“I think about the ongoing trauma of being a pastor,” says Andrew Ford, church strengthening director for Converge MSC. “I know trauma is a buzzword, but I think we underestimate how real that is for our pastors.”

A church is only as healthy as its leaders, and all 10 Converge regions have initiatives to care for leaders and their churches long before crises develop.

Knowing they’re not alone is a huge comfort, says Larry Adams, one of Converge PacWest’s church strengthening directors. That’s why church strengthening exists in Converge: to journey with churches and pastors to help them accomplish their God-given missions.

Healthy pastors and families

In Converge PacWest, church strengthening directors Larry and Karla Adams strive to provide holistic care for pastors and their families. 

“Pastors have LEAD Teams, but wives don’t have a place to get to know other wives,” says Karla. “I share about my own hurts as a pastor’s wife. Sometimes they just need me to listen. Many times they just need a sounding board they can trust.”

Converge PacWest also holds an annual retreat for the region’s pastors and their spouses. Breakout sessions allow pastors’ wives to get to know one another, and couples get a chance to reconnect to strengthen their marriages. 

A couple embraces at the 2023 Anchored marriage retreat in New Hampshire, an event Converge Northeast held for pastors and their spouses. Image courtesy of Converge Northeast.

All Converge pastors also have access to weekend Compass intensives, which are hosted by the national office and give pastors and their spouses an opportunity to self-evaluate their well-being and create a plan for the future. Some regions have Minister Assistance Programs, in which the region pays for a certain number of counseling sessions. 

A healthy gospel-centered community starts at its center, with the leaders God has called. Converge regions are committed to helping pastors care for their spiritual, emotional, and relational health so they can flourish in all aspects of their callings. 

Empowered staff and lay leaders

When Virginia Hills Church, in a town at the northern entrance to the Shenandoah National Park, wanted guidance on how to better reach its community, it invited Converge MidAtlantic’s church strengthening director, Jason Allison, to lead a vision day.

Jason simply facilitated a conversation and listened; he didn’t tell the church what he thought it should do. Throughout the process, the staff discovered that God had strategically placed the church to reach a few groups of people, including those who commuted to Washington, D.C. 

Following the vision day, the church empowered staff, trained up volunteer leaders, and built programs to help reach the community in new ways. The congregation has since doubled in size from 250 to 500 people and is baptizing dozens of new believers. With more clarity and confidence in its calling, Virginia Hills is helping its community discover new life in Jesus.

Virginia Hills Church is baptizing dozens of new believers as a result of its community outreach, which it expanded after inviting Converge MidAtlantic’s church strengthening director to lead a vision day. Image courtesy of Virginia Hills Church.

“When the whole church has a relationship with the region, the whole dynamic changes,” says Jason. Around the movement, church staff and laypeople can turn to their regions for help, because the regions are there to support the whole body of Christ, not just pastors. 

In Converge Rocky Mountain, Bethel Baptist Church worked with its regional office to strengthen internal systems and better care for its team. 

Bethel invited Drew Tarwater, Converge Rocky Mountain’s church strengthening director, to lead the pastors through a workshop using leadership development tools. They asked questions like how to handle one-on-one meetings with supervisors, how to lead staff meetings, and how to encourage staff to take a greater role in leadership. 

This framework has spilled over into the congregation, Drew says. “They’ve been seeing their leader culture rise, more volunteers, more people being engaged.”

Stability during sudden change

When churches undergo sudden leadership changes, associate pastors are often asked to step into roles they may not be equipped for. 

In Converge MidAtlantic, one associate pastor entered crisis himself after he was asked to assume leadership in a challenging situation. With the region helping cover preaching and teaching ministries for several months, the pastor was able to step away to care for himself. He got connected with counseling resources and attended Compass. 

Though the situation wasn’t resolved overnight, the church got the support it needed to continue its mission—because in Converge, no church journeys alone.

Church strengthening directors demonstrate the same love and care even for churches that aren’t part of Converge. 

In northern Michigan, Elk Rapids Bible Church, which was not part of Converge at the time, found itself in crisis when its pastor died suddenly. The pastor of a nearby Converge church connected Elk Rapids to the Converge MSC region. Elk Rapids found a new permanent pastor with help from Converge MSC. When that pastor, Dillon Wiltshire, began ministry, he joined a Together Group for ongoing peer support and prayer.

Preparation for natural growth

Even natural and joyful transitions, such as new church plants and retirements, can cause challenges, and regions are here to support churches through them all. 

When Forever Community Church in California emerged as a new church plant from an existing church, the pastor leaned on the Converge PacWest region for expertise in building a board and setting up a church government. By the time the first elders were installed, the church had developed a framework it could replicate when raising up future leaders.

Larry Adams, one of Converge PacWest’s church strengthening directors, helped church plant Forever Community Church set up a board, establish a church government, and create a leadership-training system. Image courtesy of Karla Adams.

Larry Adams, one of Converge PacWest’s church strengthening directors, identifies such changes as part of the natural life cycle of a church. Many of those changes can be planned for. For example, when the pastor of Hillside Church in California was set to retire, the church worked with Larry to find an interim pastor through Interim Pastor Ministries. The retiring pastor created a phase-out plan, and the board has used Larry’s guidance during the process of interviewing candidates for permanent pastoral placement.