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 the origins of XPastor and more …

Phil: Welcome to the Backstage Pastors podcast, specifically designed for Executive Pastors and second chair leaders. Fletch has been serving Executive Pastors for 23 years. He runs XPastor.org. It is, I would assume, the number one site out there for Executive Pastors.

Tyler: I couldn’t tell you the name of number two. 

Phil: I wouldn’t know where to send you. It’s certainly the most comprehensively resourced website. There are like literally thousands and thousands of articles on there and resources (really it’s over 1,400). This is a key resource for specifically the Executive Pastor role. And so Fletch’s website is, without a doubt, one of the key resources for the XP, the second chair leader. You should have it bookmarked on your computer.

Tyler: Fletch, you’ve been speaking into the world of XPs for such a long time, could you walk us through your journey?

Fletch: Way back when there were dinosaurs still roaming, I walked into the library at Dallas Seminary, doing some research for my dissertation. A few hours later, I thought I’d lost the golden touch of being a good researcher. There was nothing in the library on XPs.

I walked downstairs and I saw the head research librarian. He said, Hey, Fletch, are you an Executive Pastor? And I said, Yeah. He said, What is an Executive Pastor? That told me everything I needed to know. There was no research on XPs in 2003. So I started XPastor.

I thought, Let’s pull together whatever scant data there is. That was the origin of the site but I began seeing web hits from all over the world. Now XPastor gets more than a half million visits a year. I try and give away as much as I can for free. I’m 66 and I’m not taking anything with me when I’m gone. So I give away as much as possible. I stepped out of being an XP about seven years ago and devoted myself to XPs around the nation through XPastor.

Tyler: The focus of our first season here on the podcast is all about key voices and resources for the XP. Of course your site is, without a doubt, one of the best, if not the most complete website out there. I’m a part of Facebook groups for XPs. Almost every single day someone logs on, they’re new in the XP role, and they ask the infamous question, What resources exist? It’s a game for me to see how long before someone says your website … and it’s typically within seconds. 

Fletch: We have 1,400 articles on the site from over 400 authors. You name it and, in over 23 years, we have probably covered it. It’s like what the French say: The more things change, the more they stay the same. The church world has changed remarkably, but the core of what you do is also remarkably the same.

The thing we’ve seen change the most is that smaller churches now have XPs. Churches of all sizes have insurance issues, legal issues, and active shooters. In the old days, the dinosaur days, it used to just be big churches that had these issues. Now it’s churches of all sizes.

Hear more on the podcast about the XPastor’s free Salary Forecaster, free courses and how to set salaries in churches. The podcast is also on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else people get podcasts