6 Ways to Lead a Church When You Don’t Get To Preach
How do you publicly lead a church when you’re a Campus Pastor, not the Senior Pastor?
That’s an ever increasing question. With the rise of multi-site churches, more Campus Pastors are added to leadership circles every day. But leading as a Campus Pastor presents unique challenges. I want to address one of these challenges in this post:
How do you cast vision for your church when you do not preach weekly?
Setting Our Hearts and Minds on the Things of Leadership
Is there anything that tends to replace Christ in your life as a leader?
Just an early warning – it’s about to get personal (at least for me!). I’ve been processing this idea in my own life a lot lately. It’s a process so by nature somewhat incomplete. Here’s where I’m at today:
Paul, in Colossians 3, provides an important statement about the life of a believer. As a Christian, Paul’s instruction is a beautiful reminder of our new life that is found in Jesus. But I believe it has significant leadership implications – ones that I’ve struggled to maintain at times.
Here’s what Paul wrote to the believers in Colossae:
Colossians 3:1-4 (NIV)
1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
The church has become enamored with leadership. For good reason. Quality leadership is missing in far too many churches around the globe. Yes, pastors are shepherds. Yes, pastors are disciple-makers. But pastors are also leaders, and the church needs more great leaders. Without quality leadership, the church suffers. This will sound blasphemous, but a great leader can grow a church crowd without Jesus. Great leaders can make things happen on their own. Great leaders can attract followers.
Do Deep Messages Impress Your Seminary, but Confuse Your Church?
Why do we tend to over-complicate everything?
It’s not just you. I do it, too. In fact, I do it constantly.
Nowhere more than when I am writing a message. As a communicator and preacher, there’s something in me (and I bet I’m not alone) that intuitively believes a message is only good if it’s deep, layered, and rich. If we were baking a cake, that would be true. But this is a message. The reality is a deep, layered, and rich message might impress an audience or a seminary professor, but it typically doesn’t leave a lasting impression. Worse, it’s not memorable or easily applicable.
I have trouble seeing this in my own messages at times, but as is often the case, what’s difficult to see in the mirror is clear through a window. Recently I was helping a friend write a message. He had a GREAT idea. Very personal. Very helpful. And it was beautifully simple. But there was something in us both that wanted to complicate the content. We wanted to cover every angle and answer every issue.
Luckily, before he and his message hit the stage, we both remembered this basic preaching truth: Simple is better, because simple is digestible and applicable. Again, if you are trying to impress a crowd, go deep, layered, and rich. But, if you want people to understand and apply the truth you spent hours and hours studying and preparing, throw out the cake and work toward simplicity.
Here are a few steps I take when searching for message simplicity:
7 Tips To Encourage Singing in Your Church
Do people in your church sing?
I know you play music and invite them to sing, but do they sing?
This is an important question for a church. Worship is not limited to music, but praising God through song is an element of corporate church that communicates our gratitude toward God and our desire to know him more. Music touches our soul. When effective, music touches the lost soul, too. Music is very emotional. There’s no doubt that worship through singing is an important element in our church services.
But I’m afraid our approach to worship in the modern church MAY have moved worship from participation to observation. It certainly wasn’t our intention. But inadvertently, in our effort to make church more inviting to outsiders, we may have reduced the impact of corporate worship.
So how can you engage more people in worship without losing the ability to connect with current culture and introduce new people to corporate praise?
Here are 7 tips to better engage our churches in worship:
Hiring Part-Time or Full-Time, That Is The Question.
If you could hire a new employee, would you bring on a full-time or part-time staff member?
Until recently, I would have laughed at that question: Full-Time! Who in their right mind would prefer hiring part-time staff if full-time was an option?
– Full-time staff members provide full-time attention.
– Full-time staff members work until the job is done, not until their hours are up.
– Full-time staff members are available when you are available.
While all that is true, when I began evaluating staff options against FTEs (Full-Time Equivalents), I began to see staffing through a new lens. At Watermarke, we hire to attendance ratios and revenue allocations. I’m ultimately not as concerned with total staff members as I am with FTEs. That creates a different perspective, which provides for some new considerations.
For me and our church, organizationally speaking, our primary staff needs revolve around executing Sunday programming. It goes without saying the more bodies on Sunday the better. But, there is a lot of work that happens throughout the week, and more bodies doesn’t necessarily equate to more progress.
So how do you decide between hiring part-time and full-time staff? Here are 5 clarifying questions I use to help our church decide:
1. Do we need more people or more focus?
This might be the most critical question (Although you should read the others, too! Especially number 5). If you need more bodies, hiring two part-time employees over one full-time employee is the best solution. We have done this in many departments at Watermarke to help cover Sunday responsibilities.
This Might Be The Most Important Preaching Principle I’ve Learned
This might be the most important preaching principle I’ve learned.
