Who Should Preach At My Church Plant When I'm Gone?

What is Church Planters Ask?

God's given you a vision to plant a church. You're gifted and maybe have the team ready to go. However, there are thousands of details and hundreds of questions that you have. In this podcast we will answer some of the common questions and answer listener submitted questions to help you fulfill the call the Lord's given you.

Chris Highfill: 00:06

Hey. What's up? My name is Chris Hyfill. Welcome back to a 101 Questions That Church Planters Ask. And today, we're gonna be answering the question, who should preach while I'm gone?

Chris Highfill: 00:18

And this is really essential, really important question that needs to be answered, in the formation of a brand new church. And so today, we're talking in the context of a new church startup.

Danny Parmelee: 00:30

Yeah. And this is gonna be a really short one. It's gonna be only a minute long because you shouldn't be gone at all. 0. Okay?

Danny Parmelee: 00:37

You're gonna preach 52 weeks. No. Yeah. No. Okay.

Danny Parmelee: 00:40

Joking aside. Right?

Chris Highfill: 00:42

Yeah. The expectation for a church planter is that you're gonna speak a lot, and then I think that's really important to understand. Like, you may be coming from a church where the lead guy only spoke 25 or 35 weekends a year, But in the beginning of a new church, in the formation or the startup of a new church, the key point, lead pastor has to be able, to be able to carry the load of speaking, especially in that 1st 12 months.

Danny Parmelee: 01:10

Yeah. And I would say I would say 1st 12 to 18 to maybe even 36. I mean, just as as a concept. And this goes back to something that we speak about generally that in the beginning, whether you like it or not, you are the face, the personality, the person that sets culture, all of those things. So your presence is really, really important.

Danny Parmelee: 01:32

And Chris, what you said I think is, what we often see is that when you are coming from some sort of established church, oftentimes, you know, the pastor's taking the entire summer off, and they might say, oh, you know, I do this, and it's so helpful for me, and you should do that. You need to grow into that. I think it's a great and healthy thing. Eventually, you'll get to that. I think it's great that you, you know, you you aren't the main preacher.

Danny Parmelee: 01:57

However, in the beginning, for you to be there a majority of the time, of course, you actually need to take some vacation with your family. Be strategic about that. So all of that to say maybe a handful, maybe 5 Sundays that you're not, preaching. And even up to 5, maybe you're still there. Yeah.

Chris Highfill: 02:20

Yeah. I'd say 5 is the max.

Danny Parmelee: 02:24

So what what would you say Chris, give some advice of, who are possible people, that would preach at, at the church. A lot of times, it's probably not gonna be some, you know, established pastor that you pay a bunch of money to kinda do it. But just give some different ideas of, hey. If you were to have someone in that first, you know, 1st 3 years, who are some different people, that that you could consider having at the church plant?

Chris Highfill: 02:55

Yeah. Well, I think it's important to be thinking about culture, and the reality is there's not a throwaway Sunday in any day. And so you could think that maybe it's Thanksgiving weekend's a throwaway Sunday, or the 1st Sunday of the year, or whatever. And I'm just telling you, there is not a day in your whole preaching calendar year that is wasted. So I think this is really, really important to understand.

Chris Highfill: 03:19

And, you know, early on we didn't have anybody on our team that could preach besides me. And so I know, Dana, as part of your story is you were like 50 or 51 weeks a year, so was I. And, you know, you kinda have to be the lead torch bearer on that. That doesn't mean, like, you often think that you need to be like this amazing preacher. People need to hear from the key vision person.

Chris Highfill: 03:41

The content needs to be amazing. Right? The delivery needs to be amazing, but it's really important that they hear from you. So people that that you could have step in, maybe your wife is having a baby. Right?

Chris Highfill: 03:53

Or maybe, you know, you you just absolutely have to go to that funeral or whatever it may be that takes you out of town. Some things to think about. I know we're using, like, extreme situations here. Right? Yeah.

Chris Highfill: 04:04

It's mainly as a joke. But some people to think about are denominational leaders, inside your denomination. More than likely you're connected. I wanna really encourage you if you're not connected to get connected to a tribe or a group, you need some kind of an association of churches that you can be a part of, to be able to do this. And so, that's that's really really key and really important.

