Why Your Pastor Should Outsource His Mind series: Click | View Series

The last post showed why a pastor should outsource his mind by hiring an assistant. This post will offer some guidance on how to choose a good pastoral assistant.

Basic Requirements for an Assistant

If outsourced properly, your assistant should have at a minimum two basic giftings: adaptability and discernment. These may be the counter to your weaknesses, allowing for a fuller response to the needs of your ministry, or they may be enhancements to the collection of talents and gifts the Lord has given you.

1. Adaptability To Change

Church plants are static in only one area—change. At Mars Hill we have found the only constant in our work here in Seattle (and now Albuquerque) to be never-ending, always-fluctuating change. For assistants, the ability to take the changes that are sure to come and approach them with a correct heart and mind is a priceless gift.

An assistant’s job is to build systems to catch as much work from the pastor he serves and to carry out the tasks quickly and efficiently. As the work in the ministry changes, those systems are made obsolete. A correct approach to this inevitability is to simply start from scratch and build new systems if the ones that were created weeks or months ago are now outdated.

An incorrect approach is to stubbornly hold onto old systems, now defunct, simply because they are how things have been done. God brings new things into our ministries to test and shape us; to respond to the new issues in the same manner as the old is a foolish way of doing his work and will result in frustrated pastors, assistants, and church members.

2. Discernment

An assistant should know who needs to have contact with the pastor served. A proper understanding and sometimes a Spirit-directed knowledge of who is truly in need of the pastor's time is crucial.

It is easy for an assistant to read over hundreds of emails and letters and to file each request in its appropriate box: “He needs to read the website,” “She needs to take the membership class,” “They need marital counseling and the pastor I serve doesn't have that responsibility,” “He needs a half-hour phone conversation,” “A simple form email will suffice for these people,” “This guy is Satan and ‘delete’ will work just fine.” The workday continues in this vein because, hey, the systems were built for efficiency and strength of the ministry, so let's use them.

In this routine and task-completion mode, discernment is indispensable as the Spirit nudges an assistant toward a particular email that could easily be handled personally by the assistant or directed to another staff person, but is truly meant for the pastor. I have seen this many times at Mars Hill. God has brought many men forward to carry the counseling load for our people and relieve Pastor Mark of this role, so he can focus on the pulpit and future of the church. Yet when I served as his assistant, there were emails that came into his inbox that I knew could easily and quickly be directed to someone else, but the Spirit led me to pass them on to Pastor Mark instead. The fruit that comes from these instances is great and simply confirms that discernment is needed.

Before You Pick Your Assistant

Read A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard. This title has been highly recommended reading for assistants at Mars Hill Church. "A Message to Garcia" shows a great example of the type of person each pastor should pursue as his assistant.

Remember that the job description is written by you. This article is general because the tasks that Mars Hill assistants carry out are specific and tailored to each pastor. For some, the qualifications and job description include budgeting, tech support, and scheduling; for others editing, research, proofreading, and inventory; for others still, project management. The point is that for each pastor a specifically tailored assistant was found and is now leveraged to make the ministry more efficient and sane so that the gospel can go out.

If you do not yet have an assistant I would recommend that you squeeze your budget like you haven't before and hire one. The benefits we see at Mars Hill are great. As a member of this church it is good to know that the pastors are working in their giftings and that there are men and women in place to enhance their ministries. These people were hired based on the strengths and weaknesses of each pastor, so the resulting assistants vary in skill, experience, and gifts. There is no cookie-cutter model, so trust and pray that the Lord will bring you the help you need in just the right way.

Know that we pray for you and your churches constantly and love being a part of the greater movement God is working out in our country and world.

Assistants: Listen Up

Listen to Humble Service: The Ministry of Timothy. This Mars Hill sermon deals with the topic from a scriptural standpoint and gives a reference point for those seeking to be an assistant.

Pastor AJ Hamilton is the Executive Pastor for Mars Hill Church’s Albuquerque campus. You can watch his amazing testimony and read his previous Resurgence posts here.

Pastor Mark

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Why Your Pastor Should Outsource His Mind series: Click | View Series

Pastors Need An Assistant

The world of church planting can be fast-paced and stressful. Pastors have sermons to prepare and preach, worship bands to assemble and practice, community groups to launch and maintain, weddings and funerals to perform. There are emails, letters, and phone calls to return, initiate, and ignore; books to order and then find time to read; children's ministry volunteers to rope in; youth activities to manage; and the list goes on and on.

