The success of new campuses hinges on one critical hire: the campus pastor.
In this episode, Sean and I break down the five essential traits every campus pastor needs to thrive—especially at churches using video teaching.
Whether you’re launching your first campus or refining your multisite strategy, this conversation will help you identify the right leader who can carry your church’s DNA, rally people, and build sustainable ministry through volunteers.
The right campus pastor will multiply your impact. The wrong one will create problems that will ripple through your entire multi-site strategy. [episode 425] #unstuckchurch Share on X Great campus pastors don’t complain, they don’t wait for instruction… they lean in and solve problems and deliver results. [episode 425] #unstuckchurch Share on X Choose a mustang over a mule. I’d rather restrain a mustang than kick a mule. [episode 425] #unstuckchurch Share on X You need someone with relational strengths who can connect and care for people. [episode 425] #unstuckchurch Share on X
This Episode Is Brought to You By Portable Church Industries
For over 30 years, Portable Church Industries has equipped thousands of churches with custom portable solutions that make launching, expanding, and thriving in rented spaces efficient and sustainable.
We believe the smartest way to launch strong is to Go Portable First.
From complete portable systems to expert coaching, we help churches save money, stay flexible, and focus on what matters most, reaching their communities. Whether you’re a church planter or a church launching a new location, PCI is your trusted partner in creating church anywhere.
Learn more at portablechurch.com/go-portable-first
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Transcript
Sean:
For over 30 years, Portable Church Industries has equipped thousands of churches with custom portable solutions that make launching, expanding and thriving in rented spaces, efficient and sustainable. From complete portable systems to expert coaching, they help churches save money, stay flexible, and focus on what matters most reaching their communities. Whether you’re a church planner or a church launching a new location, Portable Church Industries is a trusted partner in creating church anywhere. To learn more, go to portablechurch.com. That’s portablechurch.com.
Well, welcome to the Unstuck Church podcast. I’m Sean, your host here again with Amy Anderson. And today we had planned to unpack the Q4 2025 Unstuck Church Report focused on the trends that we’re seeing in multi-site churches across North America. But Amy, we’re gonna pivot just a little bit.
Amy:
That’s right. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough multi-site churches in this quarter survey to provide what I would call a statistically reliable sample.
Sean:
Exactly.
Amy:
You know, so that we can confidently put a report together. We had a great sampling, but just not enough. And I get it. I’ve been working with so many multi-site churches this year. They are busy and let’s be honest, everyone wants us to take surveys right these days. I bet I get at least one a week from various businesses and organizations.
Sean:
Yes, I think you might get the same ones as me. So let me get like Hertz, Marriotts?
Amy:
Delta. Yes. You know, my travel tribe. I think we have the same one, anyway, without the critical mass of respondents we usually get, we’re just gonna miss a quarter of our unstuck church report.
Sean:
So what Amy’s saying is, if you like these quarterly reports, please participate in them so that we can publish them. Right?
Amy:
Right. That is true.
Sean:
In fact, we’re gonna make it easier for you. If you’d like to help us put out the next year’s report, and put that together specifically on multi-site churches by agreeing to participate in the survey, just shoot us a note at help@theunstuckgroup.com. So help, H-E-L-P at the unstuck group.com. We’ll send you a free spreadsheet to use for tracking your metrics throughout the year.
Amy:
That’s a great idea.
Sean:
All right, well we have a bonus episode for our listeners this week. And honestly, I can’t believe that we’ve never covered this topic on the podcast before, but we’re talking about the five key traits that you need to look for in a campus pastor hire.
Amy:
Seriously, Sean, we’ve never covered this before?
Sean:
Never.
Amy:
Oh my goodness. Well, this’ll be super fun and practical. And what our data is telling us is that there are so many single site churches right now that are considering multi-site and man, choosing the right campus pastor is one of the top issues really, if not the top issue, that will affect whether multi-site’s gonna work for you or whether dysfunction is gonna develop within your model.
Sean:
Yeah. Let’s start with the big picture, Amy. Why is finding the right campus pastor so crucial to multi-site success?
Amy:
Yeah. When you’re a multi-site church, your new locations, they don’t need a lead pastor per se. What they need as a leader, that can be the chief like culture and vision carrier to the new location of the church. They’re what author and podcaster Seth Godin calls a linchpin person, someone who is vital, central and critical to the success and really the health of the team or organization. The campus pastor, he or she sets the tone for everything that happens at a new location. I looked this up actually. Do you know what a linchpin is, Sean?
Sean:
I do not.
Amy:
I didn’t either and I wanted to look and say, is this still an acceptable word? I figured if Seth was calling it, but it’s actually the pin that goes through the axle of a wheel and holds all the components together.
Sean:
Oh, okay. Yeah.
