Executive Pastor, Remember Your Call

My first job in ministry was working for a large summer day camp that averaged close to a thousand campers a week. Naturally, that involved a lot of planning, hiring, leading, and troubleshooting. As I ministered, older men in my life began to notice my strengths were all pastoral—teaching, shepherding, mentoring, and leading. So I went to seminary, and slowly my managers began to reduce my operational responsibilities and move me more and more into the pastoral areas of camp ministry.

Eventually, I took a job as an associate pastor. I was hired for my pastoral gifts, but I took note of operational areas where the church needed help. Though I’d left camp ministry to focus on shepherding, it now seemed God had brought me to the church to share my operational gifts. Would I still be able to use my pastoral gifting?

Balance Call and Job Description

If you’re an executive pastor, or an associate pastor who spends significant time managing staff, budgets, and ministry plans, I’m certain you’ve felt the tension between God’s call to shepherd and the specifics of your role as an executive leader. Knowing how to properly spend your time can feel disorienting, because your call demands one set of skills while your job description demands another.

A job description lists the responsibilities your church pays you for. When you’re in an executive role, it’s often tailored to your unique talents and experience. But your call—felt internally and confirmed by your church—is like every other pastor’s call: to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you” (1 Pet. 5:2).

Executive pastor, don’t lose sight of your call amid the demands of your job. Your call comes from Scripture. Often, the details of your job description don’t. Moreover, remembering your call helps you fight burnout. You experience the joy of exercising your spiritual gifts when you’re locked in on your call. So don’t let it get overshadowed by your giant to-do list. Give shepherding your time and energy.

To help you remember your call, I’ll outline some primary responsibilities Scripture gives to pastors. Then I’ll provide self-assessment questions to help executive pastors like you prioritize these responsibilities.

1. Preach and teach.

Paul tells Timothy, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2). You may be an executive, but you’re still a pastor. So don’t lose sight of the God-given responsibility you have to teach and preach.

You experience the joy of exercising your spiritual gifts when you’re locked in on your call. So don’t let it get overshadowed.

Whether you’re preparing for a one-on-one meeting, a staff meeting, or a group on Sunday, you need to stay sharp in your biblical and theological thinking. Don’t hesitate to set aside the time and resources needed to ensure you do. Here are some self-evaluation questions:

• Am I abiding in Christ and growing in my ability to communicate truth—to explain and proclaim God’s Word?
• Do I have time in my work schedule set aside to study God’s Word?
• Do my staff need any specific training from the Word to help them better understand their work?
• Do I have a book budget?
• What false ideologies are a threat to our church, and what can I do to help guard against them?

2. Equip your people.

Executive leaders are often operator types who can get a lot done on their own. But as a pastor, you’re called to empower others to use their gifts. This means more than delegating responsibilities. God has called you to disciple through equipping.

As Paul writes, “[Christ] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11–12). Ask these questions to assess your equipping work:

• Am I empowering others, or am I trying to do it all myself?
• Are there programs or initiatives for which we need to train more lay leaders?
• Whom can I take along with me to a meeting or two this week so he or she can simply observe and learn?
• Do I have a group of men I’m discipling?

3. Shepherd your people through Word and prayer.

Like the apostles, we pastors must “devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). There’s a formal, preaching-and-teaching reason for this devotion (as I’ve described above), but we also have informal shepherding responsibilities that require such devotion.

Executive leaders must schedule opportunities to be with the men of our churches without an operational agenda—not to recruit them, close the loop on a decision, or address a pressing issue but to hear what God is doing in their lives and to minister to them. If you’re weak in this area, ask questions like these:

• How often do I stop to pray for someone I’m meeting with?
• Have I ever adjusted a meeting agenda to care for the person I’m meeting with instead?
• Am I setting agenda-free meetings with the men in our church to hear about their world so I can pray for them and encourage them in the Word?
• How often have I asked for more time on a decision so we can pray about it?
• Is studying God’s Word and praying regularly part of my job description? Do I include these responsibilities in the job descriptions of the ministers I lead?
• Is my pace slow enough that I don’t blow past people who are searching or hurting?
• Would my staff team say I’m led by God through his Word, or do they only see my gifts and effort?

4. Keep a close watch on your life and doctrine.

We’ve all seen stories of admired men who faltered in ministry because of a moral failure. Those stories remind us that we all need accountability. As Paul says, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this” (1 Tim. 4:16). To keep a close watch on your life, consider the following:

• Are there men in my life who know all the corners of my thoughts?
• Are there men who know all the corners of my family life?
• Have I given my wife a list of men to go to if she has concerns about my health, spiritually or otherwise?
• Am I being appropriately honest and vulnerable with my staff team?
• Who in my life will speak honestly to me if they see something off?

Are you fulfilling your call to be a pastor or merely accomplishing your job description? Writing this article has been convicting for me. I want to go back and sit with these questions longer, and I want to make plans to address the gaps they’ve revealed.

Are you fulfilling your call to be a pastor or merely accomplishing your job description?

I hope these questions are less convicting and more freeing and refreshing for you.

Remember, executive pastor, you’re not only allowed to engage in pastoral pursuits at work; you can’t fulfill your call without doing so. Slow down and consider your call, and if you’ve been neglecting it, reengage what you first loved about ministry. You’re a pastor. No matter what the job description says, be faithful to your calling, and enjoy it.