Session 1 is a panel discussion featuring Larry Osborne of North Coast Church, Greg Surratt of Seacoast Church, Dave Ferguson from Community Christian Church and Greg Ligon from Leadership Network moderated by Eric Bramlett. Here are the highlights...
Eric: How would you describe the Seacoast model?
Greg Surratt: We were zoned out of doing a building about 4 years ago, heard about what Larry was doing in California and what Dave was doing in Chicago, so we started our first site. We now have 9 sites.
Eric: Tell us more about how you began transporting the message.
Greg Surratt: Our second site was in Columbia, SC, so we began by sending our message overnight on Greyhound bus.
Eric: Tell us about CCC getting started
Dave: We started with the idea of being a reproducing church, everything we did had to be reproducible. We began starting new services even though we weren't out of room, it was just in our DNA to reproduce. It eventually led to multiplying campuses and eventually churches.
Eric: Larry, tell us about your model
Larry: We were totally reactive. We were out of space and decided to try an overflow room that would be a reward rather than a punishment. For us it was about reaching different demographics. Some of these guys took what we did on site with venues and went out and started new campuses. We then saw what they were doing geographically so we began starting other campuses as well.
Eric: Greg Ligon, what have you been seeing from Leadership Networks viewpoint in the multi-site movement.
Greg Ligon: Its definitely a God thing. There are churches across the country making this happen. Often they don't know anyone else is doing multi-site.
Eric: What is the number question you get asked about multi-site?
Greg Ligon: The questions have changed. They used to be about viability, now the questions aren't about does it work to how can make it work in our setting.
Greg Surratt: I never heard the comment from staff or members, "That sounds like a really good idea." You have the advantage of pointing to other models and seeing that it works. The video element is really a non-issue. Authenticity comes across on video.
Larry Osborne: We had the same experience, everyone thought it was a bad idea. The vote was 9-2 against the idea, but it turns out the twos won the vote. Afterword those who were most adament that it wouldn't work became the biggest advocates.
Eric: What do you think churches should take away from the other two churches?
Dave: North Coast knows how to do video venues really well, they also do an incredible job getting people into small groups. Seacoast has adapted the multi-site model so rapidly. Its very impressive.
Larry: Seacoast quickly puts together systems and them corrects the systems on the fly. And what they do are reproducible. Dave has a laser-like focus on being multi-site and reproducing.
Greg: I was amazed by the vision at Community Christian; 1000 churches and 100,000 people in the Chicago area. And to watch the Big Idea concept come together. Larry has been an inspiration to all of us. Excellence has become almost deified in the church world. Larry has tought us that there is a limit to excellence and opened the door to the rest of us. We have learned the concept of good enough from Larry.
Greg Ligon: All three churches have very different DNA. Explore with them how they came up with their DNA and how they replicate that.
For more on this session be sure to check out Monday Morning Insight.
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