← unSeminary Podcast
unSeminary Podcast
From 300 to 2,500: Building a Leadership Pipeline That Fuels Growth with Chris Vaught
00:38:40
Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today we’re joined by Dr. Chris Vaught, lead pastor of Connection Point Church (CPC) in Missouri. Under his leadership, CPC has grown from 300 people in 2011 to over 2,
Loading summary
Transcript89 lines
- [00:01]
A
Hey pastor, is your sermon done yet? If that question stresses you out, well, listen up. Sermondone.com is the premium AI assistant built for pastors. This is the sermon writing and research assistant that you and I have always wanted. Handling deep sermon research, sermon series planning, and even crafting a theologically aligned first draft. That sounds like you because you know why? It's trained on up to 315 of your own past sermons. And get this, it doesn't stop at the sermon. With just one click, you can instantly turn your message into small group guides, discussion questions, and even kids curriculum. It's like adding a research assistant, a writing partner, and a discipleship team all in one listen right now you can try it totally free with a five day free trial. Get this week's sermon done. If you've ever wished for a few more hours every week or maybe just a little more coffee, go to www.sermondone.com and use the promo RICH20 for 20% off. That's RICH20 for 20% off@sermondone.com get your sermon and everything else done. Sermondone.com RICH20 for 20% off welcome to.
- [01:21]
B
The Unseminary Podcast, the place where church leaders get practical insights, tips and strategies for ministry. Today, you're stepping into something bigger than just a conversation. This podcast is part of a bold mission to help 100 churches grow by 1,000 people. Whether you're dreaming of increasing your impact in your community, empowering your team, or reaching more people with the message of Jesus, you're in the right place. We're here to bring you the stuff you wish they taught in seminary. Ideas and tools you can put into action this week to see transformation in your ministry. Let's dive in.
- [02:00]
A
Hey friends. Welcome to the Unseminary Podcast. Super excited for today's conversation. I know I say that lots, but I really mean it. Today we're talking about an area that I think, frankly, lots of our churches should be leaning in on and learning more about and asking the question, how can we improve this area? Excited to have Dr. Chris Vaught with us. We got a doctor on the episode today. He's the lead pastor of Connection Point Church. This is one of the fastest growing church churches in the country and if I'm counting correctly, currently two campuses in Missouri. They have a passion for raising up the next generation of kingdom leaders leaders and they've developed the Connection Point Leadership College. Super excited to have you on the show today, Chris. Thanks for being here.
- [02:39]
C
Hey, I'm excited, Rich. So excited to be here. And get to share a little bit about what God's doing with us. And of course, we're constantly learning from you and all the other great hosts or leaders you have on your podcast with you and just excited and humbled to be, to be able to share a little bit of our story. So thanks.
- [02:57]
A
Well, yeah, I'm, I'm excited to have you and to have, you know, I really do think this is going to be an area I know a lot of us are wrestling with. How do we do this? Well, how do we develop leaders and. But, but kind of, you know, tell us a bit of the story, kind of set the table for us. Tell us about connection and you know what, you know, if we were to come this weekend, what would we experience? Give us kind of a flavor of the church. Talk us through that a little bit.
- [03:18]
C
Yeah. So Connection Point Church, we're located in Jackson, Missouri. We're about two hours south of St. Louis. Down toward the Boot Hill is what, what the area calls it, right just outside of Cape Girardeau. So there's between Cape Girardeau and Jackson. Total driving distance around the church. You know, 20 minutes would probably lean into around 70,000 people. Jackson itself is a small town of 15,000, but it's, it's very, it's, it's a very fast growing area as far as young families moving in. The school systems are excellent sports teams. Southeast Missouri University is over in Cape Girardeau. And so, so there's a lot of energy in the area. And so for cpc, we've actually kind of designed all our ministries to fit the mode of this area. I'm a firm believer we should bloom where we're planted. Right. And so how can we get into this community? And over, over the, the past 14 years, that's been our go. We came here in 2011 and church was running about 300 at the time. We had a traditional service and a contemporary service and was just trying, the church was just trying to feel that piece out and what that looked like and how to get into the community. And God just began to put the pieces together. In 2012, we, we changed our name to Connection Point because we wanted the people in the community to know what our church was about. I mean, there's churches, you know, on every corner in our area. And so what set this church apart? What is our niche? And we wanted to be about connections. Number one, a connected relationship with Christ and then relationships with people. So throughout the past 14 years, that's become our emphasis. Right? Getting out in the community. Making those connections and then making sure that the relationship with Christ is real and personal, not just religion. We're in a very religious area. So we wanted really to build off of the relationship aspect. So from that. Okay, so by 2019, we had bought 28 acres across town, built a new campus, and we moved in this campus with about 800 people in 2019. So we, we made a lot of transitions from 2011 to 2019. And we'd grown from 300, about 800. Of course, we all know what happened with 2020. That all came four months after we built this brain.
