Archbishop Steve Wood

Archbishop Steve Wood: The Pastor Primate

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Archbishop Steve Woodโ€™s story is a compelling tale of Godโ€™s grace in life and ministry. Godโ€™s handprint is evident from his early ministry as a small-parish pastor in Ohio to growing a larger congregation in South Carolina, from founding the Diocese of the Carolinas to his unexpected election as archbishop, and with a miraculous recovery from COVID along the way. To learn more about the journey, watch this great interview from Provincial Assembly featuring Archbishop Steve and his wife, Jacqueline:

I was inspired as I read and heard about this journey when he was first elected archbishop in Juneโ€™s Bishops Conclave. Recently, I was honored to sit down with him for an interview about Godโ€™s work in his life and ministry and how his pastoral experience will inform his leadership as Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church in North America.

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A Key Detail

As I learned more about Archbishop Steve, a key detail stood out. At the same time he served as bishop, he was also still the rector and lead pastor of his parish, St. Andrewโ€™s, in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. This is remarkable, not only because St. Andrewโ€™s is a notable parish but also because Archbishop Steve has pastored the parish while serving as a bishop!

Moreover, Archbishop Steveโ€™s service as a bishop and lead pastor does not seem to have come at the cost of either. Since 2015, the Diocese of the Carolinas has grown from 21 to 37 parishes, one of the highest congregational growth rates in the ACNA. At the same time, St. Andrewโ€™s has grown into one of the largest congregations of the ACNA, now holding seven Sunday services across multiple locations.

So, in my interview with Archbishop Steve, I asked him about this dual vocation as both bishop and pastor. He explained that it was a deliberate decision when he became a bishop and one that profoundly shaped his ministry.

The Pastor Bishop

A Decision to Pastor

When Pastor Steve became Bishop Steve, he made the deliberate decision to continue as a local pastor and the leader of his congregation. Pastoral ministry was always his heartโ€™s desire:

โ€œI never dreamed of being a bishop. My heart has always been in the parish… The parish was always the place for me. Thatโ€™s where the gospel meets the road. Thatโ€™s where everything is lived out.โ€

It was also a theological decision and a desire to do something a bit different from the model of CEO bishops he had observed in the Episcopal Church.

โ€œI went back to the pages of the New Testament and saw the interchangeability of the presbyteros and episcopos. It captured my attention and imagination, and I wondered what that might look like. And in the process, I wanted to do something different.โ€

A Commitment to the Local Church

Now, one might think that the decision to remain a local pastor was made to the exclusion of the broader diocese. But for Bishop Steve, it was a strategic decision to be a โ€œmissionary bishopโ€ and to pour more resources into the building of the diocese:

โ€œOne of the commitments my parish made to the diocese was that if the diocese was willing to invest 50% of their diocesan income in church planting and evangelism and local mission, St. Andrewโ€™s would cover my salary. And so that gave us massive capability to aggressively plant churches and invest in our local churches.โ€

Moreover, by remaining in the parish, Bishop Steve stayed connected to the issues other pastors in the diocese were facing:

โ€œFrom the guy whoโ€™s responsible for pastoring his clergy, it kept me very connected to them… Once upon a time, I was the rector of a small country church. Once upon a time, I was a rector of a family-size suburban church. Once upon a time, I was rector of a larger church.โ€

Delegation & Training of Clergy

But how did Bishop Steve do so much? I asked, and the conversation turned to delegation.

โ€œBeing willing to delegate is huge. And thatโ€™s a hard thing for folks. Part of it touches our identity. Or fear. What if they donโ€™t do it the way I would do it? In fact, theyโ€™re not going to do it the way Iโ€™m going to do it. I could probably do it in an hour when it takes five hours to teach them how to do it.โ€

But Archbishop Steve explained how he had grown to enjoy the training process of equipping his pastors even more than doing the job himself:

โ€œWhen I was younger, I wanted to be the guy. But there came a point in life where I found more satisfaction in helping other people learn how to become successfulโ€ฆHonestly, that for me, in the last 10 years, has been the most satisfying aspect of ministry. Discovering how much joy there is in watching my clergy grow and become fruitful is more fun in my life than watching me do it.โ€

The Pastor Primate

An Evaluative Question

As a leader of a large organization and network of people, Archbishop Steve explains that his focus is to set the culture:

โ€œWhat I will try to control and set is the culture, the tone, the priority, the direction, and then recruit to that.โ€

To that purpose, Archbishop Steve has established an โ€œevaluative questionโ€ that he will ask of every task force or initiative in the province:

โ€œHow is what you are doing right now advancing the purpose of the local congregation? Are you supplanting the work of the local congregation or enhancing the work of the local congregation? Are you giving them tools for them to do it and succeed, or are you saying watch us do it, or come join us? For me, it needs to be the equipping side of that.โ€

This focus is expected to produce a mindset common across the province, which focuses on the local church.

โ€œWith that, over time, will come a mentality, a philosophy. We exist to equip the diocese and the local church to do their ministry.โ€

Rectorโ€™s Network

As archbishop, one of the key priorities will be to create a network for rectors to bring together local pastors:

โ€œIโ€™ve begun it casually, but I fully intend to establish some kind of rectors network, from all across the country of all size churches, that I can just gather with via ZOOM and say, talk to me about whatโ€™s happening in the parish. Where are you? What are your challenges and your frustrations? What do you need the province to do for you? How can we resource you?โ€

Bishopโ€™s Training

Finally, to advance this point of focus, Archbishop Steve plans to set up training for bishops to help them in their focus on the local parish:

โ€œI had no training on how to be a bishop. I want to be able to equip bishops to be fruitful in their ministries so that part of their fruitfulness is equipping their clergy and their local churches.โ€ 

The Pastoral Transition

I asked Archbishop Steve whether, as archbishop, he would finally have to step down as the rector of St. Andrewโ€™s. He admitted that he would but explained that he was taking the time necessary to make that transition well. He described how he and the parish are seeking wise counsel to ensure they can establish a process and have a successful handoff.
In discussing stepping down from St. Andrewโ€™s, I sensed the pastorโ€™s heart, both in his desire to see the parish in good hands and also in his sadness to see this era of his ministry come to an end. 

โ€œMy biggest fear of being separated from the local church is being immersed in the church world and losing contact with people who are at different stages of faith, asking different kinds of questions, wrestling through different personal matters of this is what the gospel says, and this is what I struggle with. Thatโ€™s a very conscious question in my mind. How do I not lose that kind of connectivity… It all flows from the fact that I really like sheep, and I really like non-Christians. Especially the serious ones who want to know: is this real, does this work, and is this true?โ€

A Pastoral Call to the Church

I asked Archbishop Steve if he had any final message:

โ€œI want people to be the church. Weโ€™ve been given a commission. We know the call, we know the charge: we are a life-saving station….There are 130 million people in North America who donโ€™t know Jesus. That’s a heck of a vision…I think we need something that big, that is absolutely impossible to do. To be faithfully audacious. To have confidence in the gospel, to have confidence in the liturgy, to have confidence in the sacraments, that when we faithfully preach, and we faithfully celebrate, when we faithfully worship, the Holy Spirit is at work to transform peopleโ€™s lives.โ€


Photo courtesy of the Anglican Church in North America. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.

Author

Peter Johnston

The Ven. Dr. Peter Johnston is the Ministry President of Anglican Compass. He is a priest and archdeacon in the Anglican Diocese of All Nations and the rector of Trinity Lafayette. He lives with his wife, Carla, and their eight children near Lafayette, Louisiana.

View more from Peter Johnston

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