🔶 LEVEL 6 – ASSOCIATE PASTOR

• Completed Level 5 – Assistant Pastor
• Demonstrated excellence in departmental leadership and team mentorship
• Endorsed by the Congregational Pastor or Senior Leadership Team (SLT)
• Actively leading in cross-departmental ministry oversight
• Serving 10–12 hours per week, including pastoral meetings and oversight
• Consistently using email and Planning Center for system and leader management

• Overseeing REACH, CORE, or LEAD as entire ministry systems
• Mentoring Assistant Pastors and Junior Pastor 2s
• Ensuring consistency and strategic alignment across departments
• Resolving high-level leadership, structural, or directional challenges
• Supporting the Congregational Pastor in long-term strategy and staff health

• High-level vision casting and issue processing
• Feedback on leadership, strategy, and personal soul care
• Collaboration with peers across ministry systems
• Prayer and accountability for long-term fruitfulness

1. Sustaining Spiritual Leadership – Build and commit to a long-term rhythm of soul care.
2. Guided Team Reflection – Lead a reflection session for a department on spiritual health.
3. Mentoring Assistant Pastors (2 stages) – Guide APs in spiritual leadership and identity in Christ.
4. Vision Prayer Walk – Pray through ministry spaces and discern God’s direction.

1. System Vision Presentation (3 stages) – Cast vision for your ministry system to a large audience.
2. Collaborative Communication Strategy – Coordinate messaging across multiple departments.
3. Feedback Conversations Practice – Learn to give challenging but grace-filled leadership feedback.
4. Senior Leadership Devotional – Teach a devotional with theological depth and pastoral application.

1. System Audit & Integration Plan (3 stages) – Evaluate your system’s alignment and growth areas.
2. Mentorship Strategy Map – Design how Lay Leaders are mentored up through Junior Pastors 2.
3. Change Management Report – Reflect on a transition you led—what worked and what didn’t.
4. Multi-Team Leadership Reflection – Assess how you support and mobilize leaders across teams.
5. Succession Planning Document – Identify and prepare a leader who could eventually take your place.

• Support Department Heads – Mentor Assistant Pastors to lead with clarity and conviction
• Establish Systems – Ensure ministry practices are consistent and integrated
• Resolve Structural Gaps – Identify and address breakdowns in leadership flow or team clarity
• Validate Strategic Plans – Review and refine departmental plans for church-wide alignment
• Equip Mentors of Mentors – Help APs grow in mentoring their Junior Pastors and Lay Leaders

• Weekly TAG with Congregational Pastor and fellow Associate Pastors
• Attend all Saturday Pastoral Staff Meetings
• Be present and available during Sunday Worship Services
• Regularly use Planning Center Online and email for oversight and collaboration
• Receive coaching and evaluation from the Congregational Pastor or SLT

1. Practice Personal Soul Care – Stay grounded spiritually in the midst of high-level demands
2. Pursue Life-Giving Relationships – Cultivate strong bonds with other leaders and mentors
3. Preach the Word in Season and Out of Season – Speak with pastoral clarity and theological maturity
4. Produce Disciples & Disciple-Makers – Shape a leadership pipeline that multiplies others
5. Provide Strategic & Spiritual Oversight – Lead ministry systems with vision, alignment, and heart