What Creatives Should Be Looking For In Lead Pastors.
A few days ago, I posted a blog about ‘What Lead Pastors Should Be Looking For In Creatives’; a great starting point — far from exhaustive — for what I believe that lead pastors should be cognizant of when going through onboarding new creatives to their team.
I think it’s only fair to give attention and thought to the other side of the equation: the creatives.
Being honest, there is much less weight on an employee than on an employer in most scenarios — especially in ministry. While you want to make an informed, wise and Spirit-led decision as to where, and who, you will serve, it is important to remember that the senior leader who is on the other side of the decision is making a choice on someone that they will bring into their carefully cultivated culture (alliteration intended…), give responsibility, authority and ultimately influence to and trust with the covering of their reputation. That’s no small thing.
You may find that during this process you notice things — I’ll call them walls — that may come up during interviews, references or other conversations. Those are probably past hurts from previous people that look, sound and create like you and who have dishonoured or abused the trust of that leader. The walls aren’t yours to tear down; they aren’t wounds that you can heal or misperceptions that you need to prove wrong within your first year. Ultimately, they are for that leader and the LORD to work through and for you to be aware of. They don’t reflect poorly on you but they may influence the way that you are treated, especially in the beginning of your vocational season serving under that leadership.
I remember sitting down for a lunch with a lead pastor towards the end of an extended interview process. We were 10 weeks into conversations and I had already expressed my interest in accepting the role. I leaned back in my chair after a sip of coffee, looked at the leader and said, ‘I feel like you want to like me but you can’t…’. Pretty bold move for a 20-something stepping into a new role. His face turned and he confessed that that was true, that the previous creative in my same position had abused his trust and that he had ultimately had to work through a lot of relational hurt as he let him go. Was that a red flag for me? No. Did I learn to appreciate the level of honesty and transparency that that leader walked in? Absolutely.
In this conversation, some of these points are pretty black-and-white while others are great points for awareness. Ultimately, be led by the Lord in discerning the right step for you vocationally and, when you make the decision, embrace the reality of it and don’t live a ‘what if’ life. Ok… Enough banter… Let’s get into what creatives should be looking for in lead pastors.
ARE THEY PASSIONATE ABOUT JESUS?
Akin to our previous conversation, this not about whether they know things about church culture, faith and religion. The real question is — do they passionately celebrate the LORD? When a senior leader is genuine in their pursuit of Jesus, everything else will fall into place.
“Leaders may sometimes confuse a heart for the vision, mission and culture of their church with a heart for the LORD.”
Listen… Values and mission statements, methods and models… None of these are bad things. But they should never come before a heart for Jesus. This heart will manifest in different ways but nonetheless it is a desire to see Holy Spirit move and have people transformed into the image of Jesus in relationship with the Father. It’s good to have an understanding of the five-fold ministry of Christ to the Church — that’s a whole other convo we’ll dive into later but for now check out Ephesians 4:11 — to gain clarity on the way that this heart for the LORD manifests through different leaders. As a quick example, if you’re serving someone who would identify as a pastor in the five-fold, you can expect that love for Christ to manifest in people being taken care of; wholistic health will most likely at the forefront of this leader’s culture. Maybe, your leader would identify as an evangelist in the five-fold? You should expect to see their heart for the LORD manifest in outreach and community-focused programs and missions. I think you get the point…
As you look to answer this question, pay close attention to the evidence of an active prayer and devotional life; you should see the fruit of this in them and in those around them. I also find myself, especially in working with churches and coaching leaders and creatives, looking for whether they primarily celebrate metrics or life transformation when they talk about their church culture.
CAN THEY HEAR THE WORD ‘NO’?
This is incredibly important; and also incredibly difficult to discern. A lot of the time, I will hear people say this as a reason for leaving a position within a church culture. It comes out like this, ‘my leadership would never take no for an answer,’ OR ‘I never got a chance to be a part of the decision making process.’ Here’s a hard truth that you’re going to need to swallow… Odds are, you aren’t being invited into a position to say no to your senior leadership. Sorry… I think for a lot of creatives — especially millennials — the prospect not being a part of the decision making process is a deal-breaker. ‘How dare they not include me at the table… Don’t they know my time is valuable?? Don’t they know that my thoughts count?? I could freelance and make way more money and have way more freedom and…’ Woah… Easy there trigger.
Here’s what you’re actually looking for… Healthy senior leaders have intentional relationships, both inside and outside of their contexts, where they have openly invited personal and professional accountability. Your job is to do your best to discover if those exist or not. Commonly, the best place to find this is in talking with people who have worked with or for the senior leader in the past. Remember, you’re not looking for whether they will hear ‘no’ from you but if they have someone in their life and context that they WILL hear it from. Once — or if — you find these relationships, my encouragement would be to explore the character of these individuals and the cultures that they come from. Just because there is accountability doesn’t mean that that accountability is automatically good.
I remember interviewing for a creative role at a local church. I was aware that leadership oversight was something that I wanted to establish before I considered accepting the position. It felt like it offered itself up to me on a silver plate. In one of our first conversations, the senior leader mentioned that he had ‘spiritual leadership and oversight’ in his life. Baaaaaam, that’s what I was looking for. I pushed a little further and asked who that was. He responded with a name that was very familiar to me and buried my newly found excitement into an early grave. I knew that name… He had been responsible for steamrolling a staff environment at another church where one of my close friends had been on staff. Most of those people had left ministry for good. At the end of the day, I didn’t take the position for numerous reasons but that one was on the top of the list.
