When starting a new church or starting another location, aim to fill the following three positions before any others:
- Lead pastor / Campus pastor
- Worship pastor / director
- Kids pastor / director
It’s the experience people have on Sunday that causes a church to grow and these three positions, more than any others, impact the experience your guests have each Sunday, so they should be the priority. It’s like this…
If you visit a new restaurant and the exterior looks run down, no one greets you at the door, it takes a long time to be seated, the waitress is rude and the food is bad, you’re not coming back because you had a bad experience. Not only will you not come back, you’ll tell several friends about your bad experience to deter them from ever visiting.
Conversely, if the exterior looks well-maintained, someone greets you at the door and opens it for you, you don’t have to wait long to get a seat, the waitress is friendly and helpful and the food comes out hot and delicious, not only will you come back, you’ll bring others with you!
You see? It’s all about the experience so when hiring, prioritize those hires that will give people the best experience. A lot of times a pastor will hire an assistant first and while that’s not always wrong, an assistant is usually focused on making your life easier, not making Sunday better, so I personally would hold off an assistant until you (at least) have a worship and kids director/pastor. Remember, your worship/kids people can double as your assistant until you’re able to hire someone dedicated to the task.
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