Dan Zimbardi, Executive Pastor at Sandals Church in Riverside, California, has helped lead a church that began with eight people in a living room to fourteen locations reaching 40,000 to 50,000 people each week through in-person and digital gatherings. Eleven of those fourteen came by merger, and Dan's counsel on church combinations is less about deal structure than posture: enter the conversation kingdom-minded enough to walk away, keep your word on the far side of the vote, and send the person with the right demeanor into the room. Honor has since become a cornerstone of how Sandals approaches every church it adopts.

The conversation turns to the relationship every XP navigates, and Dan is candid that his ability to challenge his senior pastor is a function of fifteen years of accrued trust rather than title. He describes the arrangement as 51/49, names the mistake of demanding influence six months into a role, and puts the harder question back on the listener: what do you need to adjust to earn it? He calls his approach "punch and hug," the deliberate pairing of directness with encouragement, and argues the starting point is knowing your own wiring well enough to know which one you owe the room. On hiring, he's equally direct; integrity and chemistry over talent, because the messes he's inherited all trace back to overlooking a lack of authenticity in someone who brought a lot to the table.

Dan also brings a technologist's read on where churches stand with AI: adoption is nearly universal among church staff, but almost no one has a plan, and the fix starts with alignment on policy and guidelines before a roadmap. He offers a pointed comparison from his years at Google; churches are notoriously slow to respond and short on urgency, and while some of that is the genuine work of waiting on the Lord, much of it is fear or inattention. He closes on sustainability with the habit he credits most: pushing ninety percent of his inbox back out through delegation, not to lighten his own load but to position the church to keep growing after he's gone. Plus a challenge to isolated XPs everywhere, an unapologetic pickleball habit, and what he'd tell the discouraged executive pastor driving home tonight.

Ken Fisher, Executive Pastor at Church of The Mill in South Carolina, spent 25 years in financial services and healthcare (CVS) before answering a call to ministry later in life. He joins James Forrest fresh to talk about leading one of the fastest-growing churches in America — from 1,200 in weekly attendance on a single campus in 2016 to roughly 6,000 across three campuses today.

Ken walks through what it's taken to scale: growing staff from under 20 to nearly 100, building a robust Biblical counseling ministry that now serves over 100 people a month, and making a deliberate, costly pivot to over-invest in next-gen ministry even when it meant lower per-family giving. He's candid about the tension between two types of executive pastors — lifelong vocational ministers and business-background transplants like himself — and where each tends to have blind spots, along with how AI is starting to show up as both a helpful tool and a stewardship question in ministry work.

The conversation turns personal as Ken reflects on the corporate-world "grind culture" he's had to unlearn, his church's decision to intentionally slow down every July to let staff recharge, and why he considers himself an "extroverted introvert" who recharges at a cabin in the North Carolina mountains. He closes with advice for the next generation of XPs: surround yourself with smart people, resist the urge to control everything, and remember that ministry growth isn't about chasing numbers — it's about executing well and letting God do the rest.

Drew Essen, Executive Pastor at The Woodlands Church near Houston, joins James Forrest for a candid conversation about leading through rapid growth. Drew's path into ministry started with a guitar and a worship team, wound through a series of "18-month assignments" building out communications and discipleship, and eventually led to seminary and the XP role — where his gift for systems and structure finally found its home.

With Woodlands having expanded from two campuses to four and added a second-language service in just a few years, Drew talks about the real work of maintaining organizational clarity and staff culture at scale — including why his church has intentionally called this a "base camp year" to pause and acclimate before the next stage of growth. He also digs into two issues showing up across churches right now: staff compensation in a high cost-of-living market, and the fast-moving questions around how (and whether) to use AI in ministry.

Drew opens up about learning to have hard conversations with both honesty and pastoral care, why patience has been one of his hardest lessons as a naturally fast-moving leader, and how an executive coach has helped him learn to "keep his peace" instead of letting the job rob him of it. He closes with a reflection every growth-minded XP will recognize: the temptation to always chase the next initiative instead of pausing to celebrate what God is already doing — plus a surprising confession about his high school theater career.

Eric Weight, CFO and Executive Pastor at North Coast Church in San Diego, spent over 20 years in corporate finance and mortgage lending before a simple prayer — and an unexpected phone call two weeks later — led him into full-time ministry nearly 15 years ago. He joins James Forrest to talk about leading the financial and operational backbone of one of the largest multi-site churches in the country, and how the XP role has shifted from a "chief of staff" function into running what he calls a genuine enterprise, complete with California employment law, multi-site logistics, and the reality that a church is simultaneously an employment company, a production company, and a school.

Eric is refreshingly honest about the limits of self-reliance in the XP seat: rather than trying to be the one who solves every problem, he's learned to bring in subject-matter experts for situations his team will only face once a decade but outside experts handle every day. He also unpacks how North Coast has tackled two of the toughest challenges facing XPs nationally — talent and succession — through a formal compensation study benchmarked against market data, and a leadership academy that develops young talent starting in high school.

