5 Challenges of Replacing a Long-Tenured Pastor

What will it take to replace a long-tenured pastor? How long will it take? What will happen to the church during that transition? The fear of the transition often less to paralysis and the fear of talking about succession.

Come and hear how you can help your church prepare for the challenges ahead to avoid potential potholes in this journey.

Eric Albert is an Executive Search Consultant with Vanderbloemen. Eric has more than 22 years of pastoral ministry experience. He has served on staff at Forest Glen Christian Conference Center, The Woodlands United Methodist Church in the Woodlands and most recently at Second Baptist Church in Houston. He has experience in a variety of aspects of ministry including summer camps, worship planning, and teaching. As an Executive Search Consultant, Eric works directly with churches, guiding them through Vanderbloemen’s extensive search process to find the right staff for their church. He focuses on discovering the unique DNA of the church and matching that DNA with candidates who possess the skills and gifts they need to help the church accomplish its mission.

5 Steps To Creating A Culture of Leadership Development

7 Numbers Every XP Should Know

8 Significant Megachurch Trends from ECFA’s Megachurch 2020 Report

The Church and It’s 5 Real Estate Choices: Considering Post-COVID Trends and the Implications on “Place and Space”

The cost of facilities over the long-run of 40-60 years is easily one of the Churches most expensive parts of their ministry. In his latest book, Entrusted—A Guide to Intentional Church Facility Stewardship, Tim Cool shares a startling reality in the chapter entitled The Real Cost of Ownership. The initial capital cost of a 30,000 square foot facility with a cost of $5.4 million results in a life-cycle cost to the church over 40 years close to $21 million.

The journey through 2020 and mapping out where the Church is headed in 2021 has not been for the faint at heart! Many leaders are spotting new trends in ministry that could significantly accelerate the inefficiencies of existing church facilities, as well as impact the design of new builds and buildouts into the foreseeable future. In this session we will have a conversation outlining the pros and cons and trends of each of the ways a church can have a physical presence in a community. We will also consider together what a “trend-resistant” facility might look like.

In his role with Portable Church® as the Multiplication Specialist, Jeff Beachum comes along side church leaders who are engaged in various forms of physical multiplication. While he speaks to organizational development issues, his primary purpose is to help churches determine strategies for choosing new communities, choosing right property/facilities, and developing a balanced affordable portfolio of real estate. Jeff brings a rich background to his current role with Portable Church®. Armed with a business degree, Jeff worked in the commercial real estate appraisal profession both before and after serving number of years as pastor in the local church. Following service on a denominational leadership team, Jeff led the Indiana Commercial Board of Realtors for several years before being called back to his home state of Michigan.

Cyber Criminals in the Church: A Whopper of a Tale

In today’s world, not even the church is immune to cyberattacks. Our ministries are vulnerable to phishing, data theft, and even extortion. David will provide examples of damage and recovery from organizations just like yours and the ongoing efforts of federal agencies to prevent future attacks.

Learn ways to help protect your organization from such criminal behavior now and items to be considered for the digital footprints to come.

David Middlebrook advises his clients on a wide range of legal issues including corporate structure and governance, employment and volunteer practices, intellectual property, and compensation practices. He serves as outside general counsel to a number of nonprofit organizations, while many others use his services as special nonprofit corporate counsel. David also serves his clients in the role of literary and music agent and is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars on legal subjects affecting religious nonprofit organizations. He is an award-winning author and has published numerous articles on nonprofit topics.

Dream Stream: Four Ideas to Improve Your Live Stream

Bob Nahrstadt is Senior Design Engineer at Clark. As a teenager, Bob became interested in AV, taking used stereo and speaker components and building his own hi-fi system in his parents’ basement. After college, Bob worked for over 10 years in high technology sales, specifically Fortune 500 business software sales. For five of those years, he was a volunteer technical director at a small church in Chicago, where he was introduced to Clark. Bob has had many roles since joining the team in 2004. He started out as a Business Development Manager from Clark’s Chicago office, then moved to Atlanta to head up the engineering department. Today he continues to provide the entire engineering team with support, but he specializes in the front-end design of our video systems, and travels to project site for final commissioning and training.

