Co-Pastoring: How Three Churches Have Made It Work

HINSDALE, IL (July 24, 2001) - As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

The writer of Proverbs may not have had co-pastors in mind while writing this well-known Bible verse, but for two teams currently serving in co-pastor situations the statement is perfect. Numerous Evangelical Covenant churches have multiple staff arrangements - some using a husband-wife team to pastor, others using separate staffs to minister to different congregations within the same church building. But few have used two assigned pastors to share equally in a senior pastor position.

At Hinsdale Covenant Church, Jim Kramer and Paul Allen enjoy the co-pastor paradigm. In San Diego, California, Lyle Heinitz and Greg West have been co-pastors at Clairemont Covenant Church. In Santa Barbara, California, pastors Jon Ireland and Chuck Wysong have helped plant Ocean Hills Covenant Church. Each has its unique story.

Hinsdale Covenant Church

Two years ago, Hinsdale Covenant called Allen to co-pastor with Kramer, who has been at Hinsdale Covenant since 1993. Kramer had served under longtime senior pastor John Wiens. When Wiens retired, Kramer told the congregation he would serve as senior pastor during the transition period, but that he did not want that position permanently.

"Hinsdale Covenant's search committee asked me if I was interested (in being the senior pastor) and I said no, so they decided to look for a pastor who could work with the current staff," Kramer said. "Being there for five years, there was a trust level. They knew what I could do and could not do. So they knew what they had to look for. They talked with me and asked what I'd want to do in an ideal church. Then they looked for someone to complement that."

The co-pastor model wasn't new to Kramer. He had seen a co-pastor model work in several Lutheran churches. He also knew about Heinitz and West in California. And God provided a complement to Kramer from a church not too distant in DuPage County. Allen was an associate pastor at Naperville Covenant Church, a church less than 30 minutes away, who was interested in a new call. Allen talked to the Hinsdale Covenant search committee and was called as a co-pastor in the summer of 1999. He couldn't imagine a more perfect situation for his gifts.

"This is what I was wired for," said Allen. "I never saw myself as a senior pastor. I grew up in a home where my dad (a pastor) did that and I looked at a church being more of a team or broader-based ministry. This is for me, my personality, and I've enjoyed seeing how that works.

"It's probably not for everybody or for every church," he continued. "I feel there are many who aren't wired for that type of ministry and this (co-pastor) role. The associate or assistant pastor will get comments like, 'When are you going to get your own church and be a pastor?' I react by saying that it's not my church anyway, and I am a pastor. But I like being a full-fledged pastor where everything doesn't get dumped in my lap. It allows your gifts to come forward and it brings around other gifted people."

Kramer says he is most heavily involved in missions, Christian education and preaching. He also works with the Building and Grounds Committee. Allen preaches, teaches, works with the diaconate and does the bulk of the visitation for the church. The two pastors also understand that congregations at times want to know who makes final decisions on certain issues. "They want to know where the buck stops," Kramer said. Because the Covenant church relies heavily on congregational polity, both Kramer and Allen believe that church boards and councils should have more say on such matters. They feel blessed by the competent lay leadership at Hinsdale Covenant and are glad to have their input.

"I hate that sense that I am a boss or that I could be bossed," said Kramer. "Our church constitution says that the sole authority lies with the church council and board, so when there are big issues, we've brought them to the council. I think that in the church there's no hierarchy of giftedness. I am not any more important than anyone else in the church in God's eyes. This model encourages the priesthood of all believers."

"When you blunt the top of the organizational chart, it flattens out the power structure," Allen observed. "The buck stops, but it stops at different places. There's an empowering of the broader leadership team because there isn't a key senior leader driving or bottling up a ministry."

Kramer believes that a co-pastor paradigm can open churches to the idea of multicultural and gender-inclusive team ministries. "It provides a future model for the Covenant that would allow women to become co-pastors of a larger church. It would allow another church to hire a Hispanic pastor and the church could start a Hispanic ministry. It would allow an Anglo church in a border neighborhood to hire an African-American pastor. It would help the Covenant be more multicultural."

Clairemont Covenant Church

In 1995, senior pastor Darryl Larson left Clairemont Covenant Church and the church board asked Heinitz and West to partner in the role of senior pastor. Heinitz had served in Christian education positions for 13 years in three churches, including five at Clairemont. West had been a youth pastor five years at Clairemont Covenant, having previously worked in youth ministry at two other churches. They and their families were friends, which they believe has helped in defining roles and handling the everyday stresses of a congregation of 250 people.

"The congregation brought up the idea," Heinitz said. "It came from the executive committee. They asked if we would consider doing the work together. We were both pretty convinced he (West) was going to be a youth pastor for a while and I was going to be a Christian education pastor for a while. Greg and I felt we were going to give it a try, while their perspective (congregation's) was that it was something we were going to do (permanently). They felt like Greg and I worked well together, and I think we thought it could work from the beginning."

