Who hasn’t heard of Walt Disney? Born in 1901, he left a legacy that has impacted generations across the globe. If you know Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, or Ariel, Walt has affected you. If you’ve seen Snow White, Toy Story, Incredibles, or Avengers, you’ve touched a thread of Walt’s web. If you’ve been to a Disney Theme Park, you’ve stepped into Walt’s imagination. Walt Disney still holds the record for both nominations and wins in the Academy Awards: he was nominated for fifty-nine Oscars and won twenty-two. He transformed the animation and amusement park industries and has left a legacy in the hospitality and entertainment industries.
But, for all his genius, none of Walt’s dreams would have come to fruition were it not for his partnership with his brother, Roy. I first heard of their complementing gifts in Phil Vischer’s autobiography, Bob and Me. Walt lived in the clouds, I learned, while Roy had both feet planted on the ground. Jim Korkis wrote, “Walt may have dreamed castles, but it was Roy who got them built.” Unlike his brother, Roy was a brilliant businessman, helping redirect some of his brother’s more hare-brained ideas and executing his best ones.
OUR STORY OF CO-LEADERSHIP
When I came to New Life Bible Fellowship in 2015, I was hired as the Associate Teaching Pastor. The elders intended that I would be the first campus pastor as they sought to multiply healthy churches across Tucson. That would not come to pass. God had something different in mind.
In late summer 2018, as the church still sought to recover from a split in 2014 and a handful of other challenges, our Senior Pastor, Greg, approached me and asked if I would consider joining him as a co-lead pastor. God had already been at work in my heart.
I was becoming less convinced I was best suited to lead a smaller congregation. My skills were best suited to provide organizational leadership for a larger body. Beyond that, we were reevaluating our campus strategy. Other churches were telling us that the work of restructuring for multiple campuses wasn’t worth it unless we would eventually launch at least three. It was too much work to establish just one or two. That was daunting. Even if we were able to plant a campus under my leadership successfully, it seemed unlikely that we could raise up that number of other campus pastors internally, or that we could get that many external hires right. This challenge would be heightened if we pulled my strength of development out from the central campus.
Meanwhile, God had been at work in Greg’s heart. As New Life grew, he felt he did not possess the leadership gifts the church needed to move forward. Still feeling called as the senior pastor, he wanted to hire a long-term executive pastor or a co-lead pastor. As our relationship grew in trust, Greg began to see not only theological, philosophical, and missional alignment between us but also that we had complementing skills. It became clear (along with the elders) that God was calling us in the direction of co-leadership. We felt the church would benefit from the complementary giftings and mutual submission co-leadership infuses in leadership. We also thought it would help the church identify more with Christ and less on the personality of one pastor.
The process of shifting to a co-leadership model would take nearly a year. In May 2019, I was installed as a co-lead pastor alongside Greg. Four years later, Greg and I have a strong relationship and believe the benefits to the church and each other have far exceeded our expectations.
THE BIBLE’S CASE FOR CO-LEADERSHIP
Have you ever considered co-leadership in your church or even your business? Let me make a case for some of the benefits of such an arrangement. (Read the rest of the post HERE, A Case for Co-Leadership)
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