- [05:59]
A
Oh, no, no. Perfect timing. Perfect timing.
- [06:03]
C
I was literally teaching the membership class. We call it starting point. Yeah. To get new people connected to the church.
- [06:12]
A
Yes.
- [06:13]
C
The phone call came into the church that the government of the governing leaders of Missouri was asking the churches to stop meeting and in public because of COVID And I was teaching the membership class when that night, when that came in, I mean, I was teaching and my staff was in the back waving me down, said, hey, we just got a message.
- [06:34]
A
Wow, you're giving me a little PTSD here. That's. Those are. Those were dark days, man. That was, you know, hard to look back on.
- [06:42]
C
Our income jumped 18% over the four months that we were shut down. Because our people just built this building. They were scared we were going to lose it.
- [06:53]
A
So. Right. Wow. They leaned in. Nothing like adverse adv. I can't say that word. Adversary. To draw people in. That's amazing.
- [07:01]
C
Yeah, they. They jumped in, man. That was incredible. Came back. We came back, actually, I think Father's day weekend or right after Father's Day that June, to back in person services. When we came back, we came back with 600 people.
- [07:17]
A
Okay.
- [07:17]
C
Yep. So. So building back on that foundation of 600, what God did next was absolutely phenomenal to us. So from 2021, we had gotten back up to 1100. From 2022 to 2024, we doubled in size. Wow. And today, if you came here this weekend, there'd be a little over 2,500 people on the campus. Yeah.
- [07:51]
A
That's incredible. Praise God.
- [07:52]
C
And three services. And then we have about 30 miles away. Ten months ago, we launched our first multi site campus. And I have to tell you, Rich, about this campus. It's 30 miles away. It's in the second poorest county of our state.
- [08:09]
A
Wow.
- [08:10]
C
It's in a town of a thousand. 1700 people. A county of 10,000 people. And God has blessed that little campus. Wow. And it's been the largest church in the county since day one. Wow. They're running about 350 in a town of 1700. It's just. That's incredible. So we have this model God, do something only he can get the credit for. And be honest, right now, that's. That's what you. That's what we're seeing. But that's the atmosphere you feel if you were to come on campus this weekend. There's just that anticipation.
- [08:48]
A
Wow. Well, that's incredible to hear. And, you know, it's. It does seem like that kind of post Covid. I know it's like, I don't know at what point we're going to stop saying that kind of thing, but, like, it's a big deal, obviously, and. And it's like an inflection point we all went through. And it does seem like post Covid, there was like they. At one point they were talking about the K recovery, that there was like, some churches have come out not doing well. They're struggling. And there are churches like Connection Point that are accelerating. And in like, an odd sort of way, we look back and are, like, thankful for that time. We say something happened there that focused us, and we came back with, you know, even more, you know, drive and. And all of that, which is amazing to hear. But I can imagine in the midst of all that kind of getting to where we're. We're talking about today talk, you know, developing leaders, trying to scale up. Every church has a problem finding leaders. How do I get people to actually take the ministry and run with it? You've made some changes on this front that, you know, have really helped, I think, accelerate some of this growth. But why don't you talk us through? What's that look like for you in the last couple years?
