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In today’s episode of the Leader Fluent Podcast, I’ll address a topic that is often overlooked: 7 shifts you have to make when becoming a lead pastor. Maybe you’re a staff pastor right now, and one day you desire to become a lead pastor. Or, maybe you’re a lead pastor now, but you want to train and equip a new generation of lead pastors. Or, maybe you’re not in pastoral leadership at all, but you dream of one day being a CEO or serving in an executive leadership role. If that’s you…this episode is for you. 

If you’re not already a subscriber, I’d love for you to subscribe to Leader Fluent today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Android, Pandora, or your favorite podcast platform. And after you subscribe, would you do me a favor and RATE or REVIEW the podcast. It helps us spread the word and help other leaders. 

SHOW NOTES:

Several years ago, I moved into the role of lead pastor when we planted 7 City Church near downtown Fort Worth. Up until that point, I had served in a variety of roles including executive pastor, associate pastor, youth pastor, as well as a leader in a non-profit organization.

But when I moved into the lead pastor role, I simultaneously had to make a series of shifts in my leadership. Here are seven shifts you have to make when becoming a lead pastor, and what you can do now to prepare for those shifts. 

1. The Shift from Serving a Vision to Creating a Vision

When you serve on the staff of a local church, you are ultimately responsible for serving the vision set for the church by the lead pastor. But if you’re going to move into a lead role, you have to start creating a vision. 

How do you make that shift? First, create a vision for whatever area of ministry you are leading right now (just make sure it’s aligned with your lead pastor’s vision). And second, start asking God to give you a vision for the church you will one day lead. That vision is often formed at the intersection of the three P’s: Problems, Passion, and Prayer. In other words, vision is formed when you understand what PROBLEM you want to solve, what you are most PASSIONATE about, and what you sense God saying to you in PRAYER. 

2. The Shift from Being on Staff to Leading a Staff

It’s great to have a staff, but leading a staff is not always easy and it’s not always fun. In the lead role, you have to learn how to hire staff, coach staff, review staff, and make difficult staffing decisions. There will be times when you have to correct staff, deal with conflict, address performance issues, and navigate staff transitions. On top of that, you get to manage the ever-increasing costs of salaries, raises, and benefits. When you’re on a staff, you don’t think about any of these things, but when you shift to leading a staff, these issues become front and center. 

So, what can you do now to prepare for this shift? Start applying many of the same principles for building a staff to building your team of volunteers. Draft job descriptions, conduct volunteer interviews, create new volunteer on-ramping systems, provide regular volunteer training, and conduct one-on-one coaching. 

3. The Shift from Spending Money to Raising Money

It’s nice to have a budget that you can spend to do ministry, but when you move into the lead pastor role, your focus immediately shifts. Yes, you’ll spend money on ministry, but first you have to raise it (and not just for your department). Now you get to raise money for staff, buildings, multiple ministries, missions, expansion efforts…everything. 

What can you do now to prepare for this shift? First, make a list of every question you can think of about church finances. Second, meet with a CFO or business administrator to ask your questions. Third, study the preaching of pastors who communicate on stewardship and generosity in a healthy, respectful, and biblical manner. And fourth, interview a handful of pastors to discuss how they do financial vision casting, how they appreciate donors, how they preach on generosity and stewardship, and how they build a culture of generosity. 

4. The Shift from Occasional Communication to Weekly Communication

When you’re a staff pastor, you may have the opportunity to preach on occasion—perhaps a few times a year (or maybe more if you’re a teaching pastor). But when you become a lead pastor, it won’t be uncommon to preach 40+ times per year (and even more if you have a Sunday night service or a midweek service). 

So, how do you make this shift? Create a communication system and a content system. My communication system began by manuscripting every sermon. This helped me craft better transitions, think about the flow of the sermon, and insert illustrations where needed. 

When it came to a content system, I became an avid reader and then filed great quotes, great content, and great stories. Doing this year after year helped me build a great source of material to help you develop engaging sermons. 

5. The Shift from Focused Ministry to Executive Responsibility

When you’re a staff pastor, your primary focus is a specific area of ministry you’ve been hired to lead. And so, you focus your energy on reaching ad discipling people in that specific ministry. 

But when you assume lead pastor responsibilities, you not only do ministry, but you also assume an executive component of leadership. In other words, you work with a board of directors, budgets, bylaws, and building campaigns. You hire staff, create strategic plans, and you have to make the most difficult decisions in the church. Sometimes I’ll say it like this…you essentially do what a CEO does, except you also get to deliver an original, God-inspired, company-wide speech every week (called a sermon). 

How do you prepare now for this shift from focused ministry to executive responsibility? Start studying organizational leadership. Read leadership books and business books. Study the bylaws of healthy, growing churches. Practice creating a budget for an entire church, not just a single department. And learn to think cross-departmentally. 

6. The Shift from Working “In” to Working “On”

Working “IN” ministry is focused on things like preaching, counseling, planning services, conducting outreaches…basically it’s the people side and the public side of ministry. It’s what you envisioned ministry being when you first started out.

But when you shift into a lead pastor role, you’ll still do those things, but now you have to also work “ON” ministry. Working on ministry is about things like vision, mission, values, culture, and strategy—basically it’s the 30,000-foot view of leadership and the church. 

How do you make the shift from IN to ON? Conduct a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) on your ministry, and then form goals for the future. Or, you might work on your ministry by asking some strategic questions. For example: 

• What are our two greatest growth engines and how can we leverage them for greater impact? 
• Who are the top 20% of my leaders, and how can I invest more time in them? 
• What are our greatest weaknesses and obstacles, and how can we remove them in the next three months? 
• How do I need to shift funding to leverage our greatest opportunities? 
• Do our current ministries have the ability to scale? 
• How could I restructure staff or volunteers to prepare for greater growth? 

These are great questions that will help you make the shift from not just working “IN” your ministry, but also working “ON” your ministry. 

7. The Shift from Doing to Delegating

When you assume a lead pastor role, the need to delegate sharply increases. Suddenly, the number of phone calls, text messages, emails, requests for meetings, and a barrage of decisions to be made land on your desk. If you don’t start delegating, you’ll sink. Growth will screech to a halt. You’ll start burning the candle at both ends until you’re emotionally wasted. 

Please hear this: Your job is not to do, but to equip and empower others to do. So, what can you do now to prepare for this shift? Start by identifying your highest priorities, and then recruit leaders and volunteers to do the rest. 

To help you navigate ministry effectively in your new role, you have to make these seven shifts. As you do, embrace the comforting words of 1 Peter 5:7: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” God will help you make these shifts, and as you do, your ministry impact will not only be greater, but also sustainable.

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