 The First 90 Days

The first 90 days are a critical time for new hires to get onboarded and start well. Studies show that how you navigate this window of time will determine how quickly new staff members bring value to their new roles in the short term and add value to your team and organization in the long term.

This breakout will help you coach your new hire to contribute value sooner, build lasting trust, and establish a foundation of long-term leadership results in your ministry or organization. If you plan on hiring new staff in 2021 and beyond, this breakout is for you!

Chris Lagerlof serves as a Senior Level Associate in the Senior Associate and Nonprofit Division at Slingshot. Chris is a strategic thinker, project specialist and experienced leader. His passion is to help leaders and churches move forward by maximizing their focus, clarity and performance. Chris worked for 17 years as a Pastor and Champion of several ministries at Mariners Church in Irvine, California. Chris also served as a Regional Catalyst for Christ Together and National Catalyst for Vision360. Chris and his team at Slingshot leverage their relationships and experience to deliver expert staffing and coaching focused on helping churches and nonprofits find clarity and movement. Chris lives in Irvine with his two daughters, Tessa and Mandy. Chris likes to golf, cook, snowboard, travel and tailgate with his family and friends at UCLA football games.

Growing a Generosity Movement

How to integrate a growing generosity movement of disciples in 2021 including how to work with your staff, Board and senior pastor to make happen.

Brad Leeper is the President and Principal of Generis Partners. His unique approach allows him to serve larger and growing churches with significant funding requirements. Brad has a strong understanding of the multi-site church strategy and other pioneering church movements. He is drawn to larger, innovative, growing churches and the challenges of helping them expand in the area of generosity practically and spiritually.

Growing your Capacity for Strong Leadership: Recruiting and Developing Volunteer Ministry Team and Small Group Leaders

You’ve heard it said, “so goes the leader, so goes the church.” While that’s true for staff leadership, it’s also true for volunteer leadership across your ministries and small groups. When your church releases a sufficient number of well-equipped volunteer leaders, your ministries can flourish, but without enough equipped leaders, your ministry will grind to a halt.

Drawing from Ryan’s research work on church leadership teams and small groups as well as insights from the best practices in training and development, this workshop will help you recruit and raise up leaders who can take your ministry to the next level of effectiveness and fruitfulness.

Dr. Ryan T. Hartwig is dean and professor at Colorado Christian University, and the author of Leading Small Groups That Thrive: Five Shifts to Take Your Group to the Next Level, and Teams That Thrive: Five Disciplines of Collaborative Church Leadership. Bringing a unique perspective as a teacher, researcher, and practitioner, he seeks to equip leadership teams and groups to thrive through his speaking, training, and consulting with church and non-profit organizations. Connect with Ryan at www.ryanhartwig.com or on Twitter at @rthartwig.

Hire Slow, Fire Fast: Increasing Your Talent Density & Retention

Give employees every opportunity to succeed with highly selective hiring, proper onboarding and thorough training. Because when done well, those three mission-critical elements may take more time and effort on the front end – but the returns are well worth it. In time, employees will grow and evolve, and leaders will become more adept at fitting more pieces into the jigsaw puzzle, thoughtfully placing each employee exactly where they should be.

The end goal is not to simply hire people for the sake of hiring them; the goal is to hire them because it will move the church toward its goals and, ultimately, toward growth. If reaching your church’s goals is the end game, then why would you settle for someone who is available instead of the best person for the job? Simply put: You can have your cake and eat it, too—and this is how.

As the Vice President of Revenue for BELAY, Lisa Seal utilizes her experience in growth management across several industries to work with sales professionals, empowering them to achieve—and exceed—their targets and help organizations grow. It is her mission to encourage others so they may achieve all that they dream.

How Does Your Retirement Plan Rate?

When it comes to your organization, the decisions you make today will either improve or hinder the quality of life for your employees during their retirement. Join us to see how your retirement plan rates.

We at GuideStone® are here to help you and your employees along the journey to and through retirement.

Dixie Beard is Senior Business Development Manager at GuideStone.

