Should Your Church Hire an Online Pastor?

Short answer: Not at first. Start by giving the role to an existing staff member or a trusted volunteer. Hire full-time once your online ministry is growing and you want it to do more than stream: groups, classes, and moving watchers into face-to-face community. For most churches that is somewhere past 1,000 people. The role you hire for should be a shepherd, not a producer.

I volunteered to help with Saddleback's little "Internet Campus" in 2009, training a couple of chat hosts and responding to prayer requests. I have been the online pastor in one form or another since 2010. So I have held every version of this job, and I have watched churches hire for it well and badly. Here is what I would tell a friend.

When does a church actually need an online pastor?

Under 750 people, you do not need a dedicated hire. Use a staff member with margin or empower a volunteer, and keep the scope small: one stream, a weekly email, a next-step form.

Between 750 and 1,500, the work grows. You are streaming one service, you might start talking to people online during the service, and you want a real strategy to move watchers in person. This is usually a part-time role or a significant slice of someone's job.

Past 1,500 people in the room, or whenever your online audience is clearly growing and you want them in groups and discipleship, hire full-time. At that point you are running a ministry, not a broadcast, and it needs an owner.

What does an online pastor actually do?

The mistake is to think the job is about the stream. The stream is the media team's job. The online pastor's job is people. Overseeing the online service and its volunteers, yes, and watching the metrics, but mostly: creating the pathway that moves a watcher into a group, a class, a response, and eventually a seat in the room or a partner church near them.

The numbers I care about are not views. They are how many people took a class this month, how many joined a group, how many filled out a response card. You could have a huge front door and lose everybody through the back door. The online pastor's job is closing the back door.

At the higher levels, the role expands into building online small groups, running video courses tied to your discipleship pathway, and eventually helping online watchers host services in their homes that can grow into microsites or campuses. Every one of Saddleback's international campus launches has had people from our online community on the launch team. Online to offline.

What should the job description say?

I wrote four, tiered by scope. Copy and edit them for your context.

1. Online Host Pastor. Focus: coordination and assimilation. Location: within 30 miles of your church. Hours: volunteer or part-time. Oversees the online service, coordinates the weekly stream, manages the volunteers around it, monitors metrics, and owns the strategy to move watchers to attend in person.
2. Digital Outreach Pastor. Focus: everything above plus digital first impressions. Location: within 30 miles. Hours: part-time or full-time. Adds compelling digital experiences for unchurched people in your community through ads, special online events, Zoom connections, and social strategy, all aimed at moving watchers to attend in person.
3. Online Campus Pastor. Focus: everything above plus community. Location: anywhere. Hours: full-time. Oversees online small groups and online video courses tied to your discipleship pathway, moving watchers either in person or into a nearby partner church. Optional: experiment with watchers starting groups in their homes to test interest in microsites.
4. Church Anywhere Pastor. Focus: everything above plus church planting. Location: anywhere. Hours: full-time. Oversees watch parties where small groups host a service in their home, which can develop into a microsite or campus if nurtured. Can own the whole strategy or hand leads to a dedicated microsite pastor.

Who should you hire?

A pastor first. Someone who is good at groups and at people, who happens to be comfortable with technology. Not the reverse. Your online ministry will amplify whatever your church already does well and expose whatever it does poorly. If your church is good at small groups, your online groups will work. If you hire a producer, you will get a better-looking stream and the same empty back door.

I describe myself as a small groups pastor with an online venue. That is the profile. And the role can be remote. Mariners Church's online discipleship pastor lives in the Phoenix area while the church is in Southern California, and it works because the job is relational, not physical.

Where does the role sit on the org chart?

It can be messy, and it will move. Since 2010 Saddleback has positioned me on the Communications team as digital outreach, on the Small Groups team as a groups pastor with an online venue, on the Membership team overseeing something like a campus-lite, and in central leadership as the online expression grew. None of those were wrong. Each matched what we needed the ministry to do at the time.

Position the role by its objective. If the goal this year is reaching new local people, it belongs near communications and outreach. If the goal is discipleship and groups, it belongs with groups. If the goal is a full online community with its own pathway, it needs a seat with the campus pastors.

How do you get leadership to say yes?

Your leadership wants to know that people watching online will be cared for. Those are the people responsible for the stewardship of every soul that comes to faith in your church, and James 3:1 rings in their ears. The barrier is rarely you. It is that they are still in the foggy stage of wondering whether ministry online is possible.

Do not whine about not being trusted. Pitch the vision within your church's context. Show how you will assimilate online viewers locally, connect people far away into network churches, and, down the road, leverage online to launch microsites or campuses. Align it with the regional vision your church already has. The ball is in your court, not your leadership's. Build the plan.

Where do I go deeper?

From the book. Chapter 6, "Deciding Your Structure," and Chapter 9, "Getting More People Engaged in Digital Strategy," in Online Church Is Not the Answer go deeper on staffing, volunteers, and where the role belongs.

What else do people ask?

What does an online pastor do?

An online pastor shepherds the people who engage with a church online. The job is moving watchers into groups, classes, and in-person community, overseeing online volunteers, and tracking engagement, not producing the stream.

At what size should a church hire an online pastor?

Use a volunteer or existing staff member under 750 people. Move to part-time between 750 and 1,500. Hire full-time past 1,500 or whenever your online audience is growing and you want groups and discipleship for them.

Can an online pastor work remotely?

Yes, for the community-focused roles. The job is relational. Mariners Church's online pastor lives in another state from the church.

Should an online pastor be a tech person or a pastor?

A pastor. Hire someone strong with people and groups who is comfortable with technology, not a producer. Your online ministry amplifies whatever your church already does well.

Where should the online pastor report?

Wherever the current objective lives: communications for outreach, small groups for discipleship, campus leadership for a full online community. Expect it to move as the ministry matures.