The conversation covers hard-won lessons on hiring (chemistry and references matter more than competency once you're at the senior level), why churches too often make budget decisions based on the loudest voice in the room instead of data, and a candid admission that North Coast's investment in student ministry staffing hasn't delivered the results they hoped for. Eric closes with what may be the most practical takeaway of the episode: how North Coast's culture of enforced two-week vacations and a protected Sabbath day — modeled from the top by senior leadership — finally broke his own instinct to stay tethered to his laptop on every vacation.

Glenn Wood has spent over 30 years with Seacoast Church. Seacoast Church grew from a congregation of 600 to a 16-campus network reaching roughly 25,000 people each weekend. In this conversation with host James Forrest, Glenn traces that journey — from taking a 70% pay cut to join the church staff, to becoming one of the most respected executive pastors and operations leaders in the country.

Glenn unpacks how dramatically the XP role has expanded, from simple bookkeeping and building maintenance to managing accounting, HR, IT, legal risk, and large-scale construction. He shares hard-won lessons on counting the true cost of building projects (and never forgetting the trash cans), navigating the constant reorganization that comes with multi-site growth, and why the hardest conversations — like addressing underperformance — are often the ones leaders avoid the longest.

The discussion turns personal as Glenn reflects on staying grounded without ever being "the front guy," the importance of building real community with other XPs so you're never facing tough decisions alone, and his own regrets around work-life balance early in his career.

Dan Vander Wal, Executive Pastor at 12Stone Church in Atlanta, GA, joins host James Forrest to share his journey from a business management background into ministry, driven by a conviction that churches should operate with the same excellence and leadership rigor as top organizations — while staying rooted in prayer and dependence on God.

The conversation covers the biggest challenges facing executive pastors today, from the staffing shortage created by economic pressures, a wave of retiring Boomer pastors, and competition from creative agencies, to the growing need for specialized roles like marketing, communications, and IT within churches. Dan also highlights encouraging trends — a renewed openness to faith among Gen Z and young adults, and the momentum behind church planting — alongside real concerns about integrity at the top of large, personality-driven ministries.

Dan closes with a candid look at how he stays grounded: rejecting the myth of "balance" in favor of finding a sustainable rhythm, protecting non-negotiables like workouts, weekly time with his wife, a coach, and taking Fridays off, and his advice for pastors stepping into bigger leadership roles — relax, remember God is building the church (not you).

Tim Stevens brings a rare vantage point to this conversation: over 40 years across five ministry organizations, including executive pastor roles at Granger Community Church and Willow Creek, and now founder of Leading Smart, where he coaches, advises, and gathers executive pastors nationwide. James Forrest talks with him about how the XP role has grown more complex over the past 25 years — from the rise of multi-site churches to the speed at which crises, scandals, and social media pile-ons now unfold compared to a generation ago.

Tim gets specific about how he led Willow Creek through a fragile post-scandal, mid-COVID season — including a striking story about extending grace to a staff member who anonymously trashed leadership on a Zoom call, and a generous, judgment-free "resignation window" that let over 100 people self-select out of an organization that needed a reset, without turning it into a purge. He also breaks down a blind spot common to leaders at every level: information flows downhill, not uphill, meaning executives are often the last to hear the full truth about their own culture — and why getting out of your office and building real feedback loops matters more than any survey.

The conversation moves through practical territory that will resonate with any XP: how to distinguish performance problems from culture problems (and why high performers with poor culture fit are often the most dangerous to ignore), how to develop the next generation of leaders by deliberately handing off pieces of your role, and why succession planning shouldn't be reserved for the lead pastor alone. Tim closes with reflections on leaving organizations without burning bridges, the two years he stayed too long in one role, and his own non-negotiable habit for sustainability: fanatical calendar blocking — treating time with his wife, kids, and health with the same seriousness as any meeting.

David Thompson, Executive Pastor at The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, joins for a conversation spanning 20+ years of ministry alongside pastor JD Greear. David's origin story as an XP is a great one — when JD first offered him the role, he had no idea what an executive pastor even was, so he found a job description online, swapped in his own name, and brought it back to JD saying, "I think this is what I should do."

David speaks candidly about the two things he hears most from executive pastors nationally: tension with their senior pastor, and a pervasive sense of isolation that comes from not having anyone at their own church to process that tension with. He credits Summit's remarkable growth — from a vision of one 1,200-person campus to 13 campuses and over 100 church plants — to prayer, a willingness to set aside personal preferences for the sake of mission, and an unusual commitment to sending out their very best leaders rather than holding onto them. He also unpacks how Summit uses a simple framework (Essential, Priority, Optional, Discouraged) to keep campuses aligned with the church's DNA without micro-managing them.

The conversation turns personal as David describes working through burnout with a counselor, choosing sustainable rhythms over a one-time sabbatical, and how a tool called Inbox Pause transformed his mornings, his workouts, and his presence at home — while still honoring his team's expectations around responsiveness. He closes with the reminder every XP needs to hear: your growth is your own responsibility, so seek it out deliberately, in your walk with God and in your leadership development.