How the XP can help lead in the Senior Pastor Succession Process

For long term Senior Pastors, the succession process is the third most expensive decisions that a church makes. Not only that, but messing it up has consequences for the whole congregation. Succession is different from search!

Since Executive Pastors tend to carry great implementation duties, they can add significant value to the Senior Pastor Succession process to help the whole church move forward.

This workshop covers 5 dangers and 5 contributions the XP can do to secure good results.

Dave Travis has a wealth of experience from pastoral ministry and the business world. He has worked as a pastor as well as consulted with many churches in different contexts. Through Leadership Network he has had the privilege of learning from many esteemed mentors. His involvement in this network has taken him all over the country to work with various ministries and with some of the country’s leading pastors. Dave earned a Masters of Divinity in Pastoral Ministry from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a B.S. in Management from Georgia Tech. He also did a short course at the Harvard Business School in Strategic Perspectives for Nonprofit Management. These accomplishments combined help Dave to offer a unique perspective for the churches with which he consults. Dave is the author of three published books and is a noted speaker and consultant to megachurches across the country.

How to Spot Burnout Before It’s Too Late

See that employee that is a bright shooting star? How to keep them on track but without letting the fire burn them. We have all seen it happen. Maybe it has happened to you.

Learn ways to spot tell-tell signs of burnout and how to help install healthy bumpers for your staff for health and longevity.

Eric Albert is an Executive Search Consultant with Vanderbloemen. Eric has more than 22 years of pastoral ministry experience. He has served on staff at Forest Glen Christian Conference Center, The Woodlands United Methodist Church in the Woodlands and most recently at Second Baptist Church in Houston. He has experience in a variety of aspects of ministry including summer camps, worship planning, and teaching. As an Executive Search Consultant, Eric works directly with churches, guiding them through Vanderbloemen’s extensive search process to find the right staff for their church. He focuses on discovering the unique DNA of the church and matching that DNA with candidates who possess the skills and gifts they need to help the church accomplish its mission.

Innovative Capital Funding

Innovative capital funding for your church: beyond the traditional campaign, exploring trends and options in funding your ministry expansion in 2021 and beyond. Includes how to develop major gifts in 2021 to fuel your ministry.

Brad Leeper is the President and Principal of Generis Partners. His unique approach allows him to serve larger and growing churches with significant funding requirements. Brad has a strong understanding of the multi-site church strategy and other pioneering church movements. He is drawn to larger, innovative, growing churches and the challenges of helping them expand in the area of generosity practically and spiritually.

Outsourcing: How to Get In—and Get Out

In this session, Ken Tan, Principal at CapinCrouse, will draw on his experience with outsourcing to help you think about:

• Why and how to enter an outsourcing agreement?
• How to maintain control?
• How to exit the relationship when necessary?

Ken has 11 years of public accounting and large nonprofit experience, providing both advisory and assurance services to various nonprofit entities, churches, and mission organizations. Prior to joining the firm he managed the audits of public Fortune 100 and private multi-billion dollar companies for a Big 4 accounting firm, provided advisory and strategic planning for churches, nonprofits, and small to medium-sized businesses, and served as the controller and corporate officer for a large faith-based multi-national mission agency.

PPP: How to Move Forward From Here

Join us for an interactive session with insight for wherever you are in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) process, whether you’re in the first round of borrowing, in the process of loan forgiveness, or applying for a second round.

We’ll provide tips for applying for a PPP loan and loan forgiveness to help give you clarity on the process and finish what you have started.

Ken has 11 years of public accounting and large nonprofit experience, providing both advisory and assurance services to various nonprofit entities, churches, and mission organizations. Prior to joining the firm he managed the audits of public Fortune 100 and private multi-billion dollar companies for a Big 4 accounting firm, provided advisory and strategic planning for churches, nonprofits, and small to medium-sized businesses, and served as the controller and corporate officer for a large faith-based multi-national mission agency.

Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan: Setting Your Church Up For Success in 2021

In this session, learn how to future-proof your church’s goals so that regardless of what dominates headlines, you’ve developed an iron-clad plan for the growth, vitality and success of your church this year.

