Rev. Yolanda Villa, Executive Pastor of Congregational Care at Resurrection, has been announced as a planned appointee to the cabinet of the Missouri Annual Conference. She will be missed here at Resurrection and I believe will provide excellent leadership on the cabinet.
There has not yet been an announcement about who may fill the role of Executive Pastor of Congregational Care. This individual will make a significant impact on the Congregational Care team and on the church. As this is my first appointment, I have never experienced a supervising pastor being reappointed. I would really appreciate anyone’s thoughts or experience in this area.
- As an associate, what is it like to have a new senior or lead pastor?
- Did the change affect the role of the associate? If so, how? If not, why not?
Rev. Andrew Conard 
2 replies on “Executive Pastor of Congregational Care”
Andrew-
I am an associate at Platte Woods Church in the north suburban KC area. In fact, I replaced Yolanda when she left to go to COR.
We went through a senior pastor transistion about 2 years ago and it was not easy. Some of the best advice I can give you is get to know the expectations of the new senior and learn their habbits and tastes. Basically, treat it like any other time you start a new position with a new boss. Be open and ask if they see your duties changing any under thier new direction and offer any help you can from your experience. In a church your size, it is important to share as much as you can about the people you know, becasue the learning curve is so high and it takes so long to get to know people.
THe change here did affect my role in several ways. Most of them had to do with the new senior’s expectations of his associate’s. My senior had previously been a senior elsewhere and thus he knew what he expected from his associates.
I hope this helps.
Peace,
Chris
Chris – I really appreciate your thoughts and comments. I had not particularly considered the possibility of a change in role. It will be interesting to see what happens come July 1. Did you find that you had to be very intentional in seeking out expectations, habits and tastes? Or was it pretty clear from the beginning? Thanks!