One Thing a Campus Pastor Shouldn’t Say

Posted on by Dave Simiele

No senior pastor ever wants to hear: “I don’t have any stories of life-change from my campus this weekend.” You simply cannot have that response, ever. In fact, you should be the best storyteller in the church. As a campus pastor, one of your primary responsibilities each week, is to capture, celebrate and circle back on stories of radical transformation, because your senior pastor and executive leadership team are depending on you to celebrate more than just the weekend statistics from your campus.

Last year, I had the opportunity to interview Kevin Queen, a campus pastor at 12Stone Church in Atlanta, GA. I’ll never forget the statement he made regarding metrics: “I don’t measure the success of my campus in numbers, but in stories and seasons of life-change”. That statement totally convicted me, because capturing stories were not part of my weekly dashboard (I’ll write more about metrics & dashboards in the future). Following my conversation with Kevin, I became more intentional about listening to the stories in every conversation I had with church attendees. Everyone has a story, and every story matters to God. Sure, some stories sound larger than life but each and every story is worth sharing. When you’re only listening to drama-filled stories, you might miss the simple story of spiritual growth in someone’s life. By the way, any step in spiritual growth towards Jesus is radical growth worth recognizing.

Statements that tell me I might hear a story of life-change often begin like this:
– “I’m new here and…”
– “I never thought I would have…”
– “This is my first time in church and…”
– “My friend or coworker said I should visit here because…”
– “I just started a new…”
– “Something told me to…”
– “I’ve got to tell you something…”
– “I’ve been praying and…”

These are just a few of the statements people make when they’re trying to tell you a part of their story. Following those statements could be the words that will reveal how their life has been impacted by you, your church or the Holy Spirit.

To track and share the stories that I hear each weekend, I:

  • write down their name. I keep a small Moleskine journal in my back pocket and actually write down people’s name and basic info. I don’t want to be seen as the pastor who is always on his phone in those settings. I learned this concept from Rich Birch over at unSeminary.com in his post on 8 Habits of a Highly Effective Campus Pastor. Getting their information also allows me to follow up later in the week on their progress and possible next steps.
  • ask if we can grab a photo. I typically ask them if I can share their story publicly and most people don’t have a problem with that (especially if you let them approve the photo).
  • post to Instagram or Twitter. The more stories you share, the more you inspire your volunteers and leadership with what is happening at your campus. See my example below.
  • include their story in my weekend report to my supervisor. You will be surprised how well your leader connects to the story when the image is attached. As a bonus, these stories become compelling illustrations for your senior pastor to use in their upcoming messages.

As you begin to listen more critically to stories of transformation at your campus, get the details no matter how much or how little. Don’t just measure the attendance and the amount in the offering, measure and share the stories of life-change you a’rre hearing. At Christ Fellowship we say: “Every number has a name, every name has a story, and every story matters to God.”


How are you celebrating the stories of transformation at your campus?

4 Apps Every Multisite Pastor Needs

Posted on by Dave Simiele

Whenever I connect with a multisite pastor, I like to ask them a series of questions. The one question I always ask is: “What app are you using that makes you more successful?”, because I’m always on the hunt for tools to help me do my job more effectively and efficiently.

Here’re my four favorite productivity apps:

1. Nozbe
Nozbe is my to-do list; it helps me complete all my tasks, and is user-friendly. I’ve tried all the others: Clear, Wunderlist, Remember the Milk, and Reminders on iPhone, but for me, no task management tool compares to Nozbe. I’ve been able to reduce email, increase collaboration with my assistant, and get more done by creating several categories that help me batch tasks which results in more productivity and higher efficiency. My categories include: calls, planning, email, thank you notes, books to read, etc., and you can set a reminder for each task which ensures you don’t forget about it. I like that I can use Nozbe on all my Apple devices, and even though it’s not free, it will save you a significant amount of time.

2. Evernote
Everyone I know in ministry uses Evernote in some fashion or another, but not everyone uses the robust sharing feature. I share multiple notebooks and notes in Evernote with my wife, staff team and high capacity volunteers. Most importantly, I share individual notebooks with my direct reports that track and determine our one-on-one agenda items. These notes contain three priorities: their items, my items, and our action steps coming out of the meeting. A meeting that ends without action steps is a waste of time in my opinion. Since the notebook is shared, both you and the attendee can edit the file and populate it with future agenda items. I often use one-word list descriptions as a launching pad for the items I would like to discuss further in person. Michael Hyatt has a lot to share about Evernote; you can listen here. Don’t just use Evernote, share it.

3. Pocket
I’ll never forget the day I learned about Pocket from my friend Brian Taylor. Pocket has become my favorite app for saving, storing and tagging articles and social media posts of interest. I don’t have time to read everything I see on Twitter, but I always have time to put it in Pocket and read it later. My favorite feature within Pocket is the ability to tag and archive fabulous content for future reference. Like Evernote, I have Pocket on all my devices. It has become a massive storage drive of invaluable information that is literally in my pocket every day.

4. Asana
While Evernote is a great collaborative app, it hasn’t proven itself to beat Asana as my project management tool of choice. Asana allows our team to decrease email, share our progress with the team, and organize our work around a large project. It has changed the way we delegate tasks, communicate progress and administrate events. I no longer have to text or email a team member to see where he or she stands with a project, I can quickly check Asana for a status update. My favorite feature within this app is the ability to archive projects and campaigns that repeat seasonally. Year-after-year, we do a lot of the same things in ministry, and Asana allows us to unarchive those projects and reassign tasks. It takes a little training and follow-through to use Asana, but the investment is well worth it. Read and send less email, use Asana.

Those are four of my favorite productivity apps. What productivity tools you are using?

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.