Screen Saver

2006 was a difficult year for our church. We’d been beyond capacity in our current facility for years, which meant we’d had to worship in four, five, or even six worship services—which strained both staff and congregation. Further, with our church situated in a residential neighborhood, we didn’t have enough parking spaces. Too frequently, visitors would drive into our parking lot, see nowhere to park, and turn around and leave.

We had long dreamed of expanding our current facility, with a large sanctuary and increased parking, so that we could worship altogether as a church family and have more room to be welcoming. But our neighbors were horrified at our expansion plans. Then, the budget for the plan came back at an overwhelming number. And on top of this, there were some tough staff transitions.

So, in 2006, we had to scrap our dream. But out of this, the Lord gave us a new vision and an exciting opportunity. What if we went multi-site? When we looked at the geographic make-up of our church, we realized we were a regional church, not a local one. Further, being at capacity in our current building meant it was easy to not be evangelistic because the church was already full!

But multi-site would challenge us to be more of a local church and to be more evangelistic. We would have campuses with empty seats all over our area. Our people would no longer be saying, “Would you come to church with me 30 minutes away?” Instead, they would be able to say, “My church is right nearby … “

Everything was making sense, except for one thing: preaching.

Our senior pastor is beloved by our congregation. So while we were excited to become a multi-site church, no one wanted to “lose” him as the preacher at their campus. Yet going all-video all-the-time didn’t seem to align with our theological understanding of preaching. On top of this, our senior pastor is beloved, in part, because he is the opposite of a celebrity preacher—a humble, faithful servant. We didn’t want to create a celebrity culture with video preaching, yet we didn’t want to “lose” him at each campus either.

Video in transition

One of the things I’ve come to love about congregational governance is that it often forces the staff and elders to find middle ground or unique ways of doing things, rather than simply taking an “either-or” approach. And that’s what happened with our preaching.

As we prayed and sought the Lord’s wisdom and listened to the congregation we realized that we didn’t have to take an “either-or” approach to preaching. We didn’t have to choose between live preaching all the time at every campus or live preaching at one campus with video everywhere else. We could do some of both.

Our senior pastor realized he didn’t have unlimited years to give to our church, and so he was already thinking of the next generation of preachers. “What happens when I’m gone? What if something happens to me?” he asked. A back injury he suffered during this time, which temporarily put him out of the pulpit, forced us to take these questions far more seriously than we might have otherwise.

So, after much prayer and discussion, we decided to use video in transition. Rather than making video the long-term solution for our campuses, we saw video as a way to make the transition we needed to make.

First steps

When we took our baby steps into multi-site in 2008, we had two campuses, and the new one had video almost exclusively. This was great for those early days because it was a lot of work just getting this new campus off the ground. They moved from worshiping in an established church with its own well-developed facility to worshiping in a high school. They were stretching themselves both in the amount of time they were giving to help start this new campus and also in the new evangelistic emphasis to which we were calling them. So, in the midst of this time of being stretched, they loved having the preaching of their senior pastor every week—even though it was on video.

Then, in 2010, we took on our third campus—a church in our denomination had dwindled to 18 members and they voted to become a campus. For this weary church, they loved having an experienced, biblical preacher on video every single week. This freed up the new campus pastor—along with key lay leaders—to focus on evangelism and the recovery process needed after dwindling to 18 members.

The same story is playing out right now with a fourth campus that just came on board in 2013 (this one was down to 25 members). But in this case, one of the first questions we discussed is whether they should have video of our senior pastor at all—or if they should start with all live preaching. But together we decided to start with video to free up the campus pastor and lay leaders for evangelism and recovering from their church trauma.

Where we are today

Like we hoped and planned back in 2006, video preaching is being used for transition—not as a long-term solution. And we’re fining this transition is happening more quickly than we expected.

Our senior pastor still preaches 38-40 weekends per year. But those weekends get divvied up uniquely. Our two oldest campuses have live preaching 38-40 times a year—the senior pastor is live 16-20 times and the campus pastor preaches 16-20 times. The other 12-16 times, the senior pastor preaches via video. Sometimes, he’ll preach a long series where he rotates each week where he’s live. Other times, he preaches four weeks in a row at one campus (while campus pastors are preaching at the other campuses), and then he’ll go to another campus with the same series for another four week run.

Our two newer campuses have our senior pastor’s preaching via video 30+ times a year while campus pastors preach 16-20 times.

As you might imagine our preaching planning calendar is a maze. But navigating this maze is worth it. Our congregation still consistently hears from our senior pastor live and via video, while increasingly hearing from their respective campus pastors. It may seem confusing, but I can truly say that our congregation loves it. Even newcomers who are skeptical of video tend to be pleasantly surprised by the amount of live preaching.

None of us knows if or when we’ll have live preaching fully at all four of our campuses. Nor are we sure that each new campus will utilize video preaching from the get-go. We hold that decision loosely, and we assess each year where we’re at and where we should be the following year. But we have a congregation that is experiencing a mix of video and live preaching, and has proven adaptable to how the Lord leads. We continue to discern the plan with the feedback and insight of the congregation.

Lessons from our transition

The transition has not been perfect. We have had many missteps along the way. So here are a few things we’ve learned in using video in transition.

Utilize younger preachers. This has been vital. When you have a beloved senior pastor, the congregation isn’t naturally excited for the Sundays that he’s out of the pulpit. Even in a gospel-centered church, people still want to hear from their senior pastor.

Our senior pastor’s passion for developing young pastors soared to new heights at the same time we were moving towards multi-site ministry. This proved to be providential. I think many Christians in America are worried about the “next generation” of the church—and our congregation was no exception. So when they saw these young men in the pulpit, knowing they were being mentored by our senior pastor and key lay leaders, they rejoiced.

When a young preacher was preaching at one of the campuses, it became a point of celebration for our congregation. The next generation was developing and the congregation was a part of it. Now the congregation is more receptive to young pastors preaching than to bringing in a “ringer” from the outside. They’d rather hear a sermon with rough edges from a developing young pastor who is part of our church family than to hear something polished from a veteran who doesn’t attend our church. When our senior pastor is out of the pulpit there are now four pulpits for campus pastors, youth pastors, and pastoral interns to fill—not just one.

Let campus pastors preach. Part of the reason our transition has worked so well is because we are now hiring campus pastors who want to preach. When the congregation is experiencing pastoral care from their campus pastor week-in-week out, when he knows them, and they know him, the congregation really comes to value the days the campus pastor preaches.

Further, the campus pastor’s preaching helps him lead the campus more effectively. So, the senior pastor’s preaching (live or via video) at each campus keeps us tied together, but the campus pastor’s preaching gives him strength to lead each campus well with their unique needs, geographies, and sizes.

Generational surprises

There have been two real surprises in the midst of all this transition:

First, the older members of our congregation have been much more open to video than we thought. The learning curve might be the hardest for them, but they come to love the big clear face on the screen—they can now see the pastor’s facial expressions and all his non-verbal communication more clearly. The ability to read lips also helps the hard-of-hearing of any age.

Second, the younger members of our congregation are the ones who are often pushing for live preaching the most. The learning curve with video preaching for them is often easier, but they tire of it more quickly.

This is part of the reason we’re in transition. We expect that as this younger generation takes more leadership in the church—as staff and elders and as they’re increasingly involved in congregational governance—that it is actually the younger members who will push us into more and more live preaching.

Tom Olson is a pastor at the Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Arlington Heights, Illinois.