Two Senior Pastors at Xenos

Strange Things in Xenos
or Why Xenos will never be a model for other churches

30. Two senior pastors instead of one - Xenos has two lead pastors, or elders, Dennis McCallum and Gary DeLashmutt.

We consider this distinctive to be an unimportant and peripheral feature, by no means mandated in Scripture. In fact, both Dennis and Gary have stated they would not recommend this arrangement for most churches. The arrangement at Xenos is based on the unique history of these two men who have worked as partners for 30 years, after knowing each other since kindergarten! They were not only partners in ministry, but also co-owned a business for years before Xenos put them on staff.

Their partnership has been mutually beneficial, as they believe their personalities are complementary. But they believe it would be both difficult and pointless to try to duplicate such a partnership in most cases, and if one of them were to die or leave, almost certainly no effort would be made to replace the lost partner in a coequal role. Usually coequal partnerships become a deadlock and a liability, but in our case it seems to work out well.

Today, the two men (like most staffers at Xenos, where office sharing is encouraged) work every day in the same office, with their desks adjoining. They meet for breakfast, sharing and occasional prayer on Tuesday mornings at McDonald's, as they have for 25 years.

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