Before I tell you the lesson, though, let me walk you through my process of discovery:
When I first began preaching, I took an entire manuscript on stage. It was a pastoral security blanket – except not pink and fuzzy. I tried not to read it directly, and in most cases, I was successful. But in my mind, it was good to know it was there… just in case I needed to snuggle.
Unfortunately, as I watched my messages the next day (it’s awkward, but you should do this if you don’t already!), I felt my preaching was lacking an important ingredient – CONNECTION. I was communicating all the content. I didn’t miss any stories, illustrations, points, or verses. But as I watched myself, I realized something significant:
Great content without great connection is poor communication.
And that was my problem. I communicated clear content without any relational connection, and it wasn’t working.
As I diagnosed my lack of connection, the problem became apparent:
9 Tips To Improve Your Church’s Welcome Segment
How much attention do you give the welcome segment in your church service?
If you are like most churches, the answer is little to none. I mean it’s only a few minutes, anyway. How much time should we spend planning something so short and insignificant? And isn’t a “welcome” just a transitional element so the band or choir can get ready?
You might be shocked to see how much time at Watermarke Church we spend evaluating the welcome. It is only a 3-minute segment of our 60-minute service, but like every facet of our service, we desire it to be excellent, intentional, and strategic. We discuss every phrase we use. We evaluate the energy we bring. We consider how our words might be heard or interpreted by guests and non-Christians. In some ways, communicating a 3-minute welcome at Watermarke is as stressful as the 35-minute message!
Sunday School vs. Small Groups: Why You Must Choose
Do you love small groups?
Not necessarily YOUR small group, but the idea of small groups? If you’re a pastor, you might be required to answer “yes.” So here are a few, better questions:
Do you love your small group strategy?
Is your church excited about small groups?
Are people joining your small groups?
As a pastor, I recognize community is a vital element of spiritual growth, yet it can be difficult to convince the crowd at our church of this truth, and even more difficult to convert the disengaged into active group participants.
Here’s the reality every pastor understands all too well: Engaging people in small groups can be a battle. Unfortunately, many churches are their own worst enemy. While there might not be one secret sauce to moving people out of rows and into circles (that’s our church’s terminology), there are some definite ways to thwart and undermine your attempts.
Here’s a small group enemy short list:
1. Competing programs.
If you want to run Sunday School, that’s fine, but don’t expect Sunday School and small groups to thrive in tandem. I have a definite (and experienced-based opinion) on Sunday School. I’ll save that for later. But for now, let’s acknowledge and important, strategic fact: Sunday School creates competition for small groups. I know some churches attempt to create small group systems within their Sunday School context, but that’s not ultimately realistic – especially if authentic community matters.
Church For The Unchurched Versus Church Unchurched People Love To Attend
Often, when people in the community talk about Watermarke Church, a similar comment can be heard: “It’s a church for unchurched people, right?.” When I hear that comment, I’m find myself both excited and frustrated.
EXCITED: Excited because we ARE a church where unchurched people can and frequently do attend. In fact, our surveys show roughly 40% of our attendees were “unchurched” prior to attending (unchurched = not regularly attending any church for five years prior to attending Watermarke). Excited because people in our community see our church as a place an unchurched person can come to church. Many people who attend OTHER churches invite their unchurched friends to OUR church. That’s exciting (and weird). I’m not sure why anyone would attend a church where they couldn’t invite their unchurched friends!
FRUSTRATED: But that’s statement is a little frustrating, too, because we are NOT a church for unchurched people. Better said, we are not JUST a church for unchurched people. We are a church unchurched people love to attend. We are also a church church-people love to attend – especially church people who have a desire to reach the unchurched. There’s a significant difference between a “church for the the unchurched” and a “church unchurched people love to attend.”
Here’s a few key differences:
A Day In The Life of a Non-Preaching Lead Pastor
As a pastor, there’s one question I get a lot. Well, there are actually many questions I get a lot. But here’s one I’m guessing most people want to ask:
What does your typical workweek look like?
That’s the “nice” way of asking what people really want to know – “What do you DO all week?!?”
Every pastor gets that question from time to time. Some more frequently than others. As a Lead Pastor in a church where the majority of our preaching is video driven, I would fall within the “more frequently” category! What does a Lead Pastor who only preaches 15 times a year do all week? How is that even a full time job?
It’s a great question. Some people assume I show up on Sunday, welcome them to church, pray for the offering, and then pray and read the Bible for the next six days. As a pastor, I wish it were that easy. That actually sounds appealing! Leading a church of any size or kind is challenging. A Lead Pastor must be both a pastor and a savvy business leader (hence the position title, huh?).
If you’ve ever wanted to know what a Lead Pastor (especially a non-preaching Lead Pastor) does all week, here’s a list of 8 unique tasks I try to accomplish every 7 days…
