Eric Weight, CFO and Executive Pastor at North Coast Church in San Diego, spent over 20 years in corporate finance and mortgage lending before a simple prayer — and an unexpected phone call two weeks later — led him into full-time ministry nearly 15 years ago. He joins James Forrest to talk about leading the financial and operational backbone of one of the largest multi-site churches in the country, and how the XP role has shifted from a "chief of staff" function into running what he calls a genuine enterprise, complete with California employment law, multi-site logistics, and the reality that a church is simultaneously an employment company, a production company, and a school.

Eric is refreshingly honest about the limits of self-reliance in the XP seat: rather than trying to be the one who solves every problem, he's learned to bring in subject-matter experts for situations his team will only face once a decade but outside experts handle every day. He also unpacks how North Coast has tackled two of the toughest challenges facing XPs nationally — talent and succession — through a formal compensation study benchmarked against market data, and a leadership academy that develops young talent starting in high school.

The conversation covers hard-won lessons on hiring (chemistry and references matter more than competency once you're at the senior level), why churches too often make budget decisions based on the loudest voice in the room instead of data, and a candid admission that North Coast's investment in student ministry staffing hasn't delivered the results they hoped for. Eric closes with what may be the most practical takeaway of the episode: how North Coast's culture of enforced two-week vacations and a protected Sabbath day — modeled from the top by senior leadership — finally broke his own instinct to stay tethered to his laptop on every vacation.