- [09:58]
C
Yeah. So coming in, right. Just before COVID we knew as we were growing, we just could sense, you know, hey, hey, this is picking up. God's given us some good opportunities. We have to spread this out. We're. We're in southeast Missouri. This is not a hotbed for people who don't move here to take on a position. So we started thinking through and looking at the New Testament, too. You can only hire out so much, right? Because even though our church has grown fast, budget always comes up last. You have to look at other avenues other than just, oh, I'll hire another position. So we started looking in the congregation. We began to develop our own leadership pathway or pipeline to develop not only volunteers, but our future staff. We knew we grew really fast. We need to hire from within but we still couldn't hire every position. So we started looking at our volunteers as almost as non paid staff positions. And so atmosphere of expectation of roles and responsibilities and also the value of what they're doing that the kingdom is dependent upon all of us using our gifts and talents. And so we started this pathway and at first it was simply a challenge to every staff member. You go find your Timothy, you go find one other person that you can invest yourself into a volunteer. So that if on Saturday night and here was kind of the criteria for us. If on Saturday night something were to happen and you catch COVID Okay, we're at that time. Yes. Could this ministry run the next day because of the person you have personally equipped?
- [11:49]
A
I love that clarity.
- [11:50]
C
To hold the ministry.
- [11:53]
A
Yeah, that's so good. That's right. You go ahead. I cut you off there.
- [11:59]
C
So I was just saying that's, that's what we began, we began this pipeline and that's, that was really the basic level at first. Every staff member finding that one Timothy, if you will, if you want to use that terminology, the, that could run that ministry if you were out start.
- [12:20]
A
I, I love there's a lot of clarity there. I love that even just the practicality of like hey, on Saturday night, somebody calls, who can take this, who can take your piece. I think that's, that's so good. Break up a mindset for us. You talk about kind of, you know, use the phrase non paid staff members. You're setting a high bar for volunteers, like a high, high calling. I think there's a lot of staff in our churches who are like, oh, like I can't ask that of a volunteer. I can't. That they're not, they're like paid to do other things and like man, they either they are not good enough. Is the mindset problem. There's no way they could do it or that's way too much for me to put on them. Break that mindset up for me.
- [13:03]
C
Yeah. Because we've tackled that mindset over and over and over again. Bob Russell, who I consider to be a mentor in my life, he challenged me years ago early on in this process. When you're hiring staff, he would tell his staff at Southeast, if I hire you to, to develop and to coach others to do. If I catch you doing, you're fired. Right. I mean it was that kind of mindset.
- [13:25]
A
Yes.
- [13:26]
C
And getting that across, first of all to your staff, that it doesn't have to be a hundred percent of your ability. That our ministry, according to Ephesians 4 is to raise up the congregation to go do the ministry. And now let's paint a bigger picture of why that's important. If we have a church of 150 and you've got two staff members, you've actually got 150 priests of God, right? Yeah. Royal priesthood, you can do more. If they all do 30% of what you can do, spread out over the multitudes, then you can give all week long. And guess what? You don't have to run your marriage or your health. In the process, we spread this out and tackling that perfect mindset. The other issues we had to tackle, and you mentioned it, is this. Well, I don't want to ask them to do this. People will rise up to the level of expectation.
- [14:28]
A
So true.
- [14:29]
C
So what we began doing was, is we actually created job descriptions for every volunteer row. And in that job description it may say, this will require you on a weekly basis. X amount of time. Here's how you prepare, here's who you report to, here's what's expected, and here are the values we want you to conduct yourself with. People respond well to that 100%. People need clarity. People need to know, okay, if I'm going to serve on the usher team or the parking team or the worship team, here is the level of expectation they know. Whether or not they can get into clears up a lot of miscommunication. It makes people feel valued. And you can do it in the right way with positivity and motivation.
- [15:20]
A
Yeah, that's so good. I love the clarity of job descriptions. Getting it all written down, I think is incredible. So you know that it started with this simple idea. Simple idea, hard to execute. Like, hey, you find a Timothy, Ephesians 4, but it's more robust today. When you say pipeline, give me like a simple definition of that. How do you explain that to like, somebody who maybe is struggling with it? Maybe a staff member, elder leader type person? When you say, you know, leadership pipeline, what does that mean? What's that mental model for you?
- [15:53]
C
Yeah, for us, we tell them we're putting them on a pathway. You're here, but we won't put you on a pathway to help mature you and grow you and develop you and your skills that God has already given you, because that's where you're going to find fulfillment. That's where you're going to find the energy and the motivation to go long term. That this is. This is a process of development. You know, we come to faith in Christ and we often talk about Our salvation, like, it's a done deal at one moment, one little prayer, one baptism, you know, now it's done. Yes, we may be instantly brought into the family of God, but there's a whole life of sanctification and discipleship development. And so painted as a picture of this exciting pathway that we're going to be on. And these are just. This is a part of your path. We call it the discipleship path. And we kind of just draw it out for our people. We show them, hey, we're getting ready to take you on a journey. And it's a lifelong journey. We got. I got the concept from the Jewish concept of a disciple to a rabbi called a Talmud. And one of the cool definitions that I learned years ago on what is a talmid? 1. One of the definitions is a talmid is the shadow of their rabbi.
