Episode 154 – The Successful Campus Pastor
In this episode Trabelus and Renee talk with campus pastor Anthony Prince and Brent Parker about campus pastoring and provide 8 tips that will help any campus pastor be successful.
Be clear of the wins of a campus pastor.
- You want to know what the expectations are.
- Check your ego at the door: this thing is not about me, it’s about a bigger thing!
Understand that your role is to support the senior pastor.
- Make sure your senior leader always knows they are fully supported by you.
- Be clear about the mentality: am I a campus pastor or a church planter?
- Champion (enthusiastically support) change.
Be clear about supporting structures of staff members.
- Be really, really clear about who reports to who.
- When it comes to supervision and support, it’s important to know what’s “dotted” and what’s “direct.”
- Communication is key with this!
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!
- Think through how you best communicate with each person on the team at large as well as who you see face to face as you gather at your campus.
- If you are not wired to have direct conversations with people, you’ll most likely struggle.
Stick to the church’s mission and beware of members who’ll want to go rogue!
- Express gratitude for the ongoing support for the home campus
- Encourage staff and congregational participation in or on all church initiatives.
- Beware of the question, “Wouldn’t it be easier if we were our own church?”
- As a campus pastor, remind yourself and the congregation that if it weren’t for the home campus, we wouldn’t be here! We wouldn’t have the resources that we have!
- Remind your people that “We are better together!”
- Recognize and remember that you are a part of something bigger!
- The enemy could use the positive affirmation that you receive from your campus as a temptation for you to begin to think, “yeah, I could do this on my own.”
Be the face of the campus!
- The role you get to play is not just the campus pastor but the neighborhood and community pastor.
- Be intentional about using the time before and after gatherings to be with people, to put a hand on a shoulder and ask how they are doing because a screen can’t do that in the same way a live person can.
- Set boundaries that limit “hallway meetings” so you have time to the “face of the campus, shaking as many hands and hanging as many necks as you can.
Acknowledge and recognize volunteers well and often!
- A Sunday morning at your church would not happen without your volunteers.
Have a leadership multiplication mentality.
- If the first generation church couldn’t break this thing…and if you read Paul’s letters they tried…who are we to think that we can?
8 Tips to Becoming a Successful Campus Pastor
- Be clear of the wins of a campus pastor.
- Understand that your role is to support the senior pastor.
- Be clear about reporting structures of staff members.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate!
- Stick to the church’s mission and beware of members who’ll want to go rogue!
- Be the face of the campus!
- Acknowledge and recognize volunteers well and often!
- Have a leadership multiplication mentality.
anthony.Prince@minitsryarchitects.com | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
brent.parker@ministryarchitects.com
renee.wilson@ministryarchitects.com
Trabelus.whitfield@ministryarchitects.com