A Case for Co-Leadership (Part I of II)
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. Most of what I want to say pertains to leadership in the church but could have meaningful carryover to other businesses. In the next article, I will provide some cautions.
Why would you want to have a co-leadership model? Elders are assigned with the local church’s leadership and are always spoken of in the plural (Acts 14:23; 16:4; 20:17; 21:18; Titus 1:5; Heb 13:17; James 5:14). Why would God design the church like this? We can find several reasons tucked away in an unlikely place. Nearly a millennium before the church, in an era that tended to lean on individual leaders, the author of Ecclesiastes writes:
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Eccl 4:10–12)
We find four reasons for plurality here. First, the plurality of leaders multiplies the harvest. Second, many leaders protect the church if one leader grows weary or stumbles. Third, plurality provides more leaders to carry the burden of leadership, warming hearts that might grow cold alone and softening hearts that might grow hard. Fourth, a plurality of leaders allows for spiritual protection against the threats against the flock.
In Acts 20:28–31, Paul extrapolates on the threat of the corruption of the truth. He admonishes the elders at Ephesus,
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. (Acts 20:28–30)
Overseers recognize that “fierce wolves” who speak “twisted things” will come. The church needs more than one guard against this perpetual threat. After all, “In an abundance of counselors there is safety” (Prov. 11:14).
I understand elders, pastors, and overseers to be different terms for the same office. I see this in passages such as 1 Peter 5, where Peter uses all three ideas in one passage to refer to the same leaders. Speaking of this passage, there is wisdom in plurality because it expands the shepherding reach of the leaders. Peter urges elders to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you” (1 Pet. 5:2). Most leaders lead most naturally to those who are similar to them. A diverse but unified plurality allows the church’s leaders to connect more naturally with a broader swath of the local congregation.
Biblical leadership, I am convinced, reflects this principle of plurality, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be a co-leadership structure among two lead pastors. However, there are some benefits for your church or organization in having a co-leadership model.
Co-leadership allows a daily partner to offer a different perspective and mutual sharpening. While most interpretations of biblical eldership assume that the senior pastor is the first among equals (from the elder team), it can be challenging to live out. In practice, the weight of leadership often falls to the senior leader. Most day-to-day execution is led by the senior leader with the board providing more high-level support. Greg and I felt the gift of this sharpening through the barrage of decisions made during the height of the Covid crisis. I was so grateful to have someone offer wisdom and sharpen my thinking as we made many difficult decisions.
Co-leadership can provide friendship. Many leaders are lonely. There are realities of confidentiality that often preclude a leader from processing information that can exacerbate the feeling of isolation. Something as simple as sharing political opinions with members of the congregation can be dangerous for a leader to do. Co-leadership can help provide a sympathetic ear to process life and laugh with.
Co-leadership helps remind the leader that the church is God’s, not any one leader’s. We all know that the church isn’t ours, but there can be a temptation when we lead in isolation to functionally believe the lie that the church is ours.
Co-leadership can help remind the congregation that the church isn’t about a person; it is about God.
Co-leadership can help protect against the challenges of succession planning. If Greg or I were to have something catastrophic happen to either of us—or be called by God elsewhere—the transition to the other leader would be much smoother.
Co-leadership invites the leader to develop collaborative skills and grow in humility.
There are so many benefits of co-leadership. I know my partnership with Greg has blessed me in many ways. Perhaps God might use this to help you consider the possibility of co-leadership. Before you jump in, there are some dangers to consider. In my next post, I will consider those.
* To read Part II of this series, click here.
John Beeson serves as co-lead pastor at New Life Bible Fellowship in Tucson, Arizona. He attended Gordon College and Princeton Theological Seminary and is married with two kids. He blogs at The Bee Hive. He is the coauthor of Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World and the forthcoming Trading Faces: Removing the Masks that Hide Your God-Given Identity.