Episode Overview
In this insightful episode of the Revitalize My Church podcast, host Bart Blair engages in a deep conversation with Ed Short, a seasoned ministry leader whose experience spans over four decades in pastoral ministry and church consulting. Their discussion provides crucial insights for churches navigating the challenging waters of pastoral transition, with particular emphasis on situations involving the departure of long-tenured leaders.

The Foundation: Assessment Before Action
Ed Short emphasizes that the key to a successful pastoral transition begins long before the search itself. Churches must first take a careful look inward, assessing their current effectiveness and understanding their unique cultural dynamics. This period of self-reflection allows the church leadership to dream about future direction and develop a clear vision for where they want to go. Without this crucial groundwork, churches risk making hasty decisions that could lead to unsuccessful pastoral placements.

The Modern Search Process
Gone are the days when finding a new pastor was as simple as posting a generic job description. Today's effective search process requires a comprehensive approach that goes far beyond basic qualifications. Ed discusses the importance of creating detailed, specific job postings that clearly communicate both the church's current reality and future aspirations. He strongly advocates for the use of multiple assessment tools, including the Working Genius assessment, DISC profiles, and spiritual gifts inventories, to ensure a thorough understanding of potential candidates.

Building Chemistry and Relationships

One of the most overlooked aspects of the pastoral search process is the importance of relationship building during the candidating phase. Ed shares valuable insights about moving beyond formal interviews to create opportunities for genuine connection. He recommends including extended visits that involve both the candidate and their spouse, suggesting activities that allow for natural interaction and conversation. These informal settings often reveal more about potential fit than traditional interview questions ever could.

The Compensation Conversation

The discussion takes a practical turn as Ed and Bart address the often sensitive topic of pastoral compensation. They emphasize the importance of creating packages that allow pastors to focus fully on ministry without financial stress. The conversation includes thoughtful considerations about cost of living differences between locations and the importance of basing compensation on skills and experience rather than family size. They challenge churches to think generously about their overall package while acknowledging the real constraints many congregations face.

Creating Healthy Transitions

The final portion of the episode focuses on best practices for managing the actual transition between pastors. Ed strongly recommends considering a temporary break for departing long-term pastors, suggesting a 9-12 month period away from the church. This approach gives new leadership space to establish relationships and build trust before implementing changes. He emphasizes the critical importance of the first year, encouraging new pastors to focus on relationship building rather than immediate vision casting.

About Ed Short

Ed brings a wealth of experience to this conversation, having served as a Lead Pastor for 25 years, along with roles as...

Bart highlights 5 books to read in 2025 to help you revitalize your church!

Subtitle: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory

Think of Lewis and Clark showing up at the Rocky Mountains with canoes - that's exactly what it feels like trying to lead a church today with methods that worked decades ago. Tod shows us how to adapt when our old playbook isn't working anymore, mixing practical leadership wisdom with deep spiritual insights about leading change in uncharted territory.

“Most of our congregations are filled with people who are blessed by what was done in the past. Leadership today is most effective, not by the way we solve problems, but by the questions we ask.” HOW WILL WE GET OVER THESE MOUNTAINS?

Subtitle: Creating a Gospel Legacy Throughout North American

If your church has struggled you’ve and wondered if there's still hope, Mark Clifton's "Reclaiming Glory" is going to give you both the inspiration and the practical steps to believe again. Drawing from his real-world experience revitalizing struggling churches in Kansas City, Mark walks you through exactly how to help a declining church rediscover its mission and become a vibrant presence in its community again.

“A replanting pastor is seeking to reclaim ground for God’s glory, ground that has been under enemy control for years - if not decades. Changing music style, adding coffee and updating your outdoor signage won’t get the job done. This ground will only be won back by prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit and real hand-to-hand spiritual combat.”

Subtitle: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions

Here's a bunch of penguins living on an iceberg who discover their home is about to melt, which is basically the perfect story to understand why change in your church is so urgent right now. Just like these penguins had to convince their colony to move before disaster struck, Kotter's fable shows leaders how to help their people understand why staying put in old ways isn't an option anymore and how to get everyone moving in a new direction together.

WELCOME: Handle the challenge of change well and you will prosper. Handle it poorly and you put yourself and others at risk.

Subtitle: 3 Things Healthy Churches Do and the Fuels That Sustain Them

Make Disciples. Grow Disciples. Send Disciples.

Just like your body needs healthy circulatory, nervous, and respiratory systems to thrive, I...

In this illuminating episode of Revitalize My Church, Build Groups founder Adam Ehrlichman shares his expertise on developing effective small group ministries. Drawing from his experience of doubling group participation at multiple churches, Ehrlichman introduces a practical six-part framework for small groups success: discover, develop, deploy, connect, coach, and care.

The conversation explores how churches can successfully integrate small groups alongside Sunday School programs, with each ministry serving unique but complementary purposes. Ehrlichman emphasizes the importance of proper leader development, warning against the common mistake of placing leaders before preparing them.

Particularly valuable is his insight into how small groups impact overall church health, from increased giving to improved volunteer engagement. Whether you're considering launching small groups or strengthening an existing ministry, this episode provides clear, actionable strategies for building sustainable group communities that foster deeper discipleship and authentic relationships.

In this episode of the Revitalize My Church podcast, hosts Bart Blair and Nathan Bryant discuss the importance of clear church governance and polity in revitalization efforts. Many struggling churches face challenges related to leadership structure, accountability, and decision-making processes. These issues can hinder progress and make it difficult for churches to move forward in a unified direction.

The conversation begins by addressing common scenarios churches face, such as long-time influential elders resisting change, constitutions that no longer serve the current needs of the church, and a lack of clarity regarding the pastor's role and authority. Bryant emphasizes the importance of the elder board operating as a unified front, even if there are disagreements during the decision-making process. He shares an example of a church where an elder stepped down after recognizing his vision did not align with the rest of the board, allowing the church to move forward.

