Leading Well: Leadership & Management Skills for Pastoral Leaders

Stewarding people as faithfully as you shepherd souls.

Program Overview

Leading Well equips clergy and spiritual leaders with the essential management and leadership skills rarely taught in seminary but critically needed for effective ministry. This program recognizes that pastoral leaders wear multiple hats—serving as spiritual guides, organizational leaders, team builders, and problem solvers—and provides practical tools to excel in each role.

The Challenge We Address—Seminary prepares clergy to preach, teach, and provide pastoral care, but most graduates have never learned how to:

• Conduct a performance review

• Have a difficult conversation with an underperforming staff member

• Set clear expectations and hold people accountable

• Coach team members toward growth

• Navigate the unique challenges of managing both paid staff and volunteers

• Balance grace with truth in personnel decisions

The result? Talented pastoral leaders struggle unnecessarily with personnel issues, avoid difficult conversations, allow problems to fester, and watch ministry effectiveness suffer—all while feeling guilty about treating "church like a business."

Who This Program Serves — This training is designed for:

• Senior pastors and lead clergy responsible for managing staff

• Executive pastors and ministry directors with supervisory responsibilities

• Emerging leaders preparing for increased management responsibilities

• Church administrators navigating the intersection of pastoral care and personnel management

Schedule an introductory call to explore what works best for you.

Program Curriculum

Coaching for Growth: Multiply your impact

• Shift from "doing ministry" to "developing ministry leaders"

• Ask powerful questions that unlock potential

• Provide feedback that motivates rather than deflates

Move from "I'll just do it myself" to "I'll invest time equipping others”

Managing Performance: Clear is kind

• Set clear, measurable expectations aligned with ministry vision

• Conduct meaningful performance conversations (not just annual reviews)

• Distinguish between character issues, competency gaps, and role mismatch

Balance grace with accountability, care with clarity

Building Accountability: Balance grace and grit

• Establish healthy accountability structures without micromanaging

• Navigate dual relationships (staff member who's also a congregant)

• Address long-standing issues you've been avoiding

Create structure without becoming legalistic; maintain relationships while addressing issues

Module 4: Situational Leadership: Fairness versus sameness

• Lead effectively across generational and cultural differences

• Match your leadership approach to different situations and circumstances

• Respond to change by maintaining greater awareness of changing expectations

Treating people fairly doesn't mean treating everyone the same; know when to extend grace and when to make the hard call

Program Distinctives

1. Spiritually Grounded, Practically Focused

This program integrates spiritual principles of stewardship, leadership, and care with proven management practices.

2. Ministry-Specific 

The curriculum is taught in the context of actual scenarios and situations common in faith communities and church management. 

3. Action-Oriented Learning

Each module includes practical tools and frameworks you can implement immediately. 

5. Peer Learning Community

You'll learn alongside other clergy leaders who share similar challenges. Build a network of trusted colleagues who understand the unique pressures of church leadership.

Call to Action

When ministry teams thrive, congregations flourish. When leaders avoid personnel issues, everyone suffers—including those whose performance needs attention.

Leading Well gives you permission, tools, and confidence to steward your team as faithfully as you steward the gospel.

Because the church deserves leaders who can both cast vision and coach teams, both preach powerfully and manage wisely, both care for souls and build accountability.

Are you ready to lead well?

The next cohort opens soon. Contact me about scheduling options. 

Jennifer Haase Morris, Lead Coach for this Program

In addition to what you can read about my experience, you should know that I recognize and appreciate the messy and the mundane in church leadership.

My spiritual journey began in baptism by a fiery Methodist pastor in a small rural town in Kansas, continued through lay leadership roles in churches small (100-250) and large (7,000+) in Kansas, Atlanta, GA, and now in the Seattle area. And life as a pastor’s wife gave me front row seat to many of the issues that you experience.

Leading Well integrates some of the best management and leadership development content that I have offered to corporate and non-profit organizations with real-life scenarios and situations from lived experiences in church management. My intention is to bring the wisdom of experience – both inside and outside the church – to this learning environment.