So cast your 2021 visions, and be ready for a new year full of promise and hope with 21 tips and techniques to add to your church’s toolkit to safeguard your goals—and crush them—this year.

Melissa Tidwell has been part of the BELAY team since 2011 serving as part of the Solutions Team. She has over 20 years of church experience with a focus on finance and ministry team leadership. Melissa has been part of several church launch teams and has held a number of staff and volunteer positions at various churches. Her passion is to equip leaders with the right information and resources to make strong decisions that further the Kingdom.

Q & A with Mark DeYmaz

Mark is a thought-leading author, pastor, and recognized champion of the Multiethnic Church Movement. Mark planted the Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas in 2001 where he continues to serve as Directional Leader. In 2004, he co-founded the Mosaix Global Network with Dr. George Yancey and today serves as its president, and convener of the triennial National Multi-ethnic Church Conference. In 2008, he launched Vine and Village and remains active on the board of this non-profit focused on the spiritual, social, and financial transformation of Little Rock’s University District.

Mark has written seven books including his latest, The Coming Revolution in Church Economics (Baker Books, 2019), and a contributing editor for Outreachmagazine. He is an Adjunct Professor at Wheaton College and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Real Coaching Success with Your Staff and Volunteers

Coaching your staff and volunteers can be a very rewarding investment but it doesn’t always yield a return on your time investment. This workshop will give you an overview of the best practices and principles contained Dr. Baxter’s new book, Real Coaching Success (Amazon).

“I have put in my 10,000 hours of coaching others and a bunch of those hours didn’t go so well. If I can offer my colleagues a summary of what I learned over the last 30 years then I would love to help them avoid some of the wasted hours I experienced.”

Nathan Baxter is a former XP and SP and now is an Executive Leadership Coach and founder of RealCoachingSuccess.com. A company dedicated to encourage and equip coaches and mentors. Every month Nathan and his wife Dianne devote time training others to improve in their coaching and mentoring skills. They have successfully helped launch 22 coaching businesses and ministries and are working to launch a podcast to share their knowledge and experience with other coaches.

Religious Freedom During COVID-19 and Beyond

The world has changed dramatically over the past year. In the midst of the global pandemic, ministries are caught in the crosshairs of determining how to protect their religious practices and their flock.

There were several Supreme Court decisions in 2020 regarding worship and in-person gatherings during the pandemic. Those rulings may have far-reaching ramifications for the future of religious freedom in America.

Steve Case, JD, CPCU, is Assistant Vice President and Senior Corporate Counsel at Brotherhood Mutual. Steve worked in insurance defense litigation for 7 years before joining Brotherhood Mutual in 2014. Instead of litigating matters after something happens, Steve now assists ministries with risk management, focusing on the areas of religious freedom, child protection, faith-based decisions, safety & security, and employment issues. He assumed his current role in March 2017 where he oversees the day-to-day activities of Brotherhood Mutual’s legal department, including the Legal Assist program. In 2017, he received his designation as a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter. Steve is a member of the Christian Legal Society, Defense Research Institute, Association of Corporate Counsel, and Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel.

Get Steve’s resources here

Top 5 Reasons Churches Go To Court
Online Only

Matthew Branaugh is an attorney and content editor for Christianity Today’s Church Law & Tax. Matthew helps lead an award-winning team of editors and designers with the planning, creation, and publishing of ChurchLawAndTax.com, numerous print and digital resources, and two free newsletters. In 2015, he earned first place from the Evangelical Press Association’s “Higher Goals in Christian Journalism” for his article examining church budgeting priorities and practices. More recently, he researched and wrote a comprehensive report evaluating the effects of local, state, and federal public accommodations laws on local churches. Matthew earned his law degree with honors from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, where he also served as an associate editor for Denver Law Review and had his article detailing the potential nationwide effects of the #MeToo movement on abuse-reporting laws selected for online publication. Matthew grew up in the Evangelical Covenant Church. One of Matthew’s favorite parts of his job is the opportunity to meet and network with local church pastors and leaders across the country.