Are you a part of the Vineyard Movement? Do you live in New Jersey? I’ll be at Vineyard’s Better Together conference this summer from July 21-23 and I’d love to connect. Even if you are not a part of the Vineyard, you can join our XP lunch on Thursday, July 23rd. Shoot me an email for more details.

Phil and Tyler sit down with longtime executive pastor, author, coach, and leadership mentor Dan Reiland. Dan reflects on his ministry journey, beginning as John Maxwell’s second intern and eventually becoming one of the pioneering executive pastors in the modern church movement. He shares stories from his years at Skyline Church, the Enjoy ministry, and his 25-year tenure at 12Stone Church.

In this episode of Backstage Pastors™️ Podcast, Phil and Tyler welcome veteran executive pastor and leadership consultant Tim Stevens for an in-depth conversation on ministry leadership, organizational health, and sustainable service in the second chair. Tim reflects on nearly 40 years of ministry experience spanning nonprofit leadership, Granger Community Church, Vanderbloemen, Willow Creek, and now Leading Smart.

In this episode of the Backstage Pastors™️ Podcast, Phil Taylor and Tyler Drewitz welcome Nathan Young and Dave Hartman, co-authors of How to Be Second to discuss the identity, strengths, and challenges of second-chair leadership. The conversation explores why some leaders are uniquely wired for supporting roles, how executive pastors and operational leaders thrive, and why being second is not a stepping stone but a meaningful destination.

Phil Taylor interviews Clay Scroggins, former leader at North Point Community Church and author of How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge. Clay shares his journey from engineering student to pastor, his experience serving in multi-site church leadership, and his transition into speaking and consulting.

In this episode, Kadi Cole joins the Backstage Pastors™️ to discuss her unexpected journey into ministry and her passion for developing female leaders in the church. She shares how her experience as often the only woman in leadership led to the creation of the Women Executive Pastor (WXP) Network, now supporting hundreds of women in executive roles.

In this episode of Backstage Pastors™️ Phil and Tyler sit down with David Fletcher, founder of XPastor.org, one of the most comprehensive resource hubs for executive pastors. David shares the origin story of his work, which began out of a lack of available research and has grown into a platform with thousands of resources and hundreds of thousands of annual users.

The conversation explores practical tools available to executive pastors, including free courses, weekly webinars, and a robust salary database built from billions of dollars of church compensation data. David explains how churches can leverage this data for better, more objective compensation decisions and discusses the value of independent compensation studies.

In this episode of the Backstage Pastors Podcast™️ Phil and Tyler interview Jeremy Peterson, Executive Pastor at One Church in New Hampshire and a leader involved with the XP Summit. Jeremy shares his ministry journey from student ministry in Texas to leadership roles in multi-site churches and eventually serving in New England—one of the most unchurched regions in the United States. He explains the unique leadership and staffing challenges of ministry in that environment and how his church has responded by developing local leaders.

In this episode, Phil and Tyler sit down with Kyle Nabors, a seasoned executive leader who has served in both large churches and global nonprofits. Kyle shares insights from decades of experience, including time at Kensington Church (a 10,000+ attendee church) and Mercy Ships, and reflects on leadership, culture, trust, and the nuanced role of the executive pastor.

In this episode of The Backstage Pastors Podcast™️, Phil and Tyler sit down with longtime friend and ministry partner Ed Marcelle to explore the dynamics of the Lead Pastor (LP) and Executive Pastor (XP) relationship. Drawing from their shared history planting Terra Nova Church in upstate New York, the conversation traces Ed’s journey from solo church planter to national church planting leader. Along the way, they unpack lessons on burnout, vision, organizational leadership, team-based ministry, and the importance of mutual submission between LPs and XPs. The episode also highlights Ed’s transition into his current role serving church planters across the country and reflects on what it means to steward God’s investment in leaders for long-term, generational impact.