- [17:15]
A
That's good.
- [17:17]
C
In the Middle east, they would actually say a disciple knew they had arrived when they were mistaken for their rabbi out in the community.
- [17:27]
A
Oh, I love that. That's so good.
- [17:29]
C
Think about, we are to become like Christ. We should be mistaken for his character, his heart, his attitude. Right. But in a much smaller sense, part of that process comes into how we operate in and through the church, how we use our gift sets. The church's responsibility is to help put them on a path.
- [17:50]
A
Yep.
- [17:51]
C
To begin to develop what that shadow looks like.
- [17:56]
A
How do you. So I love that. It's a very vivid metaphor. What does that look like? Practically going from metaphor to like, okay, that sounds like the kind of thing I want to be a part of. I want to be a shadow. I want to. I want to, you know, grow. How are you structuring that and doing that at scale? I think it makes sense in the kind of rabbi, you know, a follower kind of thing. But, you know, you're talking about. You guys have grown by hundreds, thousands of people in the last few years. How have you been able to. To make those two things work? A relational, you know, discipleship experience that is. That is deep, but it has some sort of structure to it. What's that look like?
- [18:39]
C
Yeah, so. So the structure is going to be as people are coming in, the church are new here, our next steps, we're always pushing them to that very first next step, which for us is starting point there. They're learning the DNA, and we actually talk this language to them at that introductory night of us explaining, here's who we are at cpc, here's our DNA, and we give them that next step. What does that look like for one, it's maybe just joining a serve team. Now not everybody's ready to join something on a Sunday, but that's a starting point and we begin to teach these leadership competencies and explain to them, hey, there's a path that we want to put you on. Then included with that serve team is something we call equip workshops. Okay. These are about 10 week workshops we do two to three times a year where people, you, we market it to the congregation, to our serve teams. They sign up. We're going to teach you about your circle of influence, how replicate gave us this concept, Replicate ministries. And it's helping them find their kingdom circle. Right, because everyone has a circle of influence. And what does that look like as you use your gift sets to serve? So our go within is to not only get them involved in sun Sunday morning or weekly serving opportunities here, we wanted to stretch beyond. If we're going to reach our community, I need them taking these same competencies onto their job. I need to take the same competency to the traveling sports teams right wherever they're living their life out. Then the next step we introduce them to is our leadership college connection point, Leadership College CPLC. And that's a 10 month internship program where it is, it is straight on leadership skill competencies. We tell them we're going to teach you as if you're going into vocational ministry. But we invite people who don't feel a call to vocational ministry because we tell them we need disciples living out their gift sets in the secular world, not just inside the church. So there's two ways of coming into that college which is one step of it. There is the on campus intern where you're actually taking classes and practical ministry shadowing, being involved in the ministries here on campus. But then we have a hybrid edition which is online and that's for those who have to work a full time job, can't come on the campus and maybe they're wanting to learn the biblical leadership competencies and apply it into the secular world.
- [21:24]
A
That's fascinating. I want to come back to the leadership college in a minute. I want to put a bookmark in that. But taking a step back to the serve team and equip workshops. Talk to me about like, I think some churches would come to the moment of like when they're trying to get people in connection and connected and into some sort of discipleship relationship and they would actually push more towards groups, you know, rather than teams. Now I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to pick a Fight here. Obviously we want people to do both. But talk to me about that decision around, hey, we're going to kind of go the team's route and then add equipment because I think it's a really interesting model of like, then add these workshops which kind of drive some of that depth discipleship stuff to people who are serving, I'm assuming. But talk us through that.
- [22:08]
C
Yeah. So just for clarification, we do, we do do life groups as well, but if it's more for leadership development, we push them toward the serving. Yep.
- [22:20]
A
That makes sense.
- [22:21]
C
Yep. Like two different pockets, if you will. And some are going to switch over to both.
- [22:28]
A
Yep.
