Interview Assessment #4

Contact(s):

Brian Miller - Ministry Services Lead Pastor

Church:
The Village Church
Date:
October 5, 2015
Analysis:
As the Ministry Services Lead Pastor, Brian Miller sits at the top of the totem pole at The
Village Church. Hes one of the top three directional leaders within the church and acts as the
executive pastor. He started attending The Village when Matt Chandler first came on board and
joined the staff a few years later as the church began to grow exponentially. During our time
together, Pastor Miller shared with me his own story, his role, and his hope for the Church.
The Village Church has expanded boundlessly across North Texas over the past few years.
The church has locations from Dallas to Denton and pastors trained by The Village are doing ministry
all across the state, the nation, and the world. Miller explained that The Village seeks not to promote
their brand, but to train up and send out ministers of the Gospel for the Gospels sake. The Village
Denton, for example, just became its own entity. That is the ultimate goal of The Village staff. Miller
described this practice as open hand- coming alongside existing churches and aiding them in their
efforts to reach people.
Pastor Miller described to me the consequences of quick growth in the church world. As
membership exploded at The Village, the church became programmatic and event-based. Miller
recounted examining the church calendar and counting over three hundred events. The Village
Church was spread too thin. Rather than being everything to everyone, the mass amount of
programs and events had become nothing to anyone. As a leadership team, the top Village staff
decided to focus their efforts. The heart of ministry, they found, is in home groups. At the time of
examination, home groups were not run well. They werent fruitful, intentional, or growing. The
Villages response was to cut back on its programs and focus its efforts on home groups.
Participation in home groups exploded. Membership grew. The results defied logic and swam
upstream in the church culture of today.
Of all the wisdom I gained from Pastor Miller, his take on student ministry intrigued me most
of all. As Ive traveled from church to church across Collin County, it has come to my attention that
youth ministry is done differently in some way, shape, or form at every church. Each church leader
has his reasoning, but Pastor Millers resonated with me like no other has before. In his own
personal life, Pastor Miller took on the responsibility of ministering to his kids in the home. He took
on the principle of husband and father as spiritual leader of the household, prompting weekly family

Bible studies. He and his wife would gather up their children, sit down with them, and intentionally
dive into the Word of God. Pastor Miller conceded that this scenario may be rather idealistic, but he
finds support for it in the truth of Scripture. The Village has Sunday night youth ministry for middle
and high school students and Wednesday night youth group for middle school students, asking high
school students to join adult home groups. Pastor Miller believes its the role of the church to equip
families to do ministry alongside each other and with each other, therefore it is imperative that they
learn and worship together under the same teaching on Sunday morning. This brings together the
full body of believers, rather than separating the youth from the church.