart Succession.™ Plus he has had meaningful conversations with 500 more churches in the area of succession and transition. […]
Executive Pastors often face the difficult task of making staff employment decisions that can impact the entire church community. A mismanaged transition can lead to division, loss of trust, and diminished ministry effectiveness. […]
The number 1 resource that Executive Pastors manage is human resources. The top two keys to stewarding human resources is how we hire and fire. In part 2 of this webinar, we will […]
The number 1 resource that Executive Pastors manage is human resources. The top two keys to stewarding human resources is how we hire and fire. In this webinar we will talk about the […]
The decision to let a pastor go is never an easy one. But once the decision has been made, it’s important to handle the situation with grace, dignity, and respect. After all, this is a […]
What has changed since Covid on Pastor Succession? What are the biggest mistakes and traps that do-it-yourselfers in this process tend to make?
The webinar will address these topics and:
A question that lingers in the hallways of church offices and in the hearts of some pastors is, “Is there life after vocational ministry?” We know ministry work […]
Feuding Cripples Church— That headline was plastered on page 1 of the city newspaper. By a 17-6 margin, the deacons and trustees had voted the pastor out. […]
Growing up in Southern California had its constants—the eternally pleasant 75-degree weather, the ever-congested freeways, and the notoriously high cost of living that always seemed to outpace a pastoral salary. It also had its unpredictability—the […]
When I was a pastor, I would have days where I thought I was the luckiest person on earth. Standing in front of a couple renewing their wedding vows, preaching a message I was passionate […]
Pathbreaker Pastors and their churches deserve to see ministry momentum multiplied through a planned pastor succession process. Sadly, that rarely happens with churches and pastors that do it themselves. Why is that?
Dave Travis […]
Church transitions are difficult, but they don’t have to be destructive. No one gets into church leadership to scatter the sheep. They often want the best for the church and its members, but the transition […]
Pastoral Succession has been a taboo topic for far too long, but the truth is that every pastor is an interim pastor. Whether you are ready or not, succession is going to happen. […]
Lots of Senior and Lead Pastors are thinking about succession. In the next five years, pivotal leadership in your church could change. How you approach a succession can be the difference between sailing […]
A blanket of sadness covered the office that Thursday as we waited anxiously to know whose names would be called. It was eerily quiet for […]
The line from the Apollo 13 movie comes to mind: Houston, we have a problem. Many high-profile minister failings can be traced back to the board not holding the senior pastor accountable. This isn’t […]
Join Fletch and Dave Travis for this fascinating topic. Dave has a vast perspective on how to build a productive legacy season in seven areas of life. He knows why it’s important to […]
For some long-term senior pastors under 60 years old and now planning to hand over leadership over the next few years. On the other extreme are those Senior Pastors, even over normal retirement ages who […]
We’ve all been there. We’ve heard bosses, supervisors and even friends fumble, stumble and ramble when attempting to bring bad or difficult news to someone. Whether it’s a team or an entire company, a whole […]
Leadership transitions are crucial. A successful handoff propels an organization forward in its vision and strategies. Rocky transitions cause multitudes of ongoing issues, from which some organizations never recover. This is true for […]
One day, you may have the conversation. This is one of those ultimate conversations in your ministry life. It may come out of the blue. You may have some signs it is coming. You may […]
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 […]
Necessary Endings is a “necessary” read for every church leader, regardless of denominational stripe. While the author and internationally renowned Dr. Henry Cloud intended this volume to promote personal and professional growth, it could have […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 are Exit Interview Questions from Old North Church of Canfield, Ohio that they […]
Nothing jolts a church quite like the resignation of its senior pastor. Shock, disbelief, confusion, disappointment. And that’s just the get-go of the attending reactions and emotions. While the inner circle of leadership may see […]
Did you ever play Pickle as a kid? You know the game—the one where you run between two bases while the baseman tries to throw you out. There were always some kids that would never […]
Jeff Jones succeeded Gene Getz—the founder of the Bible Fellowship Church movement—as the Senior Pastor of the Bible Fellowship Church in Dallas. Their transition was a smooth, well-planned process. Below are some thoughts from Jeff […]
One of the greatest challenges in the business world is the exit of the founder of a corporation. Consider the words of Professor Noam Wasserman of the Harvard Business School: “My research focuses on founder frustrations in […]
In the year 1990, when Nicholas Smith was 8 years old, Bethany Baptist Church of Lindenwold, New Jersey had 29 active members. In the year 2003, Bethany Baptist had 16,500 members, Nicholas was 23 years old and […]
Bob had all the marks of a hurting pastor. I sat across the coffee shop table and hurt with him. He had recently finished his first year in Judson Church and celebrated the congregation’s fiftieth […]
For the past two months, I have been coaching several XPs who have been asked to resign their positions. Transition is never easy and usually makes the honor roll for experiencing pain and suffering in […]
Executive Pastors get excited about the opportunity to flex their catalyst muscles to launch ministries in the church. But most tend to lose enthusiasm when it comes time to do some pruning. Ministries are living […]
On a family trip out west, my family and I were traveling home for Christmas. After four hours of traveling, we heard a loud noise outside the car. We were traveling at seventy miles per […]
I had serviced my second congregation a long time, when I began asking myself, “How do I know when it’s time to leave?” I had friends who were very good pastors, but they didn’t know when […]