- [22:29]
C
Some will start and serve and eventually lead into a life group. Others may start a life group and come over to a serve team. Life groups are going to be a lot more discipleship based, while serve teams is discipleship with an emphasis on leadership competencies. Just because the fast, faster we grow, the more we have to make sure we're developing leaders, not just tenders, if you will, or, and discipleship carrying on that serving aspect. So if you looked our, if, if I drew my pathway out for you on this journey, of course you go to starting point. The next one is either join a life group or a serve team. Yeah. Then if you go into the serve team, we're going to really push it to these kingdom circles and circles of influence and then to the leadership college, if that makes sense.
- [23:21]
A
That makes total sense. Yep, that makes total sense. Well, let's talk about the leadership college. Like give me a bit more kind of framework for what that looks like. Is it literally like full time internship, 10 months, 40 hours a week? Talk us through that.
- [23:35]
C
Yeah. So first of all, we don't make it easy to attend our leadership college.
- [23:42]
A
I love it. We're not going to make it easy. We're not putting the cookies on the bottom shelf.
- [23:46]
C
Love it. Can we say it up front?
- [23:48]
A
Yes.
- [23:49]
C
So if you go into this, you're going into it with intentionality. One of the things I teach from day one is I, I can teach you competencies, I can't teach you initiative. So from the get go, this has got to be something you're after, you're coming after. Right. Because this is the highest level of our training. So it is a full time intern is 10 months. You're serving every weekend. You, for the first six weeks of the internship, you get to go through a discovery phase where we'll put you in every ministry department for a certain amount of time, let you get exposure. We believe you need Exposure. After that, you got to pick a direction. Right. And so from then on, you're here every Tuesday and Wednesday all day. Wow. That those are very in depth, biblical, theological, as well as practical leadership courses. Every morning up until lunchtime. In the afternoons, you're in the department in which you've chosen. That's the avenue that I'm feeling that toward. And you're going to be working under the leadership of that department. You're going to learn the skills of that department. You're going to go to their meetings, their departmental meetings. You're going to be involved in activities. And that's probably where you're going to serve on the weekends. Right. Or through the midweek, depending on what it is. Right. So now one of the beautiful things, we partner with Evangel University outside of Spring or in Springfield, Missouri. They actually looked at our program and said anyone that wants to come to school here or take online classes, if they go through that leadership program, we'll give them 12 credit hours of college. So there's a there for the ones who are looking for more formal education. And we have students who will do that. We have many that just want the leadership competencies here. Some of them are going into vocational ministry and others, as I said, they're wanting to take it into the secular world. And part of our go throughout the years, we tell them, we're not here to convince you what your calling is. We're here to equip you for whatever God calls you to do.
- [26:07]
A
Wow. Give me a profile of the kind of person, or a couple maybe there's a couple different profiles of people that take that step into the leadership college. Like, is that. Yeah, like, give me a sense of some of the characters that you find in that experience, if you know what I mean.
- [26:25]
C
But you know, this is year number four for us and it's so interesting that it's grown every year. Yeah. And by the way, one thing I left out, I told you, we don't make it easy. They pay us $500 to join.
- [26:37]
A
Okay.
- [26:38]
C
Yeah.
- [26:38]
A
Yeah, that's great for this internship. Not really.
- [26:41]
C
Yeah. All that back and resources, it's just okay, right? Yeah. But last year it was primarily high school graduates or college age kids that were in our internship program. And we don't know what the Holy Spirit's doing. This year we doubled enrollment and half of the group, more than half of the group are non traditional. They're like, we have a husband and a wife who are both working side jobs on Mondays and Thursdays and Fridays and Saturdays so they can do the internship together because they're both seeking what God's will is for them. So they're taking a financial hit. But here, and they've got children, I mean, they're having to get childcare so they can be here all day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We've got others that are in their mid-30s, up into their 40s coming to the school. So we're really watching God do something pretty unique because the, the idea, this concept of growing and stretching is now reaching beyond just the college age. And we're getting into really all age groups. The oldest intern right now that we've had was in 56.
- [27:52]
A
That's amazing.
- [27:53]
C
And he was so phenomenal. We hired him on staff after he graduated.