Chris Highfill: 04:26

And I know in our 1st year or 2, that's who we would bring in. We wouldn't bring in local or area pastors because check it out, they're also busy on Sunday morning. Also we would bring in, we every once in a while, we would bring in, the pastor from our sending church would come, because he understood our culture and our DNA, and they were very financially behind us, very much emotionally behind us, and spiritually behind us, and so it was cool for our church to be able to experience somebody coming in from the outside that wasn't just a complete outsider. Like, they knew our story, and they had been at launch team meetings, and they'd been around. And so it was almost like they were an extension of our of our very, very, very small staff.

Chris Highfill: 05:09

And so, Yeah. That was super helpful as well.

Danny Parmelee: 05:12

Yeah. I think one of the key things too that's, great about that, what you said is, see how they can actually serve you. So it's not, like, more important than sticking within some sort of sermon series because, to be honest, the congregation cares much less about a sermon series than the actual pastor does. But it's like, oh, this leader like, this is the person that recruited me to plant a church. Mhmm.

Danny Parmelee: 05:37

They know me. They've, you know, seen through you know, seen me go through assessment. Have them come because they can even, you know, say, like, wow. What what god is doing here is really, really amazing, and I know your pastor and, you know, they're doing a good job. So I think it's totally okay that if you have someone come, that you have them, you you know, speak to and maybe they have a a sermon that this is the one that they kind of always give as they travel around.

Danny Parmelee: 06:05

Totally okay. Probably some of the stuff that they say on the front side or back side of their, sermon is gonna be more important than, you know, sticking within the series type of thing. And like you said, leaders sending church, those types of things are really, really huge.

Chris Highfill: 06:21

Yeah. So There's a big advantage to that because they can say things about you and add validity, to the mission, to the vision. They can say things about generosity that maybe you initially feel a little awkward saying. Now you need to be able to say talk talk about generosity. Don't just bring in outsiders to talk about that.

Chris Highfill: 06:39

But they're able to say some things that add validity to the mission of the church, and to you as a leader. And so you have to be thinking about when you have a guest speaker come in, make sure they're gonna be able to pour, gasoline on a fire that's already burning. And so there are there are not throwaway Sundays. I think I cannot say that enough. Don't think.

Chris Highfill: 07:01

We used to

Danny Parmelee: 07:01

think Yeah. So who would you put as, like, here here's a just be really cautious or don't. Don't do Mhmm. Don't have this person as your guest preacher. Yeah.

Danny Parmelee: 07:12

Just just don't say my name. Okay? Okay. Yeah.

Chris Highfill: 07:16

Don't have the guy who visits your church and says, I used to be an elder at another church or a guy, I used to be a pastor at this church. Because what they're telling you in a very short conversation, what they're saying to you is, hey. I can do this, and I I feel like I deserve this. And if you give that to them without I mean, test them out in other places first. Don't let the Sunday morning I'm not saying don't use those those people.

Chris Highfill: 07:42

What I am saying is don't let that be an experiment for the Sunday that you're out of town. Like Yeah. Anytime someone speaks for the first time, you better be there. Right? Like I think it's really important to test that out because what if they lay a bomb, or what if they say something that's just theologically out there that you're like, wait a second.

Chris Highfill: 08:00

I thought you said you were an elder at whatever church, and you're like, dude, their theology is like spaceship stuff. This is weird. You know? Like, where did that come from? And, again, you can't afford in the early days to have a bad Sunday like that.

Chris Highfill: 08:14

And so I've heard some war stories about guest preachers not even showing up, and you're like, what? Like, how did you even recover in that moment? And so you you wanna make sure there's some credibility behind the guest speaker. And I I think one thing that you can start doing in the 1st year is develop a pipeline early on, with some key leaders and give them teaching opportunities that aren't on Sunday morning. So Yeah.