With all of these duties, and more, on a pastor's plate—especially a lead planting pastor who may be wearing all of those hats with varying degrees of success—it makes sense to look into outsourcing his mind.

An assistant is the perfect way to farm out much of the work that weighs on a pastor's mind at 3am. Yet "How?" seems to be a common question. How can a pastor truly leverage an assistant to maintain peace of mind, remain focused on the macro vision for the church/ministry, and still feel like he is working and deserving the big bucks his church is paying him? Below are several main areas of outsourcing that will help a pastor maintain sanity and accomplish what God has given him to do (Acts 6).

Outsource Your Energy Drains

Energy Drain #1: Letters
With an assistant, the tasks that you know you have to do, but hate doing, can be outsourced. Depending on the ministry you oversee, there are always small tasks that inspire loathing when they come due. Addressing letters in this day of email can be truly frustrating. For a pastor it takes time that extends beyond the simple act of thinking of someone and writing them a letter, sending a gift, or paying a bill. It has now become an act of locating the recipient's address, finding an envelope that fits the contents, and then scrounging around the office for stamps. What could have been 10 minutes of caring thought has turned into 45 minutes spent crushing several fruits of the Spirit.

Energy Drain #2: Email
Email can also drain a pastor's energy. I have discussed email techniques with several pastoral assistants and the mode for delivery varies. Some assistants gather email correspondence for the pastor they assist and send one large email daily. The pastor can then simply reply below each message and hit "send" back to his assistant. The assistant can then sort through and send out the return emails, work on any action items that were created, as well as see some of the larger picture the pastor oversees.

I have heard of one faithfully followed author and ministry leader who does not "do" email. Instead he has his assistant fax him all of the day's email. He replies with return messages and action items in pen and faxes it back to his assistant.

Energy Drain #3: Setting Up Meetings
Communication with entire department personnel can be time-intensive. A pastor needs each of the major stakeholders present at meetings. He knows that as he begins calling each person, what is intended as a quick interaction can easily turn into an impromptu counseling session, an off-topic (though important) side meeting, or a general tail-chase as schedules seemingly refuse to coincide. An assistant can be given this task to coordinate schedules, set aside time for the counseling appointment, and gather an agenda for the necessary side meeting, all while the pastor is focusing on different important tasks.

By outsourcing this simple task the pastor can then enter into each appointment and task in the correct frame of mind. Trying to schedule his own meeting and being blindsided by an over-the-phone meeting or a counseling conversation can be exhausting. This isn't to say that a counseling appointment scheduled by his assistant won't be exhausting, but it would be a set time he is aware of and can prepare for appropriately.

Leverage An Assistant Wisely

Other tasks a pastor can easily put on an assistant's plate include mail sorting, filing, and corporate credit card reconciliation. Some of these tasks may seem ridiculous to some of you, but the point isn't that you should hire an assistant so you don't have to lick a stamp again, but that the assistant can do the things that drain your energy in whatever shape those may come.

Oftentimes pastoral assistants serve as an extra set of eyes for their pastor. They can do a variety of tiny things that are not in themselves urgent, but vitally important, and they can build systems to keep stuff from falling through the cracks as urgent tasks overtake important tasks.

I asked several pastoral assistants at Mars Hill Church other ways they specifically serve their pastors, and here is a quick breakdown:

• One pastor at Mars Hill regularly rattles off several ideas that he is suddenly hit with and asks his assistant to remind him to "think" about these mental downloads later. As he is heading into a meeting, to keep from either being distracted by the plans forming in his head or completely forgetting altogether, he trusts his assistant to note his thoughts and remind him of them later.
• Another pastor leans on his assistant to make sure that he is demonstrably thanking the people the Lord has brought into his ministry. He frequently receives reminders from his assistant like, "There were over 25 people here last week rebuilding the stage and installing lighting rigs well into the morning hours. If you'd like, I can organize a thank you party at your house early next month." He knows that thanking people can easily be forgotten or that the planning for a thank you type event, though totally necessary, requires time and skills he may not have himself. By bringing on this assistant he can leverage another person to accomplish his desires for the ministry.