Heinitz says he and West do not delineate responsibilities on paper. "We do not have a written job description," Heinitz said as he discussed how work is divided. "We simply have an agreement that when Greg is preaching I do the hospital visits and vice versa. With counseling, we both do it and some have gravitated to Greg, and some have gravitated to me. We think it works well.

"Greg and I have complimentary styles," Heinitz continued. "Greg tends to be more of the thinker and dreamer, and I tend to be more of the doer and the administrator, which works well. The younger people (45 and under) are realizing that more and more businesses are doing teamwork. I think, for them, this (co-pastor arrangement) isn't surprising."

West believes a co-pastor model would not work for someone who needs to be the final authority on all issues. "We need to come to consensus on major issues before we can move forward to our council. We have to share more openly and deeply with each other how God is working within us, as well as how we see God working within the church."

Has West been surprised by anything about the co-pastoring relationship? "The surprise is that it has worked so well for so many years - we're still really good friends," he said, chuckling. "Actually, we believe very strongly in this model and we are committed to seeing it work. I think it's a good model for the whole church. People have different gifts and abilities and the more they realize that they should combine their gifts, the better off we are as a church. It keeps us from the personality cult, where a church gravitates toward a certain pastor and people leave when the pastor leaves."

Ocean Hills Covenant Church

Ireland had been at Montecito Covenant Church for 13 years as an associate pastor working with youth and families when the idea of planting a church in the area was first discussed. Ireland was interested in helping start the church and discussed the idea with Montecito senior pastor Curt Peterson and church planter David Olson. The area of interest was five miles from Montecito. The congregation agreed to help, raising $100,000 and sending 40 adults to give Ocean Hills Covenant Church a quick boost.

Ireland had discussed co-pastoring a church with Chuck Wysong long before the church plant idea surfaced. Wysong had been a longtime pastor at Peninsula Covenant Church in northern California and had known Ireland through youth events. Once Ocean Hills Covenant Church became a viable co-pastor option in 1998, Wysong left his position in the former Department of Christian Education and Discipleship (now Christian Formation) where he coordinated youth ministries for the Evangelical Covenant Church.

"It was scary; you wonder if anybody's going to come," said Ireland. "But that's part of the faith journey. We prayed and fasted for a week before we made a decision to do this. God really spoke to us in scripture as we prepared. And when you feel like God's calling you into it, you move forward."

Neither Ireland nor Wysong had been a senior pastor before, but the pair have taken youth ministry principles and used them to develop a congregation of 400 with two worship services. Ocean Hills Covenant Church meets in the Veteran's Memorial Building, located just a few yards from the beach, and has reached a more informal audience with high-energy worship and relational ministries.

Ireland generally oversees youth and small groups. He said he preaches and teaches about two-thirds of the time. Wysong oversees celebration and worship and children's ministries, preaching about one-third of the time. Both pastors are involved in areas of leadership development.

"We've just said let's do youth ministry with adults," Ireland said. "All the same principles we did in youth ministry apply. We knew there were three areas where we needed to hit a home run: celebration/worship, youth and children's ministries and community life ministries."

"Jon has a heart for evangelism and lost people, but that's my passion," Wysong said. "Jon is a great nurturer and discipler and is great with small groups. Jon took small groups as his personal role. I had developed a worship team and a drama team (at Peninsula Covenant) and that was my niche. But I needed time to understand the (Santa Barbara) culture to help me reach people for Christ. I said to Jon, you've lived in this area for so long, why don't you take most of the speaking role? We had to look at each other's gifts; we had to look at each other's hearts."

Accountability has been a key part of co-pastor ministry in Santa Barbara, according to Wysong. "We've caught each other before we made a mistake or gone down the wrong road," he said in describing the decision-making process in a shared-ministry environment. "He's there for me, and I'm there for him. It's been a sounding board situation that's been incredible. We've had some charged up conversations, but we're communicating together every week to stay in constant clarification. We look at each other all the time and say, How could we have done this alone?"

Ireland believes the cooperative aspect of co-pastoring cannot be overemphasized. Power-hungry pastors need not apply for this kind of working relationship, in his opinion. "You've got to set aside your ego," he said. "You've also got to be willing to keep short accounts. If things bug you, you've got to bring them up. I didn't want to plant a church alone and I didn't need to be the senior pastor. I've really been committed to not having to be in control. Some people need to know who is in charge . . . but we're committed to doing this together."

For more information about Hinsdale Covenant Church and its co-pastor paradigm, call Allen or Kramer at 630-323-2318.

For more information about Clairemont Covenant Church and its ministries, call Heinitz or West at 858-279-6130.

For more information about Ocean Hills Covenant Church and its story, call Ireland or Wysong at 805-965-9283.

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