Introducing the Campus Pastor

Recently, the Steering Team gave their final approval (they also had the proposal and worked through it for several weeks), and I want to make it official today and then give you some idea of what this role looks like.

Dennis Green will be the Campus Pastor at the PCC Westchester Campus!

Chauncey Starkey will be the campus pastor at the PCC Powhatan Campus!

What is a Campus Pastor?

Glad you asked. The role of the campus pastor is as follows:

1) Logistics. At the campus where they serve, the Campus Pastor’s role is to ensure that everyone has everything they need at each weekend service. I personally served in this role for a long time at PCC. The CP makes sure the doors get opened, the trailer arrives, the equipment gets set up, there are greeters in place, children are safe, the room gets put back like we found it, the coffee gets served and the door gets locked on our way out. The CP doesn’t have to DO the logistics, but is responsible for ensuring that everything gets done. Chauncey largely already does this in Powhatan. Dennis will do this at Westchester.

2) Follow Up. The CP will be the one who follows up with first time guests and others who are ready for various levels of contact after the weekend services experience.

3) "Weekend Shift Manager". We'll probably never use this language, but it's the best I have to describe this aspect of the role. What this means is that, once church is underway, the CP is the final authority for everything that happens at that campus. As we plan, schedule and rehearse, authority is a blending of centralization and decentralization. Beth, for instance, has the authority on creative arts for all of PCC. But when the service happens, if the CP needs to pull a drama, he can do it. (there are creative coordinators who also have input, so this is muti-layered.) Publications and money management will also be centralized. Other things, like guest services, will largely be site specific and decentralized. But when we’re ‘on’, the CP is the final authority.

4) Pastoral Care. The CP is the pastor. He’ll certainly need the help of the Care team (and we’re still figuring out how the care team will work in a 2 or 3 campus model), but when someone needs the pastor to go to the hospital, they’ll see the CP. Of course, there will be the same coordination we’ve always done, where Angie might be the pastor who visits a student, Susan a child, etc. But when someone wants the pastor, the CP will be it. And I’ll jump in at those moments when it’s appropriate.

5) The 'face with the place'. Everyone who is new wants to know 2 things: 1) who’s in charge, and 2) who can help me. The CP fills both of those roles, so he has to have some face time welcoming folks to the church. Beth and I will be working with Chauncey and Dennis to help them get better and better at this.

So, 5 things: Logistics, Follow Up, On-site Leadership, Pastoral care, and the face with the place. After that, both of these guys will also be involved with some coordinated planning for services and strategy when it comes to churchwide themes, like coordinating with the care team, leadership development, volunteerism, etc.

FYI: Both Chauncey and Dennis have other roles (Dennis is still the Executive Pastor and Chauncey is still the Administrator). All of our full-time staff and many of our part-time staff wear multiple hats. There is simply to much to do for us to only do one thing.

Tomorrow, I'll blog about my role and what the Senior Pastor does. But today, please join me in welcoming Dennis and Chauncey into their new roles as Campus Pastors at PCC!