Amy:
You know, so the most common theme among struggling multi-site churches is a lack of strong aligned leadership at that location. So getting this hire right can either accelerate your growth in health, but if you get it wrong, it honestly can sink an entire location.
Sean:
Yeah, that’s good. I think that I’ve called those cotter pins in the past. I’ve got some of those in my mower, but it might be linchpin. I don’t know now. Now I’m second guessing myself. Whatever it is, it’s a pin that holds things, that holds things together. Right.
Amy:
It’s an actual thing. That’s right. Yes.
Sean:
That’s right. All right, so is there like a magic formula, like some set of traits that will always equal success here?
Amy:
Yes and no. Not exactly. It really depends on what approach the church is taking with multi-site. So if they’re taking the route that we recommend where you replicate everything fairly identically, then you need more of a leader manager who can execute ministry strategies. We often call that like the playbook that all the central strategists put together. That campus pastors can use as they lead their new location. But if you are more autonomous where you release a lot more decision making at a campus and then you really need someone who can act like a church planter and contextualized ministry strategies to this new community, which honestly we kind of say really isn’t multi-site, then you really need a leader entrepreneur to lead that site. So for the sake of our conversation today, we’re gonna focus on the five common traits that every church should look for in a campus pastor. And then when you get into those other realms, that’s where we start to see some divergence in qualities you’re looking for.
Sean:
That’s good. All right, well let’s dive into the five traits. What’s the first one?
Amy:
Yeah, the first one, they must embrace the DNA of your church, right? Your mission, your vision and your values especially. They have to model these things in everything they do. And by the way, if your multi-site model is highly identical, like we talked about, they also, you have to add the word strategies to there. So mission, vision, values and strategies because nothing will take a new location off course then a leader who wants to do something just a bit differently.
Sean:
Yes. Right.
Amy:
And again, you need someone who will champion your DNA, not fight against it, not try to change it. And that’s why it’s best honestly, to spend time, have that person spend time at your church so you can truly understand who they are. Right? You need some time with them. We recommend a minimum of a year on the team before sending them out to launch a new location.
Sean:
Well say more about that. What roles do they often fill on the team before they launch a campus?
Amy:
Oh, so if you, like, you bring them on the team for a year. Well, if you’re gonna hire from within and they’re already on the team. What I see is they often come from the discipleship team. So commonly groups pastors are great future campus pastors or people involved in like serving in leadership development, but often not care pastors. Again, we’re looking for that builder mindset and often care pastors are more shepherd than they are leaders. Not always, but commonly.
Sean:
Sure.
Amy:
But that’s where I see existing team members come from. And if that’s where they are, that is just fine because you already know this person, they’re in a role that’s gonna do what you want campus pastors to do. But if you hire externally and you bring someone who’s currently not a part of your staff team, even if they’re just in your church, I would get them in the doors. And then I think they need to spend time that first year immersing in various ministry teams. They need to get into your discipleship team and understand the ministry strategies there. They need to be around the weekend service team because even though in multi-site models, they don’t do a lot of the weekend service creation, they still have to be the coach for it. They still have to understand what it is we’re trying to accomplish in that space. Spend time in the next gen ministries because again, you’re gonna have next gen pastors most likely at your church, but you need to be able to stand back and make sure we’re on brand and we’re on top of the things we need to be on top of. This’ll give them that frontline exposure, you know, the building blocks of those ministries and DNA exposure to the heart of that ministry.
And then in either case, Sean, you know, at some point during that year, they’re also gonna start to take leadership of what I call the people lane of your campus launch plans. You know, you’re doing building lanes, you’re doing promotion lanes, but that people lane is where you’re building a core team. Right? Who’s gonna go to that location with you? You’re identifying volunteer leaders, you’re launching groups. So they will, they’ll get immersed in both learning your ministry and beginning to lead it throughout the course of those 12 months.
Sean:
That’s great. That makes a lot of sense. What about the second trait? What would be the second thing?
Amy:
The second trait is they actually need to be a great communicator. And I say this, even if your teaching is coming from a teaching team on video, because when your campus pastor, when they’re on the platform, they need to lead the room. They need to cast vision to their campus. They need to talk about important things like money or generosity. They need to compel people at their location to take their next steps beyond the weekend service. You know, their hosted spots may be brief. Right? We’re kind of in that, depending on your church’s style, but generally four or five minutes. But that’s why this gifting is so important because I think it’s harder to craft a great five minute thing than it is to craft a great 30 minute thing, right?
Sean:
It is. Yes.
Amy:
So, yeah. Here’s something that we recommend when people are in that hiring process for candidates is actually give that candidate the responsibility to put, give them like 30 minutes to put together a three minute talk that connects giving to the vision of the church. And then have them present back to the interviewing team. I think that would give you a good indication of if they have that chip to say and be compelling in a few minutes that’s linked back to the vision.