In this episode of the Backstage Pastors Podcast™️, hosts Phil and Tyler kick off the series by welcoming longtime executive pastor, author, and consultant Mike Bonem. The conversation centers on the origins and evolution of the executive pastor (XP) and second-chair leader role, drawing heavily from Mike’s seminal book Leading from the Second Chair and his more recent work Thriving in the Second Chair.

I’m excited to be launching a 10 session cohort for Executive Pastors, starting on Nov. 5th, 2025.

This cohort is designed for Executive Pastors/Second Chair Leaders navigating the complex and often demanding intersection of vision implementation, operations, staff leadership, and church health.

In this practical, peer-driven learning experience, you’ll journey through the real-world challenges and opportunities faced by XPs, gaining tools, wisdom, and strategies to lead with clarity, confidence, and spiritual integrity.

The cohort will begin on November 5th at 2PM-3:30PM EST and continue every 1st and 3rd Wednesday for ten sessions finishing just a little bit before Easter 2026. I’ve set this up in such a way that it does not conflict with any holidays.

What to Expect:

Recently, my friend Rich Birch from UnSeminary.com had me on his podcast to discuss the Executive Pastor role and my new 10th Anniversary edition of “Defining The Executive Pastor Role”. This is the third time I’ve been a guest on Rich’s show. He’s always so generous with sharing that platform and the conversation is always meaningful and engaging. You can check it out at this link.

10 years ago, I had the privilege of writing a book called “Defining The Executive Pastor Role”. It’s hard to believe that much time has gone by since I wrote it! Way back in 2014 when the book came out, I had the intention of following it up with a second book, also for Executive Pastors, and possibly a third. But life got in the way. Our church was growing at a very fast clip. We needed more staff, more space, more everything. And that second book stopped short after I’d written a couple chapters.

Then, I started getting questions about a teaching I’d done on Elder Development at a couple conferences. Those questions turned into phone calls and those phone calls turned into a book that you’ll find on Amazon called “Eldership Development: From Application To Affirmation”. As it turned out, both of these books did really well and found their way around the globe without much effort. Along the way, I started doing a lot more coaching with pastors and consulting with churches. In 2022, I shifted into serving other churches full-time (instead of my own church), and that was bit of a learning curve in and of itself.

As 2023 began, I realized that 1. I wanted to update the XP book. 2. I had good content hidden in evernote files that needed to be at least added to the original. 3. I had gotten great feedback on what was missing from the original book and I wanted to add it.

So I set a goal.

Publish the new version of Defining The Executive Pastor Role in 2023! I worked diligently on the update (if not somewhat sporadically) and as fall 2023 came on, I was within striking distance of finishing the project. Unfortunately, I also realized that my work for PlainJoe Studios with churches across the nation and internationally had me entering a season that would create travel 10 out of 12 weeks straight through mid-december.

So I did what anyone would do. I altered my goal. I would at least get the updated manuscript to an editor by the end of the year. It’s ok if publishing it happened in 2024.

With this new goal in mind, I worked hard to finish things up on the weekend and on planes. As Christmas approached I decided to take the time between Christmas and New Years off completely from my day job with PlainJoe Studios. (No pastors were working anyway, so it was fine). I put a solid three days into one final push and on New Years Eve, 2023, I sent the newly updated manuscript off to my editor and rested in knowing that I had met my goal! (Even if it was altered a bit from earlier in the year).

The book is now with my editor. After that, it goes to my formatter. Cover design update is in the works with my graphic designer. My hope is that the updated version will be live on Amazon by the middle to end of February 2024. Stay tuned! I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

UPDATE:: Due to a death in the family, the release of this book will move to April, 2024.

Recently, I was on a coaching call with a great Executive Pastor that I have the privilege of coaching. He’s working on a building project for his church and as such, he’s moving a lot of money around. 300K almost got moved into a hackers account!

At the end of our coaching call, I said “Hey, can we take 5 minutes and record this story? I want to share it with others so they can learn from you.” I hit record on Zoom. Please forgive the bad lighting and productions skills. This is just meant to be a quick thing to help you out.