Over the years, David Whiting has served in influential churches across the country—leading teaching teams, shaping leadership structures, and helping pastors lead with greater clarity. I’m thrilled to welcome David to the LeadingSmart team as a Senior Consultant. Learn more about partnering with David.

For the past four and a half years, Holly Tate has been a trusted partner behind the scenes at LeadingSmart—helping us serve churches and leaders with excellence. Today, I’m thrilled to share that Holly is stepping into an even bigger role with us as a LeadingSmart Consultant & Executive Coach.

Leading a church requires the strategic mind of a CEO, the emotional intelligence of a therapist, and the spiritual discernment of a shepherd. And you better be ready to do it all under a microscope, with limited resources, and in a culture that sometimes resists the very change it needs.

Dave is joining me at LeadingSmart as a Senior Consultant & Coach. He’ll come alongside senior pastors and executive teams to help leaders navigate the very same kinds of complex transitions he’s lived through. As someone who’s sat in the senior pastor seat amidst hardship and transition, he brings wisdom, empathy, and strategic insight that can only be learned in the trenches.

I've never been more proud of a church in how they have navigated a significant leadership transition. What I watched unfold last week in the announcement should become a case study on how to have a smooth, momentum-building, transition.

You carry the weight of the vision cast from above, translating it into action through the organization, often with limited autonomy. You stand in the gap between the top leader’s expectations and the realities of execution, shielding them from the pushback while managing the frustrations of those below you. It’s an incredibly difficult and often lonely position.

I was 23 years old and started a role in a new department at the organization where I had been working for 5 years. My boss (let's call him Pete) was twice my age, had multiple college degrees, and had significantly more experience than me. Everyone else on the team was also older and more experienced than me.

A few months into the role, the president of the organization called me into his office and asked me to take over running the department. Pete wasn't leaving. He not only was staying in the organization, he was staying in the department. I would be Pete's boss. I'd also be overseeing the other staff who were once my coworkers. Talk about awkward.

The intensity around racial injustice increased as the summer continued. Just as I had never been on offense around topics of race, I had never been on defense either. Every person we hired who was not a person of color was met with disappointment and questions. Why do we keep hiring white people? Why is our candidate pool all white people? Why aren’t capable leaders of color applying for our roles?

As is true with schools, corporations, small businesses, government agencies, non-profits and all human-led entities -- some of them are led by people who are self-serving and corrupt. The church is not excluded. A few scandals and suddenly we think every megachurch pastor is committing fraud or abuse, or at a minimum putting their own interests above that of their church.

It's 2025. The world is shifting. We are facing changes all around us: politics, technology, climate, artificial intelligence, family dynamics, and more. As leaders, while holding tight to our core convictions, we must never stop changing and growing and learning. Every day we wake up, the world changed over night. We won't get the same results tomorrow doing the same thing we did yesterday.

The role of Senior Pastor is a really hard job. Do you want to make it a bit easier? If I could sit down with your pastor and ask, “What do you need from the men and women on your team?" -- I’m fairly confident I know what they would say.

Here are 11 things your pastor needs you to be…

When the budget needs to be cut, often we zero out the learning and development for our staff before anything else. Here is the problem. If your leaders are empty, if they are void of ideas, if they are uninspired or unmotivated or isolated or just exhausted -- then you aren't going to be able to move your mission forward.

Last month I was on a flight to Seattle. I boarded early and made my way to seat 7F to settle in for the nearly four hour flight. Everyone was on board and in their seats when a flight attendant approached me and said, "Excuse me Mr. Stevens, the pilots would like to speak with you."

That was a first…

I've long been a believer in pastors having side hustles well before I knew that's what they were called. The term "side hustle" has a long history that has changed over time but has emerged in the age of the internet and Uber and Etsy with a new meaning.

A side hustle, as defined by Entrepreneur.com, is "any type of employment undertaken in addition to one's full-time job. These are often freelance or piecework in nature, providing a supplemental income." 

My worth, sometimes without thinking about it, can be wrapped up in what I do. Or how I’m perceived. Is this true for you? When that identity goes away, whether by choice or not, you can lose your balance in life. Identity will change several times over your life. When it changes, you will find out how much it mattered to you.

Every day on the news channels, we are told that the world is about to end if fill-in-the-blank gets elected as our next president. We are told the "other" party hates America. We are told what to think, how to think, what so-and-so meant when they said certain triggering words. We are told what to watch out for among our neighbors and communities and churches. We are taught that anyone who doesn't agree with us should not be trusted and is a socialist or a right-wing nut job. 

It isn’t just “the internet” that diminishes and bullies and demeans others. Sometimes it is you. And me. And we do it without thinking. And it has consequences. We don’t just debate ideas. We crush the people who have views that don’t line up with ours. We establish our position, we “hang out” with people like us, and then we attack those who disagree. It is “us” versus “them” – and we find energy in establishing our position and destroying the people on the other side.

James Forrest is an attorney with Michael Best, and his specialty is working with churches and faith-based ministries. I interviewed him recently and was impressed by his story, his walk with Jesus, and the wisdom, skill and insight he and his team are bringing to more than 300 churches around the country.

If you want to have an impact well into your 60's and 70's and 80's -- there is only one way to do this. Get around young leaders and pour yourself into them. Learn from them, acknowledge them, cheer them on, be available to them, ask them great questions, believe in them, support them, honor them, make room for them, open doors for them. That is how you leave a legacy.