DO THEY EXIST LOCALLY?
You might find yourself attracted to a role because the senior leader is well-known or, as some in the professional sphere might say, ‘networked’. Sure, serving in an environment where the leader is influential and connected with other like-minded organizations has its advantages; opportunities on larger platforms or in different contexts, your own network for future prospects. But don’t mistake networked leaders for relational ones.
“Some leaders exist well within their organization of profession but struggle to foster genuine relationships within their own community or team. This can be indicative of both sustainability of the vision and culture and longevity for them in their current role.”
In my opinion, the church suffers from an epidemic of senior leaders who do not stay long enough to see the fruit of their labours. Does that mean that a lead pastor should only ever lead one church in their lifetime? No. That if they don’t stay for at least 20 years that it was all for not? I don’t believe so. But I do think that there are senior leaders out there that are using local church contexts to advance themselves professionally and, as a result, are ready to step into the next opportunity as soon as it becomes available. Commonly, you’ll see these people connecting more often with pastors in their network from different cities and less with people who actually call their church home. You’ll also hear them say things like, ‘ministry is lonely’ or ‘you can’t be people’s friend and their pastor.’ At the end of the day, that’s between them and the LORD to reconcile but it does affect you and your season serving them.
I love to see a church that is led well by a senior leader who then transitions leadership of the church to a new individual and stays to enjoy the community and culture that they have created. It’s rare but it’s beautiful. I love hearing stories of people who have served in the same context for decades and have seen the fruit of the relationships in their church and community impact the healthy and vitality of the church. I would always encourage every creative to look for evidence that the leader and their family have found meaningful connection with people in their local context.
WHAT IS THEIR REPUTATION?
You can’t believe everything that you hear… but reputations are commonly created for a reason. My encouragement to every creative in the interview process is to do their own background check on the senior leader. Why? Firstly, no senior leader is ever going to air out their dirty laundry while interviewing a candidate. Would you not put your best foot forward when interviewing? Secondly, they’re already doing a background check on you — assuming they asked for references… they should be asking for references… — so you may as well do the same.
Listen, it won’t all be perfect but there is a chance that in this step you avoid serving someone who is a less than savoury senior leader. Find mutual friends or other leaders in the area and ask them for honest answers to hard questions. Connect with former and current staff to see what serving that leader is like on a daily basis. A healthy senior leader should have no issue giving you references for themselves or providing you with contact information for at least current staff members that you can speak with. You may have to go digging for former staff members contact information but that’s not nearly as hard as it looks and the onus is on you to find them.
What questions are you asking? You’re not just asking about leadership and staff environments that they have created. You should also be asking about how they are perceived in their community or network, what their spiritual emphasis is in ministry and what their character is like when they’re not on the stage. These should be overwhelmingly positive but never expect them to be perfect. By its very nature, being in a position of leadership can cause you to rub some people the wrong way. Leaders can be misunderstood by some or loathed by others purely for staying true to their convictions and making hard decisions. The most important part of these conversations is that what you are told by people about the leader lines up with what they say about themselves. There are very few things worse than serving a senior leader who has little to no self-awareness.
ARE THEY WILLING TO SHARE THE SPOTLIGHT?
Leaders who don’t publicly share responsibility and opportunity are commonly wrestling a crippling insecurity that manifests beyond their platforms. That may sound harsh but, believe me, it’s true. It astounds me the number of creatives that I coach who don’t understand that their senior leader is insecure and the number of issues causing misunderstanding or tension as a result of that same insecurity. Going back to the last point, leadership is a weight that few understand and even fewer are truly called to. There are decisions that are made that don’t just affect people’s Tuesday afternoon… They touch people’s eternities. A good leader knows that they are responsible for you, your family and your future in a uniquely spiritual way and they feel the weight of that reality every single day. Guess what? Leaders are their own worst critics. They’ve probably already asked the questions that others ask ten times over. They’ve learned to wear a thick skin.
Letting senior leaders off the hook for being insecure am I? Absolutely not. The most important part of leadership within a church context is keeping yourself tender; open to the leading of the Spirit and to relationally leading people in their walks with Jesus. A good friend told us once as we stepped into a difficult season of transition,
“If it doesn’t hurt when you leave you were doing ministry wrong.”
Healthy leaders have overcome their insecurities through the power of Holy Spirit and have established culture that is beyond themselves; that shares the weight of leadership across the shoulders of numerous people who are in alignment with the vision and mission of that community. This is the design of God for His Church — one body with many parts, people gifted and called uniquely but with one unifying purpose. As a result, these leaders actively seek out moments where they can discover, develop and deploy others into ministry opportunities. They also know their strengths and weaknesses and look to compliment their abilities within their team.
Again… Does this mean that it’s automatically you that’s getting to lead meetings, make decisions and preach on Sunday mornings? Sorry to burst your bubble, but no… You should, however, be looking to see if the senior leader is using their influence to create opportunities to others that they are leading BECAUSE that will be you as you gain trust and experience within that context.
Agree? Disagree? Things I should add or take away?
Qualms, concerns, comments, snide remarks? Leave them in the comments below and let’s the convo started!
