What Your Second Chair Leader Wants You to Know
I have spent well over 20 years in church ministry in multiple churches across multiple states as a second chair leader. Ultimately, I believe that the calling to ministry God placed on my life has been for secondary roles. It isn’t that the opportunity hasn’t been there to move into a lead/senior pastor role but that God has consistently kept that door shut and kept open administrative and education based roles. Over the course of those years certain things have consistently shown up. From the other side of things it seems that there are some things a senior pastor should know about working with a second chair leader, or leaders. Here are a few things second chair leaders wish the senior leader knew.
What’s a Second Chair Leader
A great starting point is to give some parameters to what exactly a second chair leader is. The term doesn’t refer only to the second in command pastor, such as an executive pastor, but it does include that role. For the purposes of this article the second chair leader is any full-time minister over a department, or ministry area, typically leading staff members or a group of volunteers to accomplish the task of ministry in their area. So, second chair leaders are student pastors, children’s ministers, discipleship pastors, etc…
It’s Okay that You Can’t Do Everything
Probably the most important thing to know is that you are limited. You are human. You can’t do everything. And that is okay. God made you that way. It is okay to trust the people you lead. Trust means you don’t micromanage and you know that things will get done. Things might not happen exactly the way you would do it, but that is the beauty of it. Ministry is multiplied through trusting the team to do their jobs.
They’re Called to Ministry Too
The call placed on a children’s minister’s heart is the same as any other pastor’s call. God calls people to different roles, places, and areas of ministry. The senior leader is not the only one at the church called to ministry by God. Calling is an important part of ministry at every level. It can be too easy to dismiss a second chair leader as if their calling is irrelevant. It isn’t. God has called them too and if God calls them then God uses them too. This reality means that they are a leader in every sense of the word too. Their leadership skills and strengths are just as vital to the mission and vision of the church. They are not diminished simply because they are at lower tier leadership level.
Loyalty is a Two Way Street
Senior leaders desire and demand loyalty. It is never fun to lead someone who is two-faced on a regular basis. Thing is, loyalty is a two way commitment. As a senior leader if you expect loyalty from your staff then loyalty should be at the top of your offerings to them. No second chair leader wants to work with a senior leader who tosses them under the bus and then gets in the driver’s seat as well. There are several words that could be put here as well: respect, care, support, trust. All of these things go both ways. If you demand it, but don’t give it, you shouldn’t expect to have an easy path forward in your organization.
Your second chair people want to see success in the organization and in you. But they also want to be seen for their contributions and efforts in seeing that success happen. Often, second chair leaders find themselves stuck and unable to express their own thoughts and needs. Taking time and making a deliberate effort to open the door to their ideas, strengths, and abilities will help the church and organization move forward faster and farther than you ever thought it could.