- [27:58]
A
That's great. Well, and, and we've seen this in other, you know, echoes of this in other prevailing churches like Connection Point, where there's like a high bar and there's like, we're really calling people to say, hey, why don't you come join the mission? And people respond to that. And you know, the ripple out impact of that is huge. It's almost like, you know, there are churches that are struggling and they're just trying to like, we're just going to make it as easy as we possibly can. And there's something about that that actually repels people ironically or maybe, maybe attracts the right people or the wrong people, you know, and this idea of like, hey, we're going to, we're going to, going to do something big for you, like, it's a lot of work, what you're talking about, pulling that internship together. But it also, it's, it's requires a lot from people. That's, you know, that's, that's incredible. How do you identify like and call out? I get that. It's like, you know, people have to make that choice. But what are, what are, what are you doing, what's your team doing to identify leaders, to kind of help them take steps next in their, you know, in their leadership development? Or is it mostly just kind of driven by them? They're raising their hand.
- [29:10]
C
No, I mean, actually you apply for it, you have to go through an interview process.
- [29:14]
A
Right.
- [29:15]
C
And, and once we interview you, then we kind of help navigate. Yeah, we believe you have the commitment level, you have the spiritual maturity for what you're about to come into. You know, we're looking at your personality skills. You're, you know, doing an assessment and just to make sure, because it is a, a commitment. Right. And you don't want to start, not finish. And. And we will make sure you got the character for this. Because when you come into a leadership school like this, everyone know. You know everyone. Oh, that's one of our interns.
- [29:48]
A
Yes.
- [29:48]
C
Yes. Your personal disciplines, your character competencies has to be at a certain level. So we even start there with an interview process. Then beyond that, once you're in the system, and we learned this from Larry Osborne, there are two primary sides of leadership in every person. Right. You're either going to. You're either going to be that. What he calls a big L leader, that one that lead the charge. And, you know, they're. They're going to drive a ministry or an avenue, or you've got the shepherd. Right. And both are needed in the church and one's not better than the other. Right. Your big L leader, they're the ones that make things grow. There are two criteria to look for for that big L leader. One, can they make things grow? Everything they touch takes off. You know, they're able to grow it. The second piece is. I love how Larry Osborne says it, says it's the Tom Sawyer effect. And you know the story. Tom Sawyer. Can they. Can they make people paint the fence for them and thank them for it when they're done?
- [30:57]
A
I love that. That's great.
- [30:58]
C
Can they motivate the people around them? If they are, and we recognize that kind of skill, that then gives us direction on how to craft their experience where we want to emphasize them to be able to really maximize those skills, to be a big L leader. They're going to lead a ministry. They may be potential future staff. They may go in a secular world, but they could really make an impact. They're an entrepreneur. Right. The shepherd. If we see that they have the caring gifts, that they're not the big L leader. They need a system, they need the structure. They're not going to create themselves, but everybody wants to be around them. They have a heart, they have a care, they're loving, they're prayerful, they're very spiritually deep. That helps us be able to craft their experience in the leadership college because again, it's not about us getting them to do something. It's them to learn the competencies to be the best of what God has called them to be. So we kind of keep our eye on that and watch those metrics. Some of that comes through how they respond in classes. It's how they serve on the weekends. It's just what a lot of observation pieces.
- [32:07]
A
Yeah.
- [32:08]
C
As they go through the process.
- [32:10]
A
Yeah, that's cool. So kind of related issue, but more, maybe less of the. This, the art part of it, more the science. When you think of metrics or mile markers around this whole area, what are some of the, the, the numbers that kind of come to the fore, things that you think about, like, oh, we got to make sure we're hitting this. If it's this feels or I know this is healthy when that's happening. Do you have any kind of metrics that you think about on this front?
- [32:37]
C
Mainly for us, it's as far as any kind of matrix is. We're watching to see if the people are taking ownership and are they self recruiting others? Right, sure.
- [32:46]
A
Okay.
- [32:47]
C
If I have a ministry that's self recruiting, constantly growing. Like for us, it's ever since COVID our media outreach department exploded. We went from an average of 800 unique views on the weekend to now over 6,000 on the weekend.
- [33:03]
A
Wow. Wow.
- [33:04]
C
So all of a sudden we're like, okay, we've really got to keep our eye on the digital marketing media aspect of our church. Right. So we judge health by it. How big has that volunteer base grown? Are they replicating? I think right now we have 50 volunteers in that ministry. We have a. With a full time staff of three people. Four people.
