Even though we aren’t the “Primary Communicator”, behind the scenes pastors deal with a lot of stress. If something goes wrong, it feels like it’s our fault, no matter what it is. If the video doesn’t play properly on Sunday Morning, or the Cafe is out of coffee, or even if Jill isn’t being properly discipled. You see, nothing is out of our purview. If the church does it, we’re in on it to some degree. Now, in a larger church, the Executive Pastor may be in charge of leaders instead of doing “hands on” work in all the departments, but remember, it’s his or her job to ensure that the Vision is being carried out. That’s a big responsibility. That’s why we’re going to spend some time talking about what it takes to be a pastor and not be the primary communicator.

First off, you have to be willing to work with other’s ideas. When we first started LifePoint, I felt like every good idea had to be mine, or I wasn’t helping the team. If we were in a creative meeting I would spend more time trying to think of the next good idea instead of trying to harness other people’s great ideas. I still deal with this insecurity. But, if you’ve been called to be an Executive Pastor, you have to be comfortable working with other’s ideas. They all don’t have to be yours! Trust me, your pastor is ok with you not having all the good ideas. Afterall, if you had them, they’d probably be really jealous.

Don’t misunderstand, you still need to have ideas, but don’t feel like you’re the only one. When James and I first talked about creating the role of “Executive Pastor”, I wasn’t sure that it was something I could do. (See aforementioned insecurity) What I didn’t realize was that God had been preparing me to “make other people’s ideas work” for a long time. If you’ve read our blog for any length of time, you probably know that I’m a computer programmer by trade. In fact, before we started LifePoint, James and I had a website design business in which he did most of the design and I did most of the programming. That relationship fit really well with our personalities. James is a design guy. He sees things from an ascetic perspective. Given enough time, he can envision some really cool webspaces (see www.lifepointchurch.tv). I, on the other hand, do not see things from that perspective. I’m a programmer. I don’t see design or colour schemes, I see problems and solutions. We had been working like this for a few years when we realized that God had made me a problem solver. I took things that he designed and made them work. Which is exactly what I need to be for LifePoint.

If you think that you’ve been called to be an Executive Pastor, or something similar, you have to be able to work with other people’s ideas. If you don’t think you can, take a look around at what you’re doing right now, you may find God preparing you in ways that you didn’t expect. I did.