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Inside the Campus Pastor Role

Written by Brad Prunty

My journey at COMMUNITY began with a six month church planting internship with Dave Ferguson in 2001.  This was my first opportunity to be a part of a reproducing church. Over the course of my internship, I developed an even greater passion to see God’s mission accomplished through the launching of new campuses and churches.  I spent the next several years on staff at COMMUNITY as the student ministry director at our Romeoville location before being hired as Campus Pastor to launch our Plainfield Campus on March 2, 2008. 

As our team was preparing for our March 2nd launch, we knew in our hearts that this would be one of the most memorable days of our lives. Here are some of my favorite quotes from new attenders on that day… many of whom had not been to church in years, if ever.

• “Let me just go ahead and let you know now that I am very religiously challenged.” - Joined a small group and is leading the charge for our setup and teardown team 
• “Well, my wife is Jewish and I’m a former Catholic and we are here because your postcard said something about serving the community and finding purpose.” - Serving in hospitality and continuing their journey back to God  
• “That was different.” - Joined a small group and he and his wife were baptized on December 21, 2008
• “I’m here because my brother hasn’t been to church in 20 years and after receiving your postcards he said he would come with me to the grand opening!”- Saw his brother get baptized on September 7, 2008
• “What could be so worth it that you would want to go through all this setup and tear down every single week?”- The custodian at the middle school where we meet for celebration service.

It has truly been a blessing to see God work through this new campus. It’s hard to believe that I get to do this Campus Pastor gig for a living!  At COMMUNITY one of the questions I often get asked is, “What is the role of a Campus Pastor?” Or for all of you Office Space fans it’s, “What would you say… you do here?”  

Great question! Well, as the multi-site story at COMMUNITY was beginning to unfold, Lyle Schaller shared some profound advice with our leadership.  He said that every newcomer who walks in the door of our church will have two questions.

1. Who is in charge?
2. Who can answer my questions?

With that advice and with the growing realization that our lead pastor, Dave Ferguson, could only be in one place at a time we invented the role of the Campus Pastor. For us, the Campus Pastor role has always been about finding the “face with the place,” and there are several different metaphors that we use to describe this role.  Here are a few of them for starters:

• Host – Every weekend the campus pastor gets to pretend like they are the host of a huge party.  In the same way that you would make sure that everything was perfect and ready to go for a party at your house with all your closest friends… you get to do that every Sunday morning with a team of volunteers preparing for celebration services.   
• Cheerleader – As a cheerleader, it is the campus pastor that gets to celebrate and encourage the huge team of volunteers that make a new church possible!  This is done both individually, as people are serving, and also corporately during the celebration service.
• Talent Scout – This is personally one of my favorite parts of being a Campus Pastor.  A talent scout is continually looking for people who are ready to increase their leadership and influence and helping them take the appropriate next steps to get there.
• Catalyst – Perhaps the most important part of the Campus Pastor role is that of the catalyst.  This is about building momentum and leading in the vision of where the new campus is headed. This includes oversight of budget, staff, future new locations, yearly key objectives, etc. to create the greatest impact on the Jesus mission in this new community!

The role of Campus Pastor is in integral part of multi-site church life. If you’d like to download a copy of the Campus Pastor ministry role description, click here.