Blair and Bryant discuss the need for flexibility when it comes to church constitutions, as they were written to provide guidance but should not hinder the church's ability to function effectively. They encourage churches to view their constitution as a tool to serve the church rather than the church serving the constitution.

Bryant then outlines a four-team polity structure that can help churches navigate governance and decision-making:

1. College of Elders: A group of spiritually qualified men who provide leadership and guidance to the church. The elder board, consisting of 3-7 members, is a subset of this college and is responsible for approving decisions and holding the church in trust.

2. Executive Team: Led by the lead pastor, this small team (2-3 people) helps execute the vision and handle daily operations of the church.

3. Ministry Team Leaders: These individuals oversee various ministries within the church and are accountable to the executive team.

4. Church Members: Congregants who serve on one of the above teams to support the church body.

The hosts also address the role of women in church leadership, acknowledging that while their particular church context has male elders and pastors, women can contribute significantly to the health and effectiveness of the church through roles on the executive team, as ministry leaders, and on ad hoc vision teams.

For pastors looking to develop elders, Blair and Bryant recommend investing in and discipling key men in the church from the outset, implementing an elder training track, and learning from other churches that have successfully navigated this process. They stress the importance of having strong, local spiritual leadership to support the pastor and share the burden of decision-making.

The episode concludes with a reminder that the primary purpose of elders is to ensure that lost people are being saved and saved people are being discipled, as seen in the early church (Acts 6:1-7). While practical matters like finances and facilities are important, they should not be the sole focus of elder meetings. By structuring the church leadership team effectively, elders can delegate responsibilities and maintain their focus on advancing God's kingdom.

Bible Passages:
- Acts 6:1-7 - The appointment of deacons to serve the needs of the church
- 1 Timothy 3:1-7 - Qualifications for elders

• Eric's background and journey from full-time ministry to co-vocational ministry in NYC
  
  
• Understanding the difference between bivocational and co-vocational ministry
  
  
• Common objections to co-vocational ministry and how to address them
  
  
• Identifying transferable skills from ministry to marketplace
  
  
• Managing time and responsibilities as a co-vocational pastor
  
  

• Co-vocational ministry is a long-term strategy where pastors maintain both church and marketplace roles
  
  
• Bivocational ministry is typically a temporary arrangement until full-time ministry becomes viable
  
  
• Co-vocational pastors often report better work-life balance and longevity in ministry
  
  
• Churches need to shift from depending solely on paid staff to activating the whole congregation
  Pastors have many transferable skills including communication, leadership, and project management
  
  

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  Market Street Pastor (Eric Hoke's book)
  
  
• ihelpastorsgetjobs.com
  
  
• The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter
  
  

In this episode of the Revitalize My Church podcast, host Bart Blair interviews Pastor David Hsu from West Houston Christian Church. Pastor David shares his story of immigrating from Taiwan to the United States at age 14, working as an electrical engineer after college, then feeling called to ministry and attending Dallas Seminary.

In 1993, Pastor David joined a new Chinese immigrant church plant in Houston called West Houston Chinese Church. He started out doing youth ministry and working with second generation English-speaking adults. In 2000, at just age 35, he took over as senior pastor when the founding pastor retired and passed the baton to him.

Over his 30 years at the church, Pastor David has led the congregation through a cultural shift as the surrounding community has changed. When he first joined, services were predominantly in Chinese except for the youth. But over time, they developed an English-speaking adult ministry and saw more intermarriages. Pastor David had a vision to grow the church beyond just a Chinese immigrant congregation.

However, when he first proposed the idea of a name change to remove the ethnic label about 10 years ago, he was surprised by significant pushback, including from some non-Chinese members who felt the Chinese identity was core to who they were. Realizing he needed to lay more groundwork, Pastor David pulled back at that time.

In the following years, even though a name change was not the immediate goal, the church went through a process of clarifying its mission, vision and values. Working with the Auxano consulting group, they developed a vision frame and landed on a new mission statement: "Welcoming sojourners home to the joy of following Jesus together." This provided a biblical foundation for their identity as a church of immigrants seeking to welcome all.

They fleshed out a three-part vision of expanding their "tent" through 1) Spiritual formation 2) Identity maturation in understanding their Kingdom mission and 3) Missional multiplication through church planting. When Pastor David presented the name change in the context of this broader vision, he found overwhelming support from leaders and the congregation. A 2022 membership vote affirmed it with 99% in favor, a dramatic turnaround from a decade earlier.

Pastor David emphasizes that becoming a church that welcomes all is an ongoing journey, not an overnight rebranding. A name change may open the door a little wider, but people will ultimately stay based on the church's hospitality, missional living and community. He describes how a visitor to West Houston Christian today would still find a predominantly Asian American congregation, but one that embraces its diversity with multiple languages used in services. The warm culture is expressed in weekly lunches together after service, which amazingly they still manage to pull off for their 800-1000 weekly attendees even after scaling back from an in-house kitchen ministry to catering.

In terms of advice to other pastors seeking to lead change, Pastor David counsels that vision must be rooted in relationship. Rather than a leader pushing their own genius ideas, they need to walk with others so there is collective ownership. He has found that clarifying mission and values provides a unifying framework to move forward amid differences over worship style, outreach methods or other potentially divisive issues. He also recommends bringing key leaders to visit other churches that have gone through revitalization to catch a vision for what the Holy Spirit can do in their own congregation.

As influences in his own leadership, Pastor David cites the Leadership Summit in earlier years, and more recently Exponential's resources on church multiplication, which have shifted his focus from just growing his own church to adva...