- [33:29]
A
Four people.
- [33:30]
C
And so, you know, I can't hire 50 people, but I gotta have that kind of a base. Our kids ministry, you know, our church age dropped dramatically after Covid. It's all these young families. So our kids numbers are through the roof. So can we. So what's our volunteer ratio look like there? And are they replicating some of the metrics we look at? Is the volunteer ministry large enough that people can serve one and sit and worship in another?
- [34:02]
A
That's good.
- [34:03]
C
Volunteers are working every single weekend and they have no time to come and get fed themselves. And I. And even ministry department leads, if they can never break away and come into a worship service and get fed themselves, that ministry is not healthy. Yeah, they need more volunteers. And the department heads need to be able to train their team lead, who's underneath them well enough to run a ministry for one service once a month to come into a worship service and get fed themselves, you know, that's just an example.
- [34:34]
A
That's good. That's good. So good. Well, this is a great conversation. There's a ton we could talk about here. But just as we're. We're wrapping up, if you were to coach, maybe there's a leader that's listening in today and they're like, gosh, like, I know we're at the place where we, we got to take that first step. We got to take the. Hey, who's your Timothy? What would be some, some advice you'd love to give? Maybe it's like a pothole to avoid or like, here's something, you know, that kind of early advice I would give you to, to get as you're getting the ball rolling on, you know, on trying to develop a leadership pathway.
- [35:10]
C
Yeah. Straight up early on. Whoever your staff is or your key volunteer leaders are, when they find that Timothy, tell them the number one gift they can give that person is time investment. That's good. Sit down with them, spend some time with them, and then lead into a competency. And it could be 15 minutes. We do this with our volunteer bases on the weekends. So they gather together for a huddle 15 minutes before their serving opportunity actually begins. And there's only three pieces that you have to talk about there. One is caring for them. Hey, how can I pray for you? How can I care for you? Because remember, volunteers, it's not just a job, though. You, you give them responsibility job, but you're also a congregation. You've got a pastoral care for them. Hey, how can I pray for you? Then a quick update of, here's some things going on. Just keep communication going. Here's what we need to, to know for the day. But that third piece that I'm so big on, and you can do this sitting around coffee. It doesn't have to be a Sunday morning huddle. It could be as you're building the program, just. But then teach them some leadership competency. You don't have to preach the sermon. It's just bring that little competency to help them develop and build some confidence. So if you came to one of our huddles, like this weekend for 15 minutes, they're going to check up on you. They're going to share a win. Hey, here's what God's doing. Celebrate with them. They're going to give a quick little update and then they're going to share something like, hey, this weekend our whole theme is we want to create hospitality. So whatever we do today, let's just all be hospitable and they'll talk just a quick minute about that. Right. So as you're building your teams, as you're building your pipeline, that's really all you're going to want to replicate. Then however large you get, you just keep adding layers to it. But it's really the same simple structure.
- [37:08]
A
Yeah. That's so good. That's so clear. This has been great conversation, Chris. I really, really appreciate it. I feel like there's a bunch more even just there around huddles. We could jump in on maybe a future podcast. We'll have you back on or your team back on to talk through that piece of the puzzle. Because I think there is even that alone. I think that's the thing. So many of us, we've got to do a better job on. Our church has got to do a better job on. Well, Chris, I really appreciate you being here today as we land the plane. If people want to get in touch with you or get in touch with the church, kind of track with your story. Where do we want to send them online?
- [37:41]
C
Yeah, you want to send them to your CPC church, you can send a message to us just simply by email and info at your CPC church. Of course, you can catch us with that same handle on any social media site and you can send some direct messages straight our way. That's great.
- [37:58]
A
Thanks so much. Appreciate you being here today, sir.
- [38:00]
C
Yeah, I enjoyed it. Thank you so much for the honor.
- [38:03]
B
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Unseminary Podcast. If you found today's conversation helpful, I'd share it with a friend in ministry. It's a simple way to spark new ideas and grow together. Also, don't Forget to visit unseminary.com to sign up for our email list. You'll get exclusive resources and practical tools delivered straight to your inbox to help you lead your church more effectively. Most importantly, take what you learned today and put it into action this week. Ministry impact starts with small, intentional steps. See you next time.