Phil Taylor on Defining the Executive Pastor Role

Описание: Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining us for this week’s unSeminary podcast. Today we have Phil Taylor from Mosaic Church in central Florida on the show.

Mosaic Church started on Easter 2003 and currently has three locations. Being in the backyard of Disney World, Mosaic serves a lot of people involved in the entertainment and theme park industry and so that culture is one of their biggest focuses. Phil is the executive pastor of leadership and development at Mosaic. He spends half of his time at Mosaic developing people into leaders within the church and the other half working on the next project the church is building toward. Phil talks with us today about the key role of the executive pastor and how to support the vision passed on to you from the top.

Internalize the idea. // When he was first out of seminary, Phil became a lead pastor. It wasn’t long however before he realized that his calling was better suited toward a second chair role rather than the lead chair. He felt that God had given him the skills to assist lead pastors who have the ideas and vision, but not the organizational skills necessary to bring vision into reality. So in the executive pastor role, Phil takes the vision of the lead pastor and internalizes it so it becomes his own. In doing so, Phil is able to explain and uphold the vision as well as the creator so that he can support and execute on it while working with the rest of the staff.

Communication is vital. // The lead pastor and executive pastor need to fully trust each other and communicate often. “If the lead pastor walks into a room of thirty people and says he has this big idea, but it’s the first time the executive pastor is hearing about it, then you have a major problem between the lead pastor and the executive pastor,” Phil says. Phil and his lead pastor meet each week for at least an hour. During that time, Phil asks what God is speaking to his lead pastor and what ideas he has. They then talk about those visions and whether they can do them now, later, or whether the idea would work at all. By the time the idea is presented to the rest of the team, the lead pastor and executive pastor should have already talked about it several times and the executive pastor has some ideas on how to achieve it.

Build trust. // As Phil says with a laugh, “You can turn to any marriage book and find tips on how to build trust—that works between the lead pastor and executive pastor too.” Trust is another vital part of the relationship between these two roles. Phil is open and honest with his lead pastor. They talk about their lives outside of the church and he and his wife go on double dates with the lead pastor and his wife. Phil also suggest keeping a list of things that need to be discussed with your lead pastor. It may be things they need to talk about extensively or it may just be updates on projects or problems within the church. That keeps the lead pastor in the loop on everything happening within the church so that he isn’t caught off guard if a staff person or church member brings up a certain topic with him.

You can learn more about Mosaic Church at their website thisismosaic.org. You can reach Phil at his website http://www.backstagepastors.org where you can learn more about his book series for executive pastors The Backstage Pastor.

Episode Highlights
00:35 // Rich introduces Phil Taylor and welcomes him to the show.
01:04 // Phil introduces us to Mosaic Church.
02:33 // Phil details his job role.
04:43 // Phil gives us an example of how he brings vision into reality.
08:18 // Phil talks about the Lead Pastor/Executive Pastor role.
12:33 // Phil talks about the important of building trust between the Lead Pastor and the Executive Pastor.
16:20 // Phil talks about effective hiring.
19:58 // Phil and Rich discuss hiring internally versus externally.
22:25 // Phil talks about The Backstage Pastors Series.