To be continued.

Pastor AJ Hamilton is the Executive Pastor for Mars Hill Church's Albuquerque campus. You can watch his amazing testimony and read his previous Resurgence posts here.

Total Church

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis present a vision for churches centered on gospel community. Find out more.

At Mars Hill Church the Preaching & Theology Branch is filming nine sermon introduction videos to support the series TRIAL: 8 Witnesses from 1 & 2 Peter as preached by Pastor Mark Driscoll.
 
This video was for our first “Witness,” Temptation. Candice Clem, now famous for the LED Stage Design of Peasant Princess, was our main character and did a wonderful job.
 

Before

This first video is the rough version without a score or final chroma key compositing. The frame rate on this original cut was shot in slow motion and is much longer than the final version.

The chroma key work was complicated, but after seeing how John Adams worked their actors into a bay full of ships we did the same with a few choice shots of our principle.
 

After

Here is the final intro video for Temptation:

 
Here is a Flickr set taken during the shoot. Apparently the photographer at the shoot was also inspired by John Adams and enlisted similar camera techniques; or maybe it was the Batman Angle they were re-creating.

Trial Study Guide:

Get the companion study guide to Pastor Mark's latest sermon series in downloadable PDF form. Find out more.

Recently, 30 pastors from all over the country visited Mars Hill Church to sit down with Campus Pastors and Branch and Department heads to see how Mars Hill structures its leadership, manages its programs, and generally leads the people God has called to participate in our church.

Each church represented had at least 1500 people in attendance each weekend. As I gave tours of the P&T Broadcast Booth, a common question I received was:

“How does Preaching & Theology get from Pastor Mark deciding on a book of the Bible to preach through all the way to the stage design, visuals, and theme that we see in TRIAL: 8 Witnesses from 1&2 Peter?”

This question is not exclusive to these visiting pastors, but is often echoed by many of you. To see how Mars Hill works from Bible book selection to fully themed sermon series, check out the 1&2 Peter Battle Plan. In this 200+ page document you will see the advance work done by Pastor Mark, Pastor Brad House over Community Groups, and the Preaching & Theology Branch. This plan was sent to every major organizational area of Mars Hill for review and feedback. This collaborative effort resulted in a smooth launch on January 11th, with support from all campus pastors and departments and a unified Gospel message from pulpit to counseling office to home community groups.

Trial Study Guide:

Get the companion study guide to Pastor Mark's latest sermon series in downloadable PDF form. Find out more.

This post is continued from Part 1. It covers the individuals who make a sermon series like The Peasant Princess possible.

Illustrations to Animations

We asked Mars Hill member Royden Lepp (roydenlepp.blogspot.com) to provide illustrations of the unnamed woman and the representations of the metaphors Solomon employs in SOS.

These were done in pencil on paper (Check out Royden’s books).

These illustrations were then brilliantly colored by Deacon Patrick Mahoney (www.themahoney.com). Patrick is responsible for most of the major art and design aesthetics for MH and has been on staff for 2 years.

Now the characters were ready for animations and we had all of 4 days until deadline. Deacon-in-Training Andy Maier wanted to create a new look for the animations, but because of the impossible deadline he created them with Adobe After Effects in the same static, 2D style he and the team did with the Doctrine Intro (http://www.marshillchurch.org/search/results?q=doctrine).

Scoring

Deacon Sam Stewart created the musical score for the intro to the sermon. Sam, following the same guidelines of Vegas 2050 meets Disney meets Mars Hill, wrote this piece of music specifically for the series intro. Sam struggled with the 'Disney' aspect and the result was 13 unsuccessful attempts before coming up with the winner. He was striving for something that “people could really bump their heads to”. He asked that I mention his efforts to EQ the bass so that anyone with a decent car stereo system could probably bounce quarters on their trunk!

LED Stage Design

The LED wall employed as the stage back drop was loaned to us by a MH member. It functions like a giant computer monitor and you can send images and video to its brain which then addresses each individual LED (roughly 6,500 in number).

