Connections Pastor
Campus: Baytown
Position Title: Connections Pastor
Reports To: Baytown Campus Pastor
Dotted Line: Central Dream Team Pastor
Hours Per Week: 40 Hours + Services
Direct Reports: Guest Experience Director
Summary of Position:
The Connections Pastor serves as the executive leader of Sunday Guest Experience and connection pathways at the Baytown Campus and as a key strategic partner to the Campus Pastor.
This role carries full accountability for the quality, tone, and execution of the Sunday experience from parking lot to podium, while also ensuring clear and effective pathways for people to move from first-time guest to fully connected participants in the life of the church.
The Connections Pastor ensures every environment reflects excellence, warmth, clarity, and alignment with campus vision.
This role is both pastoral and strategic - highly visible on Sundays and trusted with campus-wide leadership responsibility throughout the week.
Role on the Baytown Campus Lead Team:
The Connections Pastor is a core member of the Baytown Campus Lead Team - the team of department leaders who report to and advise the Campus Pastor on the overall leadership, health, and growth of the campus.
As part of the Lead Team, this role:
- Contributes to campus-wide strategic planning
- Collaborates cross-departmentally to ensure execution alignment
- Helps steward campus culture and spiritual atmosphere
- Takes shared responsibility for overall campus growth and health
This role carries leadership influence beyond Guest Experience, with a strong emphasis on connection and assimilation.
Core Responsibilities
1. Sunday Guest Experience Ownership
The Connections Pastor owns the outcome and quality of the Sunday experience at the Baytown Campus.
While the Guest Experience Director executes operational logistics and team coordination, this role defines the standard, sets the culture, and ensures alignment across all guest-facing environments.
Responsibilities include:
- Establishing excellence standards across all Sunday environments
- Evaluating service flow, response effectiveness, and guest engagement
- Identifying and removing friction in the guest journey
- Providing visible pastoral and leadership presence on Sundays
- Serving as the final decision-maker for Guest Experience matters on Sundays
- Leading the Usher team and giving direction inside the auditorium
2. Connection Pathways & Guest Assimilation
The Connections Pastor ensures that every guest has a clear, intentional pathway from first visit to full engagement in the life of the church.
Responsibilities include:
- Designing and refining the guest follow-up and assimilation strategy
- Strengthening pathways into Next Steps, Small Groups, and Dream Team
- Monitoring and improving guest retention and engagement metrics
- Ensuring seamless handoffs between departments for ongoing connection
- Identifying and removing barriers to connection and involvement
3. Front-Facing Pastoral Presence
The Connections Pastor maintains a strong, visible, and relational presence on Sundays and in key campus moments.
Responsibilities include:
- Engaging first-time guests and key families
- Supporting altar and response moments as needed
- Assisting in pastoral conversations and connection opportunities
- Strengthening relational bridges between guests, leaders, and departments
- Modeling warmth, accessibility, and leadership presence
4. Leadership of Guest Experience Director
The Connections Pastor provides direct supervision, coaching, and development for the Guest Experience Director.
Responsibilities include:
- Conducting consistent one-on-one meetings
- Setting clear performance expectations and measurable outcomes
- Strengthening leadership development within Guest Experience teams
- Ensuring operational excellence without micromanaging execution
- Addressing performance concerns constructively and decisively
5. Strategic Projects & Vision Execution
The Connections Pastor carries designated vision initiatives and strategic projects as assigned by the Campus Pastor.
This includes campus-wide responsibilities that may extend beyond Guest Experience.
Responsibilities include:
- Leading key campus initiatives as directed
- Driving execution of connection-focused strategies and growth initiatives
- Assisting in implementation of new systems or ministry expansions
- Supporting communication and change management within the campus
- Protecting margin to think strategically and execute long-term initiatives
6. Financial Stewardship & Operational Oversight
The Connections Pastor provides financial oversight and operational alignment for Guest Experience environments.
Responsibilities include:
- Overseeing Guest Experience budget stewardship
- Approving purchases and major expenditures
- Ensuring sustainable operational planning
- Maintaining alignment between financial decisions and campus priorities
7. Pastoral Leadership & Culture
As a campus pastoral leader, the Connections Pastor models spiritual maturity, cultural alignment, and relational strength.
Responsibilities include:
- Providing pastoral care to leaders and key Dream Teamers within Guest Experience
- Handling elevated relational or conflict situations as needed
- Participating in campus pastoral rhythms
- Leading a Small Group as expected of staff
Keys to Success
The Connections Pastor must be:
- A highly relational and visible leader
- Calm and decisive under Sunday pressure
- Strategic and capable of leading vision initiatives
- Strong at developing leaders rather than executing tasks
- Focused on connection outcomes, not just experience excellence
- Organized but not operationally buried
This role requires executive leadership capacity, pastoral strength, and the ability to balance visibility with strategic responsibility while driving meaningful connection across the campus.
