Multi-site Church Road Trip

Robert Emmitt, Community Bible Church, San Antonio – You Want to Launch a Campus Where?

Welcome to day three of our conversations with senior pastors featured in our new book – A Multi-site Church Road Trip.  Today, we are headed to San Antonio for a conversation with Robert Emmitt, Senior Pastor at Community Bible Church. 

1. Robert, your original campus there in San Antonio reaches 14,000 folks every week in a large, beautiful campus.  Some multi-site churches have chosen to secure locations with a similar look and feel to that of their original campus but you chose to go with a wide variety of locations?  Say a little about why you chose to do that?

Variety is the spice of life! The only people who really cared about the multi-site CBC's looking and feeling like the original campus, were those of us who were at the original campus. The communities that we are reaching with our multi-site CBC's don't know anything about the original campus. So rather than try to recreate something that no one knew about, we just decided to let the pastors and leadership teams build their own church. They are all called CBC's. They all have great music, practical bible teaching, and small group ministries. They are connected through our website. The pastor's job is to find the best building at the best price. Whether that is a school, shopping center, restaurant or sharing another church facility. We're open to whatever doors the Lord opens up for us.

2. What are the pros and cons of being in such a wide variety of campus settings? 

The pro's are the more different campus settings we find, the more doors we learn to knock on for the new CBC's. I can't think of any negatives for the wide variety. We are trying to reach, teach and help as many people as we can in Jesus name. The campus settings are secondary to our mission. That has been the history of CBC. We started in a restaurant, moved to a park, a movie theater, a store front, a shopping center and our current location. The buildings change but the mission remains the same.  

3. Which of the settings works best?  Why?

The permanent (at least 3 years) works best.  The shopping center with a 3 year lease, is working great. The 4 acres with a new church on is great. Schools have been frustrating as they don't really like having churches in them. 

4. What is new about the multi-site ministry at Community Bible Church since we last talked?

We quit playing the CD's of Robert, and let the pastors do the preaching.  We are looking more like a church planting ministry than a traditional multi-site. We are moving from a part time pastor to a full time pastor model. It costs more, but if you want the churches to grow, then the pastors need to devote their full time to it.  

5. What have I not asked that I should have?

How many CBC's would you like to have in the next 5 years? Answer: 100  Are you on track? No.
Why not? We got bogged down in trying to manage all the details for the multi-sites. What is your solution? Tell the pastors "You can do it. We can help." Wait a second, that's Home Depot's line.  How about "You can do it, we'll help you."

We will stay in Texas tomorrow with a stop in to talk with leadership development guru Steve Stroope, senior pastor at Lake Pointe Church. 

We would love to have us help spread the word about Multi-site Church Road Trip.  We have developed a free online resource – Multi-site Church Toolkit: Launch Analysis that we will send to anyone who completes one of the following. 

Buys a copy of the book

Posts this tweet – Get a copy of Multi-site Church Road Trip Now at http://bit.ly/2KZlzO

Posts a comment on this blog or creates a post on your own blog.

Posts a review on Amazon.com

Once you have completed one of the items above send an email to [email protected] indicating where you purchased the book or made your post and we will send you the free resource.

To get the latest updates be sure to sign up for the RSS feed at www.multisitechurchroadtrip.com

To see all posts for the tour, select tour stop from the category sidebar.

Twitter - @gregligon @geoffsurratt @warren bird #mscr  #leadnet

Multi-site Church Road Trip Gone Global, Dave Browning, Christ the King Community Church

Welcome to day two of the road trip.  This is the second in a series of posts containing conversations that we recently had with some of the senior pastors featured in our new book – A Multi-site Church Road Trip.  In each post you will gain additional insights by getting updates about the featured church and hearing the heart of the leader.  

Today’s guest – Dave Browning (twitter - @bigdaverino), Christ the King Community Church.

1. Dave, you say in Multi-site Church Road Trip that you and the team at Christ the King have 120 campuses and many of those are actually International campuses.  What does an international campus look like?  How is the same/different from one of your state-side campuses?

Overseas our gatherings are often not in an owned or leased facilities.  Some of our congregations meet in tents, or under trees, or town squares.  Often the gatherings have children present, whereas in the US we offer children's programming simultaneous the worship service.  In the US our services are typically an hour or less.  Overseas, our services are often longer than two hours.  In some cultures the leader has a more prominent role that we tend to see in the US.

2. I think it is interesting that you have a commitment to international campuses and a high value for use of technology in developing leaders but no Internet campuses?  Any reason for that?

Our international reach is more of a "God-thing" than anything else.  We had no plan to be outside of our own county, much less around the world.  But once you define the church by relationship, instead of geography, you realize that relationships do not respect geographical boundaries.  We say that we can go as far as relationships will take us.  Our goal is to raise up people to do ministry, so we view technology as a tool, not a strategy. 

