Advertise on podcast: David Fletcher: Business Brain + Pastoral Heart = The Executive Pastor

Ministry HR is evolving quickly. Leaders need to know which trends are worth embracing and which deserve a more cautious approach. Join us as we discuss limitations and pitfalls with HR outsourcing, unsafe AI usage, and why a well-crafted staff handbook remains one of the most valuable tools for building a healthy, compliant workplace.

Your signage and graphics speak before your staff does. Join executive pastors and the design experts at Enviropop (a division of Visioneering Studios) as they break down the do’s and don’ts of church graphics and wayfinding. What builds trust and what creates confusion? What small changes make the biggest difference for your guests? Fletch and Mike go way back, years in ministry together, so it will be a fun and insightful discussion.

Executive Pastors know that vision alone doesn’t move a ministry forward—teams do. Yet many church teams find themselves stuck in survival mode, battling misalignment, disengagement, communication breakdowns, and leadership fatigue. Join Fletch and Slingshot Group CEO Tim Foot as they unpack the principles from Tim’s new book, Reaching for Remarkable. Drawing on decades of experience staffing and serving thousands of churches and organizations, Tim will share the seven signatures that consistently distinguish remarkable teams from merely functional ones. You’ll learn practical strategies to: Build a healthier, more aligned staff Increase trust, ownership, and engagement Identify hidden traps limiting team effectiveness Lead through growth, change, and complexity Create mission momentum through remarkable teamwork Because every remarkable mission deserves a remarkable team.

And Save Hours Every Week If your financial systems feel harder to maintain than they should be, you’re not alone. Many churches operate with unnecessary complexity that slows down teams and reduces clarity. In this practical webinar, you’ll learn how to identify what’s adding complexity—and how to eliminate it without sacrificing control or compliance. We’ll specifically address and provide: The most common drivers of complexity in church finance. How to push back (constructively) on requests that add unnecessary reporting burden. The connection between policy design and accounting workload. Simple, actionable ways to streamline funds, reporting, and systems.

Enhancing the First-Time Experience Creating a meaningful and memorable first impression is essential for welcoming guests to your church. In this engaging talk, you’ll learn six practical strategies to transform how first-time visitors experience your space. From empowering greeters to foster genuine connections to simplifying navigation with clear signage and thoughtful design, these hacks will help your church create an environment that feels approachable and inviting. You’ll also explore the importance of clarity over creativity, meaningful guest gifts, and intentional follow-up to ensure every visitor feels valued and encouraged to return. Perfect for church leaders looking to improve their hospitality and build deeper connections with their community! Dave Milam is the Chief Strategy Officer at Visioneering Studios. He stands firmly at the intersection of ministry, design, and visual storytelling. Dave served in the church for over 20 years. Dave has a heart for guiding pastors through unique challenges of ministry to awaken the beauty that God has placed within them and their facilities. His writing has been featured in LifeWay, Outreach Magazine, Influence, Christian Standard and other national periodicals.

Why This Webinar? Why Now? For the first time in four decades, church attendance is rising. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research’s 2025 study of 7,453 congregations found that median in-person attendance climbed to 70 adults—above pre-pandemic levels—for the first time in 25 years of tracking. Scott Thumma, the Institute’s director, said his team checked the data twice because they didn’t believe it. That’s genuinely good news. But it arrives alongside a cost structure that has fundamentally changed, community service demand that is surging, and a giving-per-capita trend that hasn’t kept pace with headcount. Churches that don’t model for this gap, and don’t understand how a lender reads it, are exposed in ways they may not yet see. “A full parking lot and a funded budget are not the same thing. The lag between attendance growth and giving growth is real, predictable, and manageable, if you plan for it.” This will be a 45-minute webinar with Jeremy Moore, of BMO Religious Institution Banking, the nation’s largest financial institution with a dedicated team serving faith-based non-profits.

Without Losing Your Sanity! Few things stretch an Executive Pastor like a building project—it’s exciting, exhausting, and full of surprises. ChurchWay Advisors founder Mike Kern will walk through the six phases of solving a space constraint problem from start to finish—from developing a realistic budget and securing the right financing, to navigating a capital campaign, and keeping the construction process on track. You’ll leave with real-world tools, lessons learned from the field, and the confidence to lead your next project—without losing your mind or your ministry focus.

Have you ever walked alongside a family in your church after the loss of a loved one—only to discover there was no plan in place? The result is often costly probate, family tension, and unnecessary financial strain. There is a better way. Join Fletch and Chris Goulard, Vice President of Financial Planning Ministry, for an important webinar on how your church can help families prepare through thoughtful estate planning. Not only does this bring peace of mind to your congregation, but it can also open the door to meaningful legacy giving that strengthens your church’s future. Learn how to serve your people well—while creating lasting impact for generations to come.