The cross, pulpit, and TV frame set pieces were hand-made and wired by Deacon John Clem (John’s wife Candice was bored one Saturday and came into work with him to work on the set. After a quick tutorial she did all the wiring for the cross panels). These set pieces are comprised of many RGB LEDs that are each fed from a DMX controller connected to the lighting board. Each set piece is capable of displaying any of over 200,000 different colors.

The LEDs in the set pieces are flex-strip LEDs and are little SMDS (surface mounted devices) on a 5-meter strand that can be cut and still remain operational every 10cm.

The cross is the most intricate piece. Each panel is a 1-foot square with 6 RGB LEDs and has a power/dmx input and output allowing for further use/expansion (For future projects on stage or in the studio we could make each panel a different color, cycle colors up and down the cross, or take individual panels and use them as accent lighting).

SMS Q&A

The way that we do Q&A at the services created a lot of media attention and email traffic from organizations asking about the technical details. The technical how-to is listed below, but the why is what attracts me as a pastor to the medium. This series, we have opened up the Q&A segments to each of the 7 campuses that are synced up at the 9am, 11:15am and 5pm services. Pastor Mark and his wife Grace are fielding the questions together. After deleting the “stump the Pastor” or hypothetical questions and the frequent off topic questions, we are left with very real, candid questions that an open microphone setup would discourage. There is a false anonymity that Text Message Q&A provides. I say “false” because each message includes the sender’s phone number (allowing pastoral follow-up via phone), yet the ability to send a question up to the pulpit without self-indentifying encourages a brazenness that makes answering 160 character questions exciting and most helpful.

To provide this service to the church we use a company called Mobile Marketing (www.mobivity.com). They charge us a minimal monthly fee, which includes 1000 incoming text messages and 1 "keyword". We can rent additional keywords for an extra monthly charge. Each keyword is customizable to allow for different responses for each keyword. When someone sends in a message, they get a custom response back thanking them for submitting their question and participating in the sermon.

After the question is sent in, it can be forwarded to an email account or cell phone for review. We have it setup so that each question goes to my email box. I review the questions to present to Pastor Mark & Grace, and enter them in a spreadsheet located on our Character Generator, which is a Chyron Lex2. The software that the Chyron uses, called Lyric, is set up so that we recall a slide linked to a cell in the spreadsheet. When one of the slides is called up it pulls the question from the right cell in the spreadsheet, and that goes to the TV on stage with Pastor Mark. For more info on SMS Q&A check out this blog by Pastor Jamie Munson.

Whac-a-Fox

During a team meeting, Deacon Jesse Bryan joked about how cool it would be to have a whac-a-mole game created for the series based on Song of Songs 2:15. MH volunteer and animator Tom DesLongchamp chimed in that he could take the images and create the first ever Mars Hill Church video game! My high score is 34 points.

At Mars Hill, I get the distinct privilege of overseeing the staff of the Preaching & Theology Branch.

This branch is made up of an incredibly talented group of:

• web designers
• graphic designers
• administrators
• video directors and producers
• animators
• editors
• content managers
• manuscript copy-editors
• support staff for Pastor Mark Driscoll

The staff receive frequent emails requesting insight into the systems and applications we employ to produce the stage set design, website, vodcast, and video intros. For those of you interested in our work, I hope this blog and any others that may follow will be helpful to explain the process the P&T staff go through to create the works you can find at www.marshillchurch.org and the many connected one-off sites.

Series: The Peasant Princess

There have been so many projects to highlight recently, I decided to cover the most timely, our current sermon series: The Peasant Princess: A Love Story from the Song of Songs.

As a branch, we knew that Pastor Mark would be preaching through the Song of Songs well in advance of the September launch date, but the direction he would take and the best way to support the sermon visually and conceptually were not as clear as we would have liked. Going into the time of greatest growth potential for a church (the fall), we wanted to make sure we took full advantage of college kids starting school and summer vacations ending.

Knowing that SOS would be a “drawing” sermon we first began working on a sermon series branding that centered on the concept of “Free Sex”. We went with this title and began working on visual concepts for about 3 weeks before we found out the name was changed to “Free Love” to try and tone down the in-your-face title we previously had. 72 hours later and 2 weeks till print deadlines and sermon series launch, we had a 3rd and final title!

The idea was Vegas 2050 meets Disney meets Mars Hill.

Read the second part of this series.

Song of Solomon Bible Conference: