ON-SITE. IN PERSON.

Church Consulting
That Tells You the Truth

Strong churches come to us to find the next gear. Struggling churches to find their way back.
Both start in the same place: the truth about what’s actually going on—from the inside out.

START THE CONVERSATION

The first conversation is free. And it’s not a sales call.

ON-SITE. IN PERSON.

Church Consulting
That Tells You
the Truth

Strong churches come to us to find the next gear. Struggling churches to find their way back. Both start in the same place: the truth about what’s actually going on—from the inside out.
START THE CONVERSATION

ON-SITE CHURCH CONSULTING

Church Consulting
That Tells You
the Truth

Strong churches come to us to find the next gear. Struggling churches to find their way back. Both start in the same place: the truth about what’s actually going on—from the inside out.
START THE CONVERSATION

The first conversation is free. And it’s not a sales call.

LET’S BE HONEST

The Signs Nobody Calls a Problem

Churches don’t drift into crisis overnight. They get there through years of “fine.” See if this sounds familiar:

— Every program is still running—on fumes. Exhaustion has quietly been renamed faithfulness.

— Ask five leaders where the church is headed. You’ll get five different answers.

— The church is growing, but the structure that got you here is straining under what’s next.

— The same goals get set every January and quietly abandoned by Easter.

— Everything important lives in two or three heads. Everyone knows it. No one says it.

— A slow month feels like a verdict on you instead of information about the season.

— You’re the one everyone leans on—and you can’t remember your last real season of rest.

None of these are emergencies. That’s exactly why they get ignored. But the strongest churches we work with aren’t the ones with the fewest symptoms—they’re the ones who looked earliest. That’s what an assessment is for. Not proof that something’s wrong. A mirror, before you need one.

WHO THIS IS FOR

Every Church Is in One of Three Places

WHO THIS IS FOR

Every Church Is in
One of Three Places

Warning sign alerting pastors that something is broken in their church.

Something Is Broken

Trust has eroded. Good people are leaving. Decisions take forever. You can feel the dysfunction, but you can’t pinpoint the source—and everything you’ve tried treats the symptom. Not the source. You need outside eyes.

A mountain top showing that anything is possible, no matter the challenge your team is facing.

Something Is Possible

The church is healthy, and the team is solid. But you know there’s another gear—sharper direction, stronger culture, a real plan for where you’re headed. Healthy churches don’t coast. They get intentional about what’s next.

A compass showing the the direction of your church is changing.

Something Is Changing

A pastoral transition. A key hire. A new leadership structure. Change compounds fast, and the churches that navigate it well are the ones that get ahead of it—with a clear process and steady help before it gets complicated.

Warning sign alerting pastors that something is broken in their church.

Something Is Broken

Trust has eroded. Good people are leaving. Decisions take forever. You can feel the dysfunction, but you can’t pinpoint the source—and everything you’ve tried treats the symptom. Not the source. You need outside eyes.

A mountain top showing that anything is possible, no matter the challenge your team is facing.

Something Is Possible

The church is healthy, and the team is solid. But you know there’s another gear—sharper direction, stronger culture, a real plan for where you’re headed. Healthy churches don’t coast. They get intentional about what’s next.

A compass showing the the direction of your church is changing.

Something Is Changing

A pastoral transition. A key hire. A new leadership structure. Change compounds fast, and the churches that navigate it well are the ones that get ahead of it—with a clear process and steady help before it gets complicated.

Three different starting points. One first step.

OUR APPROACH

The Presenting Problem Is Rarely the Real Problem

A church calls about a ministry that keeps failing. We listen. Then we dig—staff turnover, authority that never gets released, a wound from years ago no one named. The concern you bring us is real. But it’s usually a symptom, not the disease.

That’s why we don’t hand you a report and disappear. We come on-site. We sit in your meetings. We use WholeCare™—one integrated look at your leadership, people, and systems—because the real issues run through it all. And the lens works both ways: in a hurting church, it finds what’s breaking. In a strong one, what’s next.

Underneath it all, one conviction: the health of a church cannot exceed the health of its leaders. So every engagement begins with a simple question—how is the pastor doing, really? This isn’t just an organization. It’s your calling. We treat it that way.

