3 Roles an Executive Pastor Can’t Delegate

Great leadership requires great delegation. That’s the conventional wisdom, right? Great leaders don’t try to do everything themselves. They understand their own strengths and weaknesses, and recognize the value—to their organizations, the people they lead, and themselves—of leveraging the strengths of others.

But to delegate well, you need to find clarity around what not to delegate. Once you understand the duties and responsibilities that must always remain in your hands, you can begin the process of handing everything else off to members of your team.

For XPs, maintaining ownership of making vision actionable, driving core initiatives, and building team alignment are imperative. While you’ll work closely with others on these areas, they ultimately require your direct oversight and cannot be fully delegated away. When these responsibilities are clearly defined and embraced, it creates the foundation for a healthy partnership with your lead pastor and sets up the entire church staff for success.

1. Vision Activator

The first role you can’t delegate is owning the responsibility for closing the gap between vision and execution. And you need to be wired for it.

While the senior pastor is responsible for casting vision, the executive pastor must define how that vision will be accomplished and then execute an action plan to see it through. As Lance Witt wrote in High Impact Teams, “Execution is what fills the gap between intention and progress.” In other words, executive pastors must own the responsibility for closing the gap between vision and execution through strategy.

While vision may answer the question, “Where are we going next?” A strategy answers, “How are we actually going to make that a reality?” Senior pastors need to own the responsibility for clarifying the vision and then release the “how” to their executive pastors. From there, it’s the XP’s job to organize the teams, systems and deadlines to see the vision through. They need to manage the tension between delegation and micromanagement, maintaining organizational alignment while empowering their team to do the work.

It’s also their job to drive the strategic planning process for the church and keep the team’s key initiatives and priorities moving forward alongside the execution of day-to-day ministry.

2. Core Initiative Driver

The executive pastor cannot delegate the responsibility for driving core initiatives: This frees the lead pastor up to focus on the roles only he or she can do.

If the executive pastor owns closing the gap between vision and execution, he or she also must captain the core initiatives that emerge from strategic planning.

It’s your job to drive—to lead—the execution of those additional strategic priorities that your team identifies as essential steps towards the vision, outside of the day-to-day execution work you manage. To borrow a phrase from The 4 Disciplines of Execution by McChesney, Covey, and Huling, your team lives in the “whirlwind” of ministry every week. It’s your responsibility to keep core initiatives moving.

Practically speaking, this looks like managing your schedule ruthlessly and protecting the time you need for big-picture thinking and problem-solving. You may need to re-evaluate your meeting rhythms to free up enough time for you to sit in the core initiative driver seat.

3. Staff Alignment Builder

Executive Pastors own the responsibility for building alignment throughout the organization, connecting all “action” to clear “direction.”

One of the most critical things an executive pastor needs to do to activate vision and drive core initiatives effectively is help connect the big picture to the everyday work of all team members. When you do that, everyone understands how their work aligns with the mission, vision, and goals of the church.

When this alignment is missing—even for a season—energy and resources are dispersed. There may be agreement on the mission (why you exist) and the vision (where you’re going), but from there team members pull in different directions.

We like to use a pyramid to visually represent what needs clarity in order to achieve this alignment. And just like a pyramid, alignment is built from the ground up.

Setting and championing the culture is one of the key roles a Senior Pastor can’t delegate. That being said, the XP is usually the one who builds systems to reinforce it and monitors signs that the culture is not healthy. You own the responsibility to get the results the church expects, and you also own the responsibility to develop good people who get those results.

In Closing

Great leaders own the roles only they can play. Only once you understand the duties and responsibilities that must always remain in your hands, you can begin the process of handing everything else off to members of your team.

Your growth as a leader will strengthen your church and set the stage for dynamic organizational growth.

We’ve designed a full ebook on 3 Roles an Executive Pastor Can’t Delegate to be as practical and simple to use as possible. Download it now in the Resource Hub.