Sean:
Yeah. That’s a great idea. Yeah. What if a church currently has a campus pastor who isn’t a great communicator? What should they do? What’s their next step?
Amy:
It’s a good question. I’m not sure my response is like, “ooh, ah.” But here are my thoughts. I don’t think a great solution is just having other people host the platform spots. You know, like just taking other people from the team or raising up a team who can do that. Again, it goes back to the campus pastor’s time on the platform that is sort of their keys to get to know the people of the church off platform. Yeah. When they’re on the platform, it’s communicating that they’re the leader of this location. They’re the church’s pastor.
So first I would try some training if this is a challenge for your campus pastor. I wouldn’t let it stay at mediocre because of what I just said before this. But this is an area that I think people can get better at. Right? Internally, you already have some great communicators on your teaching team. Hopefully they’re great communicators. Have the campus pastor spend time with them, give them some coaching, get some feedback to help them. This is an art I think you can develop. And of course this is something you can find outside the church. There’s Masterclasses, Ted Talks. Dale Carnegie I think does training on public speaking. I’m sure Toastmaster is still out there. I would just make this part of their development plan because again, I don’t think people have hit their lids on what they can do from a platform.
Sean:
Yeah. That’s really good, Amy.
Amy:
Is that “ooh, ah?”
Sean:
It’s not, but it’s really practical. And I think what’s important is, you know, we think about development of communicators as maybe the only place that can happen is on the stage. I think that’s actually the worst place for it to happen.
Amy:
Me too.
Sean:
We shouldn’t develop while we’re on stage delivering communication. That needs to happen somewhere else. So some of what you’ve just encouraged them to pursue there I think could be really goodYeah.
Amy:
Yeah. It’s an important factor when the campus pastor talks too long. Talks in circles isn’t compelling. It’s just gonna work against you.
Sean:
Absolutely. Okay. So we’ve talked about the importance of DNA and communications. What’s the third trait to look for?
Amy:
Yeah, now we’re getting into the people leadership qualities. You know, a great campus pastor has to relate well with people, and this is especially critical for multi-site churches that leverage video teaching. You know, at the end of the day, the campus pastor is the pastor of this location. And while I said earlier, we aren’t looking for purely a shepherd in this role. The campus pastor does need to shepherd people. They need a warm presence. They need to be approachable. You know, if you’ve taken the leading from your strengths assessment that we talk about a lot, you want someone on the people side of the wheel. If you’ve done the disc assessment, you need some I and S in them. We’re talking about a leader who is naturally wired to put people first, not the task. That’s why, you know, like a purely theological or administrative type probably will not succeed in this role. You need someone with relational strengths who can connect and care for people.
Sean:
So what I think I clearly hear you saying, Amy, is that I would not make a great campus Pastor.
Amy:
Next question.
Sean:
It’s all right. I accept that. I know a lot of our listeners are familiar with the table group’s Working Genius assessment. What are your thoughts there?
Amy:
You’re actually really good at this. I’d like to hear your thoughts on that. What do you think?
Sean:
Well, it makes me think of the galvanizing genius. They talk about that and the assessment galvanizing is the genius that really involves rallying people around a shared idea. And it seems, you know, based on what we’ve been talking through so far, that this is really what we’re looking for in a campus pastor. It’s a combination of leadership, enthusiasm, and building momentum. And people with that, I love that term genius. People with that skill, that knack, that ability who that can rally a group of people seem to fit really well in this campus pastor role. They are people people.
Amy:
They do. And it aligns well with what I said on the leading from your strengths that I quadrant from the disc. That’s where your promoters are, your persuaders and that’s just a great combination of things to have. And it’s great if galvanizing is a genius for your campus pastor, that would be ideal. But at a minimum, they should at least be competent in it. Right. We talk about what our geniuses are, where we’re competent and frustrations. If galvanizing is a frustration, that’s a big red flag for me.
Sean:
Yeah. Okay. Well you said I, so now I’m thinking maybe I can be a campus pastor.
Amy:
Actually with you. I would still hesitate because while you’re competent in galvanizing. You have the invention genius and if you’re a campus pastor at a highly identical church, that actually might work against you. So I think Sean, right now you just want the job because you like a challenge.
Sean:
Yeah. It would probably depend on the church also, but no, I’m not leaving my Unstuck role. All right, well let’s continue to see if I’m qualified for this. What’s the fourth trait?
Amy:
They have to be able to lead through volunteers and build teams of volunteer leaders. You know, only a handful of churches can afford to staff a new campus fully. That’s just not what I regularly see. The rest of us need campus pastors who can mobilize volunteers. So for example, if you’re a large healthy church that’s going multi-site, I would guess that you would have some, a staffing, I’m sorry, an attendee to staff ratio of somewhere around 75 to one. That means we have one full-time equivalent on staff for every 75 people that attend our church. When you’re a large, healthy growing church, you’re getting to that number.