A church leadership meeting in a boardroom where the team is discussing their next steps with The Authentic Pastor consulting.
SEE WHAT YOU’D BE BUYING

Read a Real Report
Before You Spend a Dollar

Most consultants ask you to trust a sales pitch. We’d rather show you the actual product. We’ll send you a real WholeCare™ Church Report—anonymized, but otherwise exactly what you’d receive—so you and your board can see the depth, the honesty, and the kind of findings we deliver before you spend anything.

You’re saying yes to email from us. Never sold, never shared. Unsubscribe anytime.

Cover of a real, anonymized WholeCare church assessment report from The Authentic Pastor.

Fair warning: the church in the sample looks fine from the pews. That’s the point.

HOW IT WORKS

Every Engagement Walks the Same Honest Path

1  A Real Conversation

Before anything else, we talk—about what’s happening, how long it’s been happening, what you’ve already tried, and how you’re actually doing. If we’re not the right fit for your church, we’ll say so and point you toward people who are.

NEXT → THE SNAPSHOT

2  The WholeCare™ Snapshot

Your leadership team—the lead pastor plus at least one other key leader—each completes the Snapshot online: 45 questions across six areas of health. The differences between their answers tell us as much as the answers themselves reveal.

NEXT → ON-SITE

3  Two Days On-Site

We come to you. Structured conversations with your pastor, staff, and board. Quiet observation. The kind of unhurried listening that only happens in person. Because of the Snapshot, we arrive already knowing where to start looking deeper.

NEXT → THE REPORT

4  A Written Report and Three Pathways

Within two weeks, you get the clear picture—where you’re strong, where you’re straining, where something may be quietly breaking—and three pathways forward. We read it together on a follow-up call. Talk to your leaders, pray, and decide.

THEN → YOU DECIDE

THE TEAM

A Bench Few Organizations Can Match

Six consultants. Nearly 200 combined years of pastoral ministry, church planting, executive leadership, and academic work—all trained in the WholeCare™ framework. Every one of them has sat in the chair you’re sitting in. And every engagement runs on the same rule: tell the church the truth.

During consulting churches Tim Eldred relies on his experience of teaching over 20,000 leaders.
Tim Eldred
FOUNDER | CEO
Brian Aaby has spent years working with churches personally.
Brian Aaby
CHIEF STRATEGIST
Dr. Jeff Gill, Academic Director at The Authentic Pastor.
Dr. Jeff Gill
ACADEMIC DIRECTOR
Jeff Noel, Pastoral Coach at The Authentic Pastor.
Jeff Noel
PASTORAL COACH
Dr. Ken Castor, Leadership Educator at The Authentic Pastor.
Dr. Ken Castor
LEADERSHIP EDUCATOR
Jim Probst, Ministry Strategist at The Authentic Pastor.
Jim Probst
MINISTRY STRATEGIST

Read the full bios of our team on our About page.

A QUICK GUT CHECK

Is an Assessment Right for You, Right Now?

âś“  You’ve sensed something’s off for more than a season—even if you can’t name it.

âś“  The church is doing well—and you’d rather build on strength than coast on it.

âś“  Your leaders would answer hard questions honestly if someone neutral asked.

âś“  You’re ready to hear what the data says—even if it surprises you.

âś“  Your board would engage with a clear, written plan.

âś“  You’d rather know now than find out later.

If you nodded at two or three of these, the first conversation is where to take it.

EVERY ENGAGEMENT STARTS HERE

The Church Assessment & Roadmap—$4,500

Flat fee. Travel at cost. That covers everything—the conversation, Snapshot, on-site visit, and written report. Some churches take the roadmap and run with it themselves—and that’s a good outcome too.

And sometimes our honest recommendation is a pause, or a candid no. We would rather decline an engagement than start one that will fail. We’ll always tell you the truth—even when the truth doesn’t pay us.

LET’S TALK

Every Engagement Starts with an Honest Conversation

45–60 minutes with a consultant, not a salesperson. We’ll hear what’s happening, answer everything—what’s included, the schedule, the investment—and help you decide if an assessment is right for your church. Sometimes the honest answer is “not yet.” We’ll tell you that too.

You’re saying yes to email from us. Never sold, never shared. Unsubscribe anytime.

Or give us a call: (989) 214-3849‬

Or give us a call: (989) 214-3849‬

Healthy churches are built from the inside out. So are healthy pastors.