A pastor elect is a minister who has been chosen to lead a congregation but has not started the job yet. The word elect works here the way it works in president elect. Merriam-Webster gives that sense of the adjective as “chosen for office or position but not yet installed.” The title is temporary by design. It ends the day the person is installed. After that they are simply the pastor.
What the title actually covers
Pastor elect names a gap in the calendar, not a rank. The gap opens when a church settles on who its next pastor will be. It closes at the installation service. Most questions about the term are really questions about that gap. What happens inside it depends on how the church is governed.
One correction first, because most writing on this phrase has it backwards. Pastor elect is not an office. It carries no job description. Four governing documents were checked for this page. None of them use the term at all:
- Chapter 20 of the Presbyterian Church in America Book of Church Order, the chapter titled The Election of Pastors.
- The Orthodox Presbyterian Church Book of Church Order.
- The ELCA Model Constitution for Congregations.
- The constitution and bylaws of First Southern Baptist Church in Goshen, Arkansas, a standard congregational document.
The term lives in the practical paperwork instead. A presbytery uses it to hand out jobs. Churches print it on installation programs. The Presbytery of Carlisle writes that “The Pastor-elect is responsible for developing the worship service for the ordination and/or installation service.” Wake Chapel Church, a Baptist congregation, printed “Senior Pastor-Elect Sharon Davis Dean” through its April 2021 installation book. A Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod church in Clintonville announced the July 2021 service for “Pastor-Elect Caleb Rothfuss.”
Who chooses the next pastor, and what has to clear
Two things set how the window behaves. Who does the choosing, and what still has to be approved afterwards. Four kinds of church government are compared on both below, plus whether each uses the term in its own rulebook.
| Church government | Who chooses the next pastor | What still has to clear | Term used in its own rulebook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Congregational (Baptist, independent) | The gathered members vote. The Southern Baptist constitution checked here requires “an affirmative vote of three fourths of those present being necessary for a choice.” | Nothing above the local church. The church picks the date and holds an installation service. | No. It turns up on the installation program instead. |
| Presbyterian (PCA, OPC, PCUSA) | The congregation votes, but the vote is a request rather than a hire. The PCA order reads “In every case a majority of all the voters present shall be required to elect.” | The presbytery has to find the call in order and approve its terms, then “appoint a time to meet to ordain and install him.” | No, though presbytery practice guidelines use it throughout. |
| Lutheran (ELCA) | The congregation calls “by at least a two-thirds vote of voting members present and voting at a meeting legally called for that purpose,” after seeking the synod bishop’s advice. | The letter of call is attested by the synod bishop. The bishop, or a minister the bishop designates, presides at the installation. | No, though the installation rite uses it once. |
| Appointive (United Methodist) | No one in the congregation votes. “Clergy shall be appointed by the bishop, who is empowered to make and fix all appointments in the episcopal area of which the annual conference is a part.” | Nothing is voted on. The appointment is announced and takes effect. | No, and it has nothing to attach to, because nobody is elected. |
Where each line comes from:
- Congregational: the First Southern Baptist Church constitution.
- Presbyterian: PCA Book of Church Order 20-4, and OPC Book of Church Order XXII.10 and XXIII.7.
- Lutheran: ELCA Model Constitution C9.01 and C9.04, and the ELCA installation rite.
- Appointive: United Methodist Book of Discipline paragraph 425.1.
What a pastor elect actually does before the installation
The clearest published answer comes from the Presbytery of Carlisle, in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Its guidelines for planning installation services hand five tasks to the pastor elect.
- Pick the commission. “The Pastor-elect is responsible for selecting the members of the Commission, with the exception of the Moderator of Presbytery who is automatically a member of the Commission.”
- Get the names and the date approved. “Once the commission is formed, the pastor-elect shall submit the names as well as the date and time of the service to the committee on ministry, through the Stated Clerk, for approval.”
- Send the invitations, which the guidelines call “the responsibility of the Pastor-elect.”
- Plan the service. “The Pastor-elect is responsible for developing the worship service for the ordination and/or installation service.”
- Ask first about communion. “If the pastor-elect desires to include a Communion celebration in his or her ordination or installation service, prior approval must be obtained from the Presbytery or from the Committee on Ministry acting on the Presbytery’s behalf.”
Notice what is missing. Preaching, teaching and running the church are not on that list, because the pastor elect has not started. Every task is about arranging the service that ends the title. At the service itself, a ruling elder from the congregation presents the pastor elect, who then answers the constitutional questions.
How long someone stays pastor elect
There is no fixed length. None of the documents checked for this page sets one. The window runs until the steps in the table above clear. That is why a congregational church can install a pastor as soon as it picks a date, while a presbyterian church waits on a presbytery meeting.
It is also why the common claim that a pastor elect is on a trial period does not hold up. None of the documents checked describe probation, review or replacement attached to the title. The person has already been chosen. What is still pending is paperwork and a date, not the decision.
Pastor elect, the elect, and elder
Two nearby words mean something else, and they get mixed up with this one.
The elect, in Christian writing, means the people God has chosen. It has nothing to do with a congregational vote.
Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Elder is a standing office rather than a waiting period. In Presbyterian Church (USA) usage the pastor is a teaching elder. That is why the Carlisle guidelines tell churches the bulletin should read “A Service of Installation of Teaching Elder (Name) as Pastor of (Name of Church).” Ruling elders hold a separate office, and they are members of the congregation. One of them presents the pastor elect at the service.
What the phrase tells you on an invitation
If you have seen pastor elect on a flyer, a bulletin or a church website, it carries three pieces of information and no more.
- The church has already decided. The choosing is finished.
- The person has not begun. The date on the invitation is a start, not a checkpoint.
- Something is still outstanding. What it is depends on the church government. In a congregational church it is usually just the date. In a presbyterian church it is a presbytery approval. In a Lutheran church it is the bishop’s attestation of the call.