Did you know that last weekend, 5 million Americans were part of a multisite church? That more than 50 U.S. churches have 10 or more campuses? That the larger or faster-growing the church, the more likely it is to be (or become) multisite? As this live webinar airs, almost 1,000 multisite leaders will have participated in a still-open survey titled, Multisite Unpacked: Trends, Tactics, and Tomorrow. Overseen by Dr. Warren Bird, Jim Tomberlin, and Sean Morgan, it is the largest national multisite study to date. Warren will reveal some of the preliminary findings, and discuss them with Fletch. Meanwhile, if you are already multisite, please take the survey so that we can find guidance on asking questions like these: Should we use more video teaching, or less? Is it better to centralize or decentralize campus oversight? What is the minimum size needed to launch a healthy new campus? How long does it typically take a new campus to become financially sustainable?

Your church’s finances are more than spreadsheets; they’re a reflection of stewardship, vision, and trust. Gain practical insight into key financial matters executive pastors should be monitoring, including succession planning, fundraising, budgeting, fraud prevention, technology, and more. Whether you’re new to the executive pastor role or refining your leadership approach, you’ll learn strategies to help guide your church toward financial health and mission alignment.

Churches are called to extend grace—but also to protect the vulnerable. How do you balance redemption with responsibility? This conversation explores the legal boundaries and pastoral challenges of welcoming high-risk individuals like registered sex offenders into church spaces. Discover how to create clear, defensible policies that safeguard both people and ministry.

In church building projects, it’s easy to equate bigger spaces with greater impact—but that’s not always the case. This session explores how thoughtful planning and strategic budgeting can create more meaningful ministry spaces without unnecessary square footage. We’ll discuss how to align your vision with your resources, avoid overbuilding, and focus on the spaces that truly drive impact. Because the goal isn’t just more space—it’s more ministry.

Many churches rely heavily on background checks as the solution for child sexual abuse risk. Is this heavy reliance well-founded? In this webinar, Gregory Love will address the realities of background check effectiveness. Love will also explain other factors that further impact background check effectiveness that are unknown to ministry leaders: federal and state legislative limits on search scopes and reports, state record purges, corners cut by background check vendors, and more. Gregory Love and Kimberlee Norris have a nationwide sexual abuse litigation practice representing victims of sexual abuse throughout the country. In addition, Love & Norris provide consulting services to secular and ministry organizations providing services to children. Representative clients include the United States Olympic Committee, Awana International, Church of the Nazarene, the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, Gladney Center for Adoption, and many church and para-church schools, camps and ministries. Love and Norris serve as directors of MinistrySafe, a consulting organization designed to help churches, Christian ministries and camps understand and address child safety risks related to sexual abuse. For additional information, go to MinistrySafe.com.

Summer programs bring energy and growth opportunities, but also unique supervision challenges. In the last few years, Peer Sexual Abuse has been the largest risk in summer programming. In this session, Gregory Love, attorney and founder of MinistrySafe, will help church leaders proactively address this often-overlooked risk in VBS, camps, retreats, and youth activities. Participants will learn to recognize risk factors, strengthen supervision practices, and better respond to concerning behaviors; participants will walk away with practical, actionable steps to create safer environments for children and youth this summer. Gregory Love and Kimberlee Norris have a nationwide sexual abuse litigation practice representing victims of sexual abuse throughout the country. In addition, Love & Norris provide consulting services to secular and ministry organizations providing services to children. Representative clients include the United States Olympic Committee, Awana International, Church of the Nazarene, the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, Gladney Center for Adoption, and many church and para-church schools, camps and ministries. Love and Norris serve as directors of MinistrySafe, a consulting organization designed to help churches, Christian ministries and camps understand and address child safety risks related to sexual abuse. For additional information, go to MinistrySafe.com.

Over our 18 years, we have spent more money and time researching interviewing spouses than maybe any singular issue. If you win the spouse, you win the house! Come learn from our mistakes, and what we have picked up along the way. William Vanderbloemen is founder and CEO of Vanderbloemen Search Group. In 2008, William combined more than fifteen years of experience as a senior pastor with the best practices of executive search to forge a brand-new industry: executive search for values- and faith-based organizations. The firm is known worldwide for excellence in identifying talent and values matches for teams and has been recognized with numerous awards: Forbes Magazine named it as one of the best small businesses in the country. Entrepreneur magazine named Vanderbloemen as the best company culture in the country. William is regularly invited to speak in both church services and as a resource to churches and conferences on leadership. William is the author of multiple books including, "Next: Pastoral Succession That Works," "Search: The Pastoral Search Committee Handbook," and "Culture Wins: The Roadmap To An Irresistible Workplace." Vanderbloemen has studied data gathered over the last fifteen years and lessons learned in three thousand searches to determine what habits the very best candidates exhibit and how others can learn those habits. This research study resulted in his newest book, "Be The Unicorn: 12 Data-Driven Habitsthat Separate the Best Leaders From the Rest."