Forefront's Triune Leadership Model
As of January 2021, Forefront Church moved toward a triune leadership model, between three pastors tentatively called an Executive Council of Co-Pastors. As of fall 2021, Rev. Venida Rodman Jenkins and Rev. Josh Lee, joined Pastor Makenzie Gomez, making up our new Executive Council of Co-Pastors. These three individuals share responsibility for overall management and decision-making at the church.
This includes (but is not limited to) fundraising and overseeing budgets, including working with our bookkeeper; developing vision, mission, and strategy for the church, including sermon series and topics; managing the staff, and meeting regularly with the Leadership Team. We encourage the Executive Council of Co-Pastors to truly collaborate and work equally when it comes to the vision and voice of the church.
Within the Executive Council of Co-Pastors, each individual has areas of the church that are their specific focus but combined, they would be responsible for the elements listed below. The Executive Council works together to determine how to divide up tasks and day-to-day work, based on individual strengths, weaknesses, and bandwidth.
Manage the Technical Director, Worship Pastor, KidStuf Ministry Director, Bookeeper, and any additional staff, by helping them set goals, leading performance reviews, and coaching in any other way.
Liaise between Staff and Leadership Team.
Meet with all congregants, leaders, and newcomers, and provide spiritual direction and counseling.
Develop and implement Forefront’s vision, mission, and strategy (in conjunction with LT).
Balance the budget of the church and fundraise on its behalf.
Manage, in partnership with the LT, all administrative aspects of the church, including contracts, vendor relationships, and the like.
As an Executive Council of Co-Pastors, this group is responsible for communicating with each other on a regular basis, sharing updates from their respective domains, and running all large decisions by each other. When it comes to large decisions, no one person on the Executive Council has overriding veto power, and any disagreements come to the Leadership Team.
Relationship with Leadership Team
With this flat leadership model, all three members of the Executive Council of Co-Pastors report directly to the Leadership Team, who conducts regular check-ins and oversees their annual 360 performance reviews... Alongside the Leadership Team, the Executive Council is also responsible for the fiscal health of the church.
All major decisions that impact the overall operations of the church should come to the LT for discussion and approval. The Executive Council of Co-Pastors must also provide relevant documentation with regards to hires, vendors, and other contracts that have budget implications, and all must be approved by the LT in order to move forward. The Leadership Team provides documents to use in these instances.
The regular LT meetings include all three members of the Executive Council of Co-Pastors and all members of the Executive Council are encouraged to reach out to the LT as needed for operational, administrative, and governance support and guidance.
We are excited about this equitably shared leadership model and believe it is an example of equity and equality to the world. Will you join us in celebrating this new season in leadership and life at Forefront?!