37: Weddings, funerals and hospital visits

Weddings, funerals and hospital visits, oh my! Converge church planting leaders Lee Stephenson and Danny Parmelee discuss how you can manage pastoral care as a church planter.

0:59 Danny says his earliest experiences with pastoral care were funerals.

1:50 Danny says in the beginning he said yes to everyone’s requests.

1:59 Danny and Lee say that they prefer funerals to weddings because there is more of an openness to spiritual things at a funeral.

2:45 Danny thinks funerals are great opportunities to minister to people inside your church and to build relationships outside of the church.

3:22 Lee says he didn’t do a lot of funerals the first 3-4 years because his church plant was mostly attracted young families.

4:15 Lee says he got a lot of requests to do weddings. He offered free funerals to anyone in the community, but they had to pay for weddings.

4:33 Lee talks about how much he charged for premarital counseling, the ceremony and the reception.

5:09 Lee says most couples don’t understand the time commitment required by the pastor for weddings and premarital counseling.

6:28 To protect his time with his family, Danny started telling couples that we would do their premarital counseling, rehearsal and ceremony, but he wouldn’t go to the reception.

7:39 Danny says as his church plant grew, multiple pastors were available to do weddings. He says they also commissioned church members to do weddings and premarital counseling.

8:49 Lee says hospital visitations are an excellent opportunity to develop leaders. This is what a small group does; this is why you need to be in a small group.

9:56 Danny says hospital visits only need to be 15-20 minutes.

10:27 Danny recommends bringing someone else with you — an intern, a friend, someone from their small group.

11:04 Lee says even when you’re in a time crunch season, a phone call goes a long way.

11:12 Lee talks about how God used two tough situations in the life of his church plant for good.