A Conversation with Josh Howerton and Chris Kuti of Lakepointe Church
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Podcast Show Notes: The Future of Church Leadership with Josh Howerton and Chris Kuti
Guests: Josh Howerton (Senior Pastor) and Chris Kuti (Worship Pastor) from LakePoint Church Hosts: Jake Gosselin and Matt Woltjer from Churchfront
Key Topics Discussed AI in Ministry (00:02:15)
- Josh's approach: Uses ChatGPT weekly for sermon prep as a "high-powered research assistant"
- Prompt strategy: "Give me 20 interesting facts about [passage] that are historical, cultural, theological, archeological, linguistic, or biblical that most Christians wouldn't know"
- Chris's usage: Meeting organization, content creation, voice conversations during drives
- Key principle: Use AI as a tool that serves you, don't serve the tool
- Important caveat: Always fact-check AI outputs - they can be wrong up to 17% of the time
Church Technology Criticism (00:58:22)
- The "negative world" concept by Aaron Renn - cultural shift from positive to neutral to negative perception of Christianity
- Common criticisms: "Tax the churches," "Money should go to the poor"
- Biblical response: Only Judas complained about expensive things being used to honor Jesus
- Economic reality: Larger churches often spend lower percentages on tech than smaller churches due to economy of scale
- Technology costs: Modern equipment costs significantly less than in the early 2000s
Social Media Strategy (00:12:38)
- Initial resistance: Reformed background's "theologized cynicism" toward self-promotion
- The turning point: People spend 16-18 hours/week on social media hearing secular perspectives
- "Air war vs. Ground war": Ground war = traditional discipleship, Air war = cultural engagement
- Digital Areopagus: Social media as the modern equivalent of where Paul engaged culture in Athens
- Current following growth: From 20-40k to significantly larger audience through strategic content
Worship Pastor Turnover Crisis (01:26:06)
- Root causes identified:
- Getting into ministry for wrong reasons (seeking bigger stages/record deals)
- Senior pastors hiring for talent over pastoral gifting
- Lack of pastoral development and broader leadership responsibilities
- "Warm up the crowd" mentality rather than true pastoral partnership
- Solutions proposed:
- Hire character first, develop competency
- Give worship pastors genuine pastoral responsibilities
- Focus on being pastors who happen to use music
- Create long-term development paths
Hiring and Leadership Development (00:36:29)
- Key principle: "Always bet on leadership" over pure talent
- Character evaluation: Look at family life as indicator of leadership capacity
- "Hire slow, fire fast" - don't ignore red flags in interviews
- Vision alignment: Ensure worship leaders can come under senior pastor's vision
- Josh's story: Had to fire a worship leader after 5 weeks for vision misalignment
Succession Planning (00:45:13)
- LakePoint's success factors:
- Outgoing pastor (Steve Stroop) "left campground clean" - addressed problems before transition
- Incoming past
Published on 3 weeks ago