the CO-PASTOR setup...HOW DOES THAT WORK?

I am so blessed to serve 2 incredible pastors here at Grace Community...they are both incredible friends to me and I am stoked to go to work every day and serve with Ron Edmondson and Chad Rowland. One of the big questions we get at GCC is HOW DOES THAT WORK? Our answer is...it works for us here and now! God had a plan for GCC and it involved a copastor setup and it has really worked well for over three years. I serve side by side with these 2 guys and this is how it has worked here and Grace Community...HERE ARE MY RON AND CHAD STATEMENTS!

• Ron and Chad support each other and believe God has placed the other in leadership. It is called respect. If respect is not present the copastor setup will never work.
• Ron and Chad compliment each other. Their differences bring strength to the GCC family and they are not clones.
• Ron and Chad are OK with conflict. Copasors have to be OK with differing points of view and for health on our team these guys have to disagree at times.
  
• Ron and Chad are both EXCELLENT leaders. Either guy could lead this team on their own but God has united two strong leaders to support each other and lead this church.
  
• Ron and Chad support each others decisions. Both guys support the other when a hard decision is made. THIS IS A HUGE RESPECT FACTOR, every leader needs to know they can make the hard call and be supported. The guys support us as staff in the same way when we have made a tough call!
• Ron and Chad take time to dream, plan, and communicate apart from the rest of the team. This has been huge in making GCC all that is can be. To copastor you have to communicate clearly and often. This has really helped these guys stay on the same page!
• Ron and Chad lead from their strengths. Both guys take responsibility for different areas of the church that match their strengths! They also directly oversee different staff so that we all know who are our supervisors.
• Ron and Chad are both willing to LEARN! They learn from other churches, each other, their staff, books, conferences...they are learners and they listen to each other and folks on the outside.

Is this perfect? No! Will this work for your church? Probably not! Is this the most effective way to lead the church? Not sure but this was God's plan here! Does it get messy sometimes? Yes...BUT I would have it no other way. It has been an incredible adventure with these guys and I hope we are still rolling together ten years from now.