3. We have talked recently about your discovery that there is a greater access to cell coverage than high speed internet in India and many of the countries you are serving in Africa and that this has prompted you to redesign your leadership development training to be delivered in text size messages. Can you give us an update on where you are in that process?  What is working?  What is not?

I send out a weekly email that gets resent as text by our international leaders.  Some of our leaders follow me on Twitter as well.  The cell phone is clearly the next laptop.  More SMS texts are sent every day in the world than email messages.  We are attempting to take our "teachable points of view" and distill them to 140 characters or less.  We are also developing 60-second sermons that can be utilized on cell phones.

4. You are the author of Deliberate Simplicity, another title in the Leadership Network Innovation Series.  How do the key principles of simplicity find application in the establishment and execution of International Campuses?

Simplicity resonates in the two-thirds world, because it really is the only option.  There are not resources available in much of the world to support the attractional model. 

5. What is new about the multi-site ministry at Christ the King since we last talked?

I believe that God is showing us some new things about worship.  Many of our leaders are feeling that our corporate worship has been too much about us, and not enough about Him.  We are also exploring more non-musical forms of worship that have great potential to reduce our dependence on musicians as key to expanding the church. 

6. What have I not asked that I should have?

You ask great questions.  One additional one might be, "What complicates overseas ministry?"  The answer would be:  money. There is such a huge resource disparity between our church in the US and our church in the two-thirds world that we are wrestling constantly with how much to support needs overseas.  So far we have sent very nominal and sporadic support, and have placed an emphasis on being self-sustaining.  But it is often difficult to say "no" when they need it and we have it.

Next stop? Robert Emmitt, Senior Pastor, Community Bible Church, San Antonio, Texas

To get the latest updates be sure to sign up for the RSS feed at www.multisitechurchroadtrip.com

To see all posts for the tour, select tour stop from the category sidebar.

Twitter - @gregligon @geoffsurratt @warren bird #mscr  #leadnet

Multi-site Church Road Trip – Craig Groeschel and Shared Communication

This is the first of a series of posts containing conversations that we recently had with some of the senior pastors featured in our new book – A Multi-site Church Road Trip.  In each post you will gain additional insights by getting updates about the featured church and hearing the heart of the leader. 

First up – Craig Groeschel, LifeChurch.tv.

Q: Craig, you and the team at LifeChurch.tv have really pioneered the most effective model of using what we call a shared communicator in the Multi-site Church Road Trip.  Beyond your excellent communication skills, what are some of the primary reasons it works for you to be the primary teaching pastor and directional leader for a campus that is literally a couple of time zones away?
A: Greg, first of all, I’m actually doing less teaching now than in the past. We are working hard to develop more speakers on our team and effectively using guest speakers. Even with this shift, we still generally have one communicator broadcast to all the campuses. Having only one person preparing a message, frees the other pastors to spend more time shepherding people and leading their teams. Rather than being the directional leaders for the extended campus, we’re also allowing our campuses more autonomy to make decisions in their community.

Q: You have developed a model for connection with LifeChurch.tv that has three tiers - Open, Network and United. Why "qualifies" a church to become a part of the tightest affiliation - United?
A: Far more churches are becoming a Network Church rather than a United Church. As of today, we have 74 Network Churches. These are totally separate 501c-3s that use our weekly teaching. (Many also use our kids curriculum and worship all at no charge.) Churches who are part of the LifeChurch.tv Network are reporting great responses and stories of changed lives from their members and attendees. In order for a United partnership to occur, we’re looking for a unique set of circumstances where we can do more together than apart. Only in rare situations is it worth uniting since merging churches can be painful, and there are so many effective ways to partner.

Q: It is not news that you, and other pastors of large multi-site churches, are sometimes accused of building your own kingdom ... of limiting the leadership potential of others because of your "celebrity status".  When you get these calls and emails, how do you respond?
A: People may say that, but I rarely hear it. Truthfully, we believe that we are building great leaders and don’t pay a lot of attention to uninformed criticisms.

Q: What is new about the multi-site ministry at LifeChurch.tv since we last talked?
A: We continue to become more passionate about serving the broader body of Christ. Rather than simply focusing on building more campuses, we are focusing on building the Church at large. On our personal learning curve, we have learned that our multi site strategy works better in medium sized and larger campuses. We haven’t learned to do multi-site at small campuses well. We’re trying to learn from others who do church in small venues effectively.

