The growing trend across the country of multisite churches isn’t slowing down – rather, I believe it’s picking up speed. With a multitude of reasons for branching out and a myriad of strategies for getting new sites off the ground, each of a multisite church’s campuses are unique. With these differences of multisite models and unique campuses, it’s extremely important to
find the right fit when searching for a Campus Pastor.
Personality, drive, and experience are all very important when “handing over the keys” to an entire campus. However, in addition to these traits, you need a specific kind of Campus Pastor depending on your multisite model and campus’ needs. Not all Campus Pastor positions are the same. Before starting the search for your next Campus Leader, be sure to define exactly what you’re looking for in the role, not just the person.
To help you discern which type you need, here are the 4 main types of Campus Pastors.
1. The Facilitator
In this campus model, the Campus Pastor is simply a service host. Likely a video-based campus, their stage presence must be strong in order to seamlessly intro and outro the video messages from the Senior Pastor. Their leadership needs to be strong, but it isn’t paramount to the long-term success/growth of the campus, since they only have what is often referred to as “dotted-line” leadership over the staff and little influence over the
campus strategy.
Although the Facilitator’s voice is critical to the team during service operation, the other campus staff leaders likely report directly to the “main campus” leaders and not to the Campus Pastor. This is a popular model for highly relational Campus Pastors with great stage presence but little experience in ministry, little desire to teach, or who are still developing their leadership under the Senior Pastor.
2. The Manager
The Manager is similar to the Facilitator Campus Pastor model, except in this role, the Manager has direct oversight over the campus team. Peripheral staff report to the Campus Pastor who speaks into the excellence and function of weekend service operation and campus events.
Staff meetings and/or staff devotionals may be held weekly at the campus level, and although still a video-based campus, this Campus Pastor may get a small handful of opportunities to speak on Sundays and develop their communication and leadership skills.
The profile of this kind of leader may be one that has several successful years of ministry in their background, is a proven team builder, and has with a great stage presence. This person likely doesn’t need to teach regularly but is fair to moderately good at it and want to
improve their ability. Senior Pastor mentorship is often typical of this type of Campus Pastor.
3. The Communicator
With low oversight and high visibility, this type of Campus Pastor is the primary teacher at a campus that has no video based support from the “main campus.” This Campus Pastor model usually has “dotted line” leadership over the campus staff and only slight campus strategy/planning influence. However, this role is the primary communicator at the campus and has a lot of influence in that regard. Candidates that might fit this type of Campus Pastor role are ones that have
natural communicating skills but little ministry background. They could come from a business background with little ministry experience or are simply young and still developing their leadership skills but have an incredible gift of communicating.
4. The Planter
This type of Campus Pastor role encompasses all responsibility at the campus level. They are the primary communicator at a live teaching venue and the direct staff leader for the campus team. This role can also be an executive-level team member on the “main campus” church staff with influence over the direction of the campus or campuses. A typical candidate for such position could be a previous church planter or a tenured Campus Pastor from a Manager model campus.
These four types don’t necessarily cover every multisite church’s campus situation, however, they are a great starting point to begin narrowing the type of Campus Pastor your multisite church team needs.
DON’T MAKE THE MISTAKE OF HIRING A GREAT CANDIDATE FOR THE WRONG ROLE.
This will always end up in frustration and tension when the expectations of the role don’t match the reality. If you need help defining what type of Campus Pastor you need or finding the best fit for your campus, don’t hesitate to
reach out to us here at Vanderbloemen.
What type of Campus Pastor best fits your church multisite model?
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