NL Moore & Associates thanks our friend, Jason Curtis, the lead pastor of spiritual formation at Sunset Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon for writing today’s blog post. You can find out more about Sunset Presbyterian Church here: http://www.sunsetpres.org/

If you ask pastors their opinion about a dual or collaborative leadership model in a church, my guess would be the majority would say that it can’t possibly work well, or it would be too difficult to pull off. I can understand how someone who hasn’t experienced a collaborative leadership model would be skeptical and have a lot of questions, but I’m currently a pastor in a church where we are doing just that, and it is working well.

It isn’t something that I purposely sought out. But, in 2011 when I was looking for a new ministry opportunity, I found a church that was looking for a lead pastor of spiritual formation to work with a lead pastor of administration who was already on staff. I was intrigued. I know many pastors would run from this, but spiritual formation was right up my alley. This collaborative leadership model was based on gifts rather than on qualifications in a purely hierarchical structure. This made sense to me, and here’s why:

  • First, it models how we want our church leaders to function. When lay leaders come to pastors with conflicts and interpersonal problems, we basically respond with, “Work it out in humility.” We don’t often respond by saying, “Let them know you’re the boss and this is the decision whether they like it or not.” Hopefully, no pastor ever responds that way. I realize, at times, an authority figure has to make tough decisions, but more often than not, church decisions are better made within a plurality of leadership, covered with large doses of humility. If this is how we want our lay leaders to operate, then why not model that at the pastoral level? Setting up a model that encourages humility and unity seems to make good sense.
  • Second, just because I have some degrees or years of experience doesn’t mean I’m qualified to supervise every aspect of church life. One should be responsible for the areas in which they are gifted and to which they are called. If this is true, then why should I manage someone who is much more gifted and qualified in their area of expertise?
  • Third, it provides some accountability and protection for lead/senior pastors. Sadly, lead pastors can slide into power mongering, and they might feel freedom to do that if no one else on staff functions at their level. So, accountability is necessary. But it also provides protection. Lead pastors can feel the weight of the world on their shoulders and having someone else who is as “all in” as they are is hugely reassuring. Sharing the load protects them from burnout or a messiah complex.

I can hear all of your objections now. “Someone has to be the final decision maker.” “What happens when you disagree on a major issue?” “Who is the real leader for the staff?” “Who’s the primary leader for the church?”

Yes, those are serious issues that have to be discussed, and furthermore, deliberate plans need to be put in place to avoid crises and hard feelings. But we believe that none of them is a deal-killer for the dual leadership model. Here are some key principles for us:

  1. Be humble enough to make it work. This is true no matter your polity. If you operate in a senior pastor-executive pastor model, you still have to be humble and learn to defer. For some reason, pastors have an extremely difficult time saying, “I defer to you.” Strange, coming from people who are working hard to get us to follow Jesus, the one who willingly died rather than defend his rights as the King of the Jews! The co-leadership model works because we must be willing to make it work.
  1. Responsible for different areas, but really work together on most things. We keep each other informed of what’s going on, since we aren’t sitting in every meeting together. This doesn’t mean that we always have to know every piece of information, but we do share the big stuff and we make sure the other doesn’t get blindsided. This also means that we think, dream, and plan the church’s future together. If one of us had all the ideas and the other was just responsible to execute it, that would not work well. It at least could not be considered co-leadership.
  1. Make sure the staff and the church know that we support one another. You can imagine all the ways we go about this. It would be different for everyone.

There is no perfect model. Polity doesn’t guarantee against failure, but this one has a lot going for it, and I’m very thankful for my fellow lead pastor and the church to which God has called me.