Chris Highfill: 08:39

You know, I'm not saying you have them lead, a prayer meeting but give them an opportunity on a off night, to give them some leadership upfront to see how prepared they are. I think you should always be testing and trying out leaders, but, like, see how they do in different environments. Maybe you're doing a small group leader meeting. Let them lead a part of that meeting upfront and just kinda see how it goes. A a thing that we started early on was a thing called LeaderTrack, which is basically a book club, but I would never call it a book club because

Danny Parmelee: 09:13

Mhmm.

Chris Highfill: 09:13

You know, most dudes especially aren't joining a book club, you know. But LeaderTrack was 6 months, 6 books, and I gave them material to read and I wanted to see if they would do what I asked them to do. What was I doing? I was testing them early on to see if they were good leaders or not. And some of those I noticed, hey, maybe this guy could speak.

Chris Highfill: 09:34

I mean, and so what we did early on was instead of having one guest speaker, we would have 3 that got 10 minutes each, and they were kinda tag team. It was kind of a Royal Rumble, WWE kind of experience. Right? But it was great, and we still do that to this day It was a great opportunity, to get new people involved and to kind of test and try out some things. And if 2 of the 3 are great, then it's like, hey.

Chris Highfill: 09:58

That was a great Sunday. And it's just a great experience for them, and they got a chance to kind of work on them a little bit as well.

Danny Parmelee: 10:05

Yeah. I I think that is, just a brilliant way to do it if you do internal especially. Have 3 of your leaders, you know, each person has 10 minutes. You kind of do a coaching development thing. It also does set the culture for the church.

Danny Parmelee: 10:19

Like, hey. We're about developing other people. Also, spreading it out doesn't make it look oh, so is that, like, the associate pastor? Is that, like, the new person, there? The other thing that I'll say that's really helpful is that if it's weeks that you're there that you do the introduction and the host moment so, essentially, what you're doing is you're saying, I'm the lead pastor, even if you don't say that.

Danny Parmelee: 10:45

You know? You can say I'm the planting pastor, but really excited to have guest speaker. In other words, hey. If it totally sucks today, come back, you know, type of thing. And if you're actually gone, one of the things that you can do is record the intro.

Danny Parmelee: 11:01

So even if you're not the service host, but it's like, hey, you know, church family, you know, I'm I'm on a beach in, you know, Panama City, but I'm really excited, today to have blah blah blah that they're there. Because, again, it's just one of those times that you can be like and if you're new at the church today, sorry I didn't get a chance. I'll be there next week. Would love the opportunity to meet because, again, this is all getting tied back to your kind of, you know, the the the face of it. So, any any final thoughts, Chris, just of, things that, church planners should consider in those 1st couple years as far as who to bring in or who not to bring in?

Chris Highfill: 11:41

Yeah. I think you're fighting for clarity, and one of the things that is so so important in the early days of the church is you don't have all the bells and whistles. Right? Like, you don't have maybe the most, like, kick butt youth program and kids ministry is good, but, you know, you got some areas to grow in. You know, the number one reason why people come back to the church is not worship, is not kids, it's the teaching and preaching at the church.

Chris Highfill: 12:05

Like, it's

Danny Parmelee: 12:06

Mhmm. You

Chris Highfill: 12:06

know, statistically proven 80 to 90 percent of the 2nd time guest comes back because of the teaching and preaching. And so that's why I think if I could tell you it can't suck. Alright? And so like you've gotta be thinking, You need a Sunday off. You need 2 Sundays off a year maybe, but you're like you've got to be thinking.

Chris Highfill: 12:29

This is why it's really important to take your time to make sure that you're healthy as you go into the launch because you're about to do a marathon. And when you hit the green light on planting the church, you're pregnant every week. Like, Sunday's coming. You got 6 days to get ready. And I think it's really important, that you understand, you know, one of the things that we've seen in successful churches is they've got a key point lead pastor that's speaking the majority of the load, the overwhelming majority of the load the first 3 years of the church.

Danny Parmelee: 13:02

Yep. Well, that's great stuff. I just wanna thank everyone for joining us today. And remember, if you have a question, you can go to churchplantersask.com, the little form that you can fill out. Drop us a question that you have or some challenges that you're working through.

Danny Parmelee: 13:19

And until next time, keep asking those questions.