Q:What have I not asked that I should have?
A: You didn’t ask me what I’m pumped about! I’m pumped to see generosity and Kingdom mindedness in churches across the world. So many anointed Christian leaders are working together. I honestly believe that together we can make a significant difference in the world! I'm also very excited about what God is doing through church online. This is a fantastic tool to take the message of Christ to people who might not experience it otherwise. I’m excited about all the different ministries God is blessing.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s conversation with Dave Browning, author of Deliberate Simplicity and lead pastor at Christ the King Community Church.  You will get the behind-the-scenes scoop on International Campuses – the multi-site church gone global!

We would love to have us help spread the word about Multi-site Church Road Trip.  We have developed a free online resource – Multi-site Church Toolkit: Launch Analysis that we will send to anyone who completes one of the following. 

• Buys a copy of the book
• Posts this tweet – Get a copy of Multi-site Church Road Trip Now at http://bit.ly/2KZlzO
• Posts a comment on this blog or creates a post on your own blog.
• Posts a review on Amazon.com

Once you have completed one of the items above send an email to [email protected] indicating where you purchased the book or made your post and we will send you the free resource.

To get the latest updates be sure to sign up for the RSS feed at www.multisitechurchroadtrip.com

To see all posts for the tour, select tour stop from the category sidebar.

Twitter - @gregligon @geoffsurratt @warren bird #mscr  #leadnet

Follow the Multi-site Church Road Trip

On the road again!  The book is out and now we are hitting the road once again – this time to share the stories captured in A Multi-site Church Road Trip with churches and leaders across the country and around the world.  Over the next 8-9 months we will be conducting a tour that will include stops at churches featured in the book, major conferences and plenty of online stops to explore the new normal. 

First stops – Senior Pastor Blog Tour and Leadership Network’s The Show

Current schedule includes:

• 9/09/09 Blog Tour with Senior Pastors Featured in the Book
• 9/15/09 Leadership Network’s THE SHOW
• 9/24/09 Innovate Conference at Granger
• 9/28/09 FIND Conference Seacoast Church
• 10/07/09 Catalyst Conference  Atlanta, GA
• 11/04/09 National Outreach Convention San Diego, CA
• 11/07/09 Lead Now Conference Dallas, Texas
• 3/15/10 Group Blogging Tour Launches
• 4/22/10 Exponential  Orlando, FL
• 6/14/10 Bloggers Free-for-All Starts 4 days. 4 blogs. Unlimited questions

To get the latest updates be sure to sign up for the RSS feed at www.multisitechurchroadtrip.com

To see all posts for the tour, select tour stop from the category sidebar.

Twitter - @gregligon @geoffsurratt @warren bird #mscr  #leadnet

Multi-Site Church Road Trip En Route to a Store Near You!

We are thrilled to announce the release of our latest book on the multi-site church movement – A Multi-site Church Road Trip.  According to the great team at Zondervan, copies began shipping from their warehouse today, Friday, September 4.  So pick up yours at a local Christian bookstore or place an order today.

The book is packed with the stories of leaders and churches who are taking the multi-site model to innovative new places – from lower income neighborhoods to the internet and literally around the world through locations in India and many countries across the continent of Africa.  Warren, Geoff and I take you behind the scenes to our road trip conversations with 15 plus senior pastors who are leading the new models.

In addition to new locations, you will discover what is new in terms of technology, structure, mergers and leadership development.  And be sure to check out what is certain to be a hot topic chapter, “Are You Sure This Isn’t A Sin?”

We would love to have us help spread the word.  We have developed a free online resource – Multi-site Church Toolkit: Launch Analysis that we will send to anyone who completes one of the following. 

• Buys a copy of the book
• Posts this tweet – “Get a copy of Multi-site Church Road Trip Now at http://bit.ly/2KZlzO”
• Posts a comment on this blog or creates a post on your own blog.
• Posts a review on Amazon.com

Once you have completed one of the items above send an email to [email protected] indicating where you purchased the book or made your post and we will send you the free resource.

Hope that you have as much fun “exploring the new normal” on this road trip as we have!

To see all posts for the tour, select tour stop from the category sidebar.

Twitter - @gregligon @geoffsurratt @warren bird #mscr  #leadnet

Multi-site Church Road Trip Contest Announced

In the opening session of the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek on Thursday of last week, Bill Hybels spoke about Leading in the New Reality. He was talking about how the rogue waves of the economic downturn have changed the game for leading the church. In a similar vein, multi-site ministry has become a new reality, or as we propose in our upcoming book, A Multi-site Church Roadtrip, multi-site churches are becoming the new normal.

In an effort to adapt to the changing reality of economics, space, and atmosphere, multi-site ministry is becoming more and more prevalent.

• On a typical Sunday in 2009, some 5 million people attend a multi-site church in the US and