And let’s say you’re about to launch a location that would be about 400 people. That means that you would have a staff of about 3.5 FTE. I’m not gonna get into the math there, but you have to cover central costs and things like that. That’s why you don’t get to just divide 400 by 75. Right. So beyond that 3.5 full-time equivalent in your staff, you’re gonna need many volunteer leaders to help shoulder the ministry of the new campus. So this trait of leading through volunteers and building teams of volunteer leaders is critical. The campus pastor and really the staff as a whole, they need to attract high capacity leaders. They have to identify emerging leaders. They have to develop those leaders and then they need to empower them.
And by the way, this is so important if you’re listening to this on the day it drops, we’re doing a webinar tomorrow on this topic of just finding and engaging volunteers and volunteer leaders in your church. If you missed it, you can go back in the learning hub to see it. But this area is essential for campus sustainability. Without this, the staff team at that new location, they’re gonna get burned out by trying to do and lead everything themselves. And Sean, you actually do this one very well, as well as you kind of embody the next one.
Sean:
All right, well that’s good to know. I’m not sure if I feel encouraged or not, but I am honing in on where I fit.
Amy:
That’s right.
Sean:
That’s what’s important. Yeah. All right, so let’s go to the fifth and final trait then. What’s that?
Amy:
Yeah, they need to be self-motivated and driven. They need to be the kind of leader that just makes things happen. If you as a lead pastor, executive pastor, if you do your part right, by providing clarity on what the wins look like for this new location, your campus pastor should be able to run with that and get things done. We often call this the campus scorecard. Right. Something that details the goals of the new campus related to reaching people and discipling people.
And a phrase I like to use for this role is choose a mustang over a mule. Now, I’m not saying choose an entrepreneur over this, but choose a mustang over a mule. Right? I like to say I’d rather restrain a Mustang than kick a mule. You want leadership initiative ownership from your campus pastor. You shouldn’t have to constantly be motivating them. If anything, you probably need to encourage them to slow down a little bit and rest because great campus pastors, they’re energized by challenges. They are the chief problem solver at that location. And honestly, Sean, this is you, these type of leaders, they don’t complain. They don’t wait for instruction or step away from problems. Rather they lean in and they solve their solvable problems and deliver results.
Sean:
And they’re probably motivated by the mission too. Right?
Amy:
Absolutely.
Sean:
They have that missionary mindset where they are driven, but it’s a drive to better accomplish the great commission in the mission field they’re doing ministry in. So, this has been really helpful. I would just imagine there’s some senior pastors, executive pastors, maybe even campus pastors who are leaning into this in helping them really clarify the role of the campus pastor and some of those key responsibilities in addition to what they’re looking for in future campus pastors. So, Amy, we’re gonna wrap up, but any final thoughts before we do?
Amy:
Yeah, just as you were saying that, I wanna reiterate whether the teaching is coming in via video or whether your campus pastor is a teaching campus pastor. All of these qualities still exist. And this is where I find the tension sometimes. When campus pastors are teaching, it’s hard to embody all of those other things. So we have to staff up more at the campus to kind of fill in those spaces. But these five traits, right? Embracing your DNA, communicating well, relating to people well, leading through volunteers and being driven, those are the foundational, foundational aspects of being a campus pastor. So if you’re looking to hire a campus pastor, take your time with this hire. The right campus pastor will multiply your impact. The wrong one will create problems that really will ripple through your entire multi-site strategy. If you are hiring for a campus pastor right now, take these five traits as your filter like red, green, yellow, each candidate you have in these areas. And I think that type of assessment will kind of give you visual confirmation of who’s the right person to move forward with.
Sean:
And Amy, as you know, when we engage with multi-site churches, there are two types of churches we work with. One would be churches that are going multi-site for the very first time, and so they’re trying to identify maybe from a list of campus pastor candidates who should we hire and move into this role. The others are churches that are either multi-stuck or they’ve been multi-site for a while and they’re continuing to expand. Sometimes they need to evaluate their current campus pastors. And then if they’re expanding and adding new locations, again, they’re looking for new campus pastors. And so we have a process. In fact, there’s a particular exercise in our process that deals directly with this. And if you’re a church that feels like we could use some help with that right now, we would love to partner with you. You can reach out to me directly at sean@theunstuckgroup.com. That’s S-E-A-N. I can spell my own name, @theunstuckgroup.com. Or just go to our website, theunstuckgroup.com and start a conversation there.
Amy, I’m really excited as we wrap up today’s episode next week. We’re back with a series throughout December on some of the hottest topics within ministry right now. It’s gonna be really fun, looking forward to it. And I hope that everybody will come back next week, listen to next week’s episode, and take that journey with us through the month of December. So until then, have a great week.
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