The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
We're all about helping create a healthy, positive, and spiritually positive environment for church staff members and leadership teams.
The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
The Rise of the Church Influencer and the Death of Team Ministry
We examine how some pastors are becoming online influencers and the impact this shift has on church staff dynamics, transforming collaborative ministry teams into production crews for personal brands.
• The growing trend of church influencers where pastors build personal platforms that overshadow local ministry
• When a pastor has more followers than church members, team dynamics fundamentally change
• How collaborative ministry models are being replaced by celebrity-centered approaches
• The subtle shift from staff as co-laborers to staff as assistants supporting the "star"
• Common fallout includes resentment, burnout, and high staff turnover
• Reclaiming shared ministry through collaboration, accountability, and celebrating unseen contributions
• The body of Christ was never meant to be a brand
If you've experienced this in your church or want to share your story, reach out to me at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com. I work with churches on healthy staff culture, hiring, firing, restructuring, and compensation, and I'd love to have a conversation about how I can help your church.
Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com
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In today's episode, we're pulling back the curtain on a growing trend some places the rise of the church influencer, where charisma and content and clicks are increasingly replacing collaboration, character and team Up. Here, church staff feels more like a support crew than a shared vision. Today's episode is for you. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes and I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and I'm your host right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. So what if the biggest threat to your church staff isn't burnout or bad theology or even budget cuts, but what if it's the senior pastor's Instagram account? More and more churches are elevating one voice and one brand and one platform, but at what cost? Stick around, because we're going to be diving into the rise of the church influencer and what it's silently doing to your team. Okay, so this is an issue that not every church has, matter of fact, maybe only a few churches have, but if you're in a church that this is happening, this one is going to resonate with you and if not, hopefully you'll enjoy and learn something from it as well. But we're going to talk today about the new platform, power, and this has really been in churning below the surface ever since social media last 10 or 15 years anyway. But what happens when your pastor has more followers than your church has members? Okay, the rise of platforms like Instagram and TikTok and YouTube has turned pastors some pastors into public figures and while that reach isn't it's not inherently bad, I wouldn't say but something sometimes shifts. When the pulpit becomes the content farm and the team members become the production crew. You have to ask yourself is the mission still shared or is it brand new? I listened to some of the podcasts on Mars Hill and I actually worked at Leadership Network, did some things at Mars Hill back in the day, early back in the day. But that was one of the big criticisms and that's probably part of the demise of Mars Hill Church in Seattle was that the pulpit became the content farm and everything that was preached was put up in little snippets and sent out on Instagram and or maybe not Instagram back then, but at least Twitter and Facebook. So is the mission still shared or is it branded?
Speaker 1:In some churches, when this happens, the team ministry model actually is dying. You go from collaborative to celebrity and church ministry. It used to be that team sport different gifts, shared burdens, mutual accountability but in many churches that this happens. The influencer model has created a staff of assistants rather than co-laborers in Christ. So when your staff meetings turn into content brainstorms and sermon prep becomes solo scripting for video virality, team ministry obviously is going to suffer and there's going to be some fallout. Is this happening in every church? Is it happening in most churches? No, is it happening in some, and you know who they are because you may be following them on social media. You might enjoy watching their feed, but it would be interesting to look at exactly what their local ministry looks like and if this has really affected their church at all or not. And I'm not saying that it has, but in some it does. So what is some of the fallout? What is some of the possible fallout? You lose the table when one person owns the mic. Okay, I'm talking about team stuff here.
Speaker 1:The shift toward platform-first leadership undermines team input. It discourages dissent and subtly it tells every other staff member you're never say this, but you're here to support the star. They would say, you're here to support the pastor. So what follows if you're on a team like that? Resentment, burnout, revolving doors, eventually disillusioned leaders that just quietly step away. But there is a better way and that's redefining influence inside the church, because here's the truth influence is not the enemy, but when it replaces team, you're really starting to tread into dangerous territory. So churches have to discover the beauty of shared ministry, where really no single voice drowns out the collective call. So what does that look like? It looks like real collaboration. It looks like, yeah, shared preaching calendars. It looks like mutual accountability and it looks like celebrating unseen contributions.
Speaker 1:The body of Christ was never, ever meant to be a brand resolutions. The body of christ was never, ever meant to be a brand. Let me repeat that the body of christ was never, ever meant to be a brand. As I leave you today, here's your final takeaway for today. If your church feels like a one-man show more than a spirit-led team, it might be time to ask some really hard questions, because the gospel doesn't need more influencers, it needs servants. What are you experiencing in your church? Have you, you been a part of a church? Maybe there's a church across town that you think, oh my goodness, todd, you've been following this church or this leader.
Speaker 1:I'd love to hear your story. If you've been caught in this trap or had this temptation, I'd love to hear your story as well. You can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I'd love to hear from you and if there's any way that I can help your church. I do a lot of work with churches around healthy church staff and culture, whether that's hiring or firing or restructuring or compensation. If there's any way that I can help your church, reach out to me. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I would love to have a conversation with you. All right, thanks so much. Hope you enjoyed today's edition of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We're here every Monday through Friday and we will be here again tomorrow. You.
