The Greatest Gift Leaders Bring To Their Team

Posted on by Dave Simiele

As campus pastors, we have many responsibilities: leading teams, recruiting high-capacity volunteers, embodying the vision of our senior leaders, and protecting the culture of our church to name a few. I’ve heard it said that the greatest gift a leader can bring to their team is their personal energy but I must be honest, I don’t agree with that statement. Energy, while important, doesn’t always win and with the help of a Redbull, it can be easily manufactured. The greatest gift you can give to your team is not your energy, it’s the health of your soul.

Talking about soul health is not always popular these days. Campus pastors want to talk about the size of their campus or discuss ways to get people to fall in love with the “preacher on the screen”. Rarely do I hear campus pastors discuss topics beyond the metrics of multisite like spiritual, emotional and physical health. I’m thankful for the voices in my life that dig deeper into the condition of my soul. Recently I was encouraged to read Peter Scazzero’s “The Emotionally Healthy Leader.” I’ll be honest; the book was a difficult read. Not because I could understand the content I was reading, but the content of the book was reading me. If you’re leading in any capacity, church life or not, I encourage you to pick up Peter’s book and start reading it today.

The health of your soul is your responsibility. No one else can make your soul healthier, and to be honest, most of the time we don’t slow down enough to examine our soul health. We have to take matters into our own hands and lead ourselves first. Self-leadership always precedes team leadership.

After reading his book, I’m focusing on the following three areas of soul health in my life:

Spiritual Health
As a leader within the church, our passion for the Lord must always trump our passion for greater leadership and influence. In ministry, it’s easy to work so hard for Christ that we forget to walk with him. Our desire to lead ends up choking our desire to be simply with Christ. In his book, Scazzero talks about slowing down for loving union and how we must practice the spiritual disciplines of silence, Sabbath and scripture meditation. Do you have a regular rhythm of slowing down and communing with Christ? The health of your soul depends on it.

“You can’t live at warp speed without warping your soul.” Peter Scazzero

Emotional Health
Our emotional health is directly connected to the health of our souls. Emotionally healthy pastors manage their emotions in meetings and settings where unhealthy pastors don’t. Irritability in ministry or any walk of life is a sign that your soul lacks health and vibrancy. You cannot separate the health of your soul from the health of your attitude. When your soul is healthy, your response is healthy. How are you in meetings? How is your response? Spending time developing your emotional health will radically change the way you respond to whatever life or ministry throws at you.

“Spiritual deficits typically reveal themselves in too much activity.” Peter Scazzero

Physical Health
Scazzero doesn’t talk much about physical health in his book, but I believe this topic is also directly connected to the condition of our souls. We cannot effectively lead within our organization if we are continually sluggish and exhausted. I meet a lot of leaders who look and sound tired all the time. Who is responsible? I don’t think it is the church fault; we can only blame the individual. Just as no one else can make us spiritually healthy, no one else can make us physically healthy either. Make better food choices, get to bed early on Saturday nights, add regular exercise to your schedule, and drink more water. Sounds simple, I know, but few leaders do it.

The condition of your soul is your responsibility. It is also the greatest gift you can bring to your teams. As you intentionally care for your spiritual, emotional, and physical health, you model soul care for your team and everyone wins.

In what ways do you measure soul health? Who can hold you accountable for these things?

Stop Making Announcements!

Posted on by Dave Simiele

Campus pastors are much more than announcement puppeteers. It pains me every time I hear campus pastors defined as the “announcement pastor.” Strategic campus pastors understand that platform time is about inspiration rather than information. Every time you hold the microphone, you have the opportunity to inspire everyone in the room to action. The campus pastor is the primary voice for volunteer engagement at the campus and what you say matters, it doesn’t have to fall on deaf ears.

Here are four ways I attempt to inspire people to action:

1. Aim for the majority, not the minority.

Without a doubt, you’ll be asked to inspire people in your seats to do just about anything and everything. Student Ministry carwash, the ladies bagels and Bible study, the men’s ministry football game, and to serve in the nursery. Feeling inspired? Me either. Here is a basic rule I apply when considering if an announcement is inspirational: If it doesn’t require 50% or more of the room to make a decision, it doesn’t get announced verbally. Our social media outlets have proven to be a great place to make additional announcements that don’t meet the above rule.

2. Start with why. 

Most people think they know what you want from them already, more of their money or more of their time, right? What they often don’t know is why. The why behind what you are asking people matters more than what you are asking them to do. One way to develop the why is to focus on what you want people to feel about the topic you’re addressing. Emotional connection moves people to action, stir the emotion. Spend more time on the why. Start with the why. Why are you supporting the local crisis pregnancy center? Why are you delivering meals on Thanksgiving morning? When people understand the why behind a project or outreach, they are more likely to get involved in some capacity.

3. Don’t ask everyone to do everything.

I think it is crucial for platform communicators to recognize the different stages of engagement people are at in their journey with a church. Not everyone is ready or capable of contributing to every opportunity at hand, acknowledge that. I find it helpful to recognize that some people need to receive in certain seasons or that some opportunities are for those who already connected. Identify your target audience clearly and inspire them to action. What do you want them to do? Everyone can’t do everything, nor should they. Give people the permission to chose their level of engagement.

4. Make it memorable. 

Tell a story. If you’re inspiring people to get baptized, tell your audience a recent story of how someone went public with their faith. Use humor. Making people laugh creates a memory and emotion they won’t forget anytime soon. Don’t forget the power of illustrations and images. People are visual and when they can visualize themselves in the picture, their interest and engagement peaks. 

I hope this helps you to think critically about how you use your platform time this weekend. I’d love to hear what you do to inspire people to action.

Why a blog for multisite pastors?

Posted on by Dave Simiele

My mission is to help pastors stay healthy, hungry, and humble in the fast-paced world of multisite ministry. This is a blog focused on multisite pastor development and resourcing. If you are leading or will be leading in a multisite context, I hope you will find this blog valuable and encouraging. I’m writing for several reasons:

1. To be a part of the campus/location pastor conversation.

To my knowledge, there are no books, blogs or resources dedicated to solely helping campus pastors be successful in their roles as multisite leaders. This blog will serve as a place to discuss best-practices, vision, systems, leadership and creativity in multisite ministry.

2. To share what I am learning.

I’m always seeking new ways of leading in the multisite arena and asking other campus pastors how they do what they do. I hope to share and track those insights discoveries here so that you can learn from them too.

3. To grow as leader and writer.

Blogging serves as a place to record and reflect on the wins and losses I’ve experienced as a campus pastor. My prayer is that these posts will inspire change and prevent failure. Some people have to learn the hard way, but smart people learn from the mistakes of others.

4. To make myself and others laugh.

Sometimes, okay a lot of times, I take myself way too serious. Most pastors do, and we shouldn’t. Yes, leading in multisite ministry is a huge responsibility, but it can be incredibly fun. I hope to write in such a way that invokes laughter – mostly at me.

To start, I’ll be publishing content a couple of days a week: most likely Mondays and Thursdays. That said when it comes to campus pastoring and multisite ministry, is there anything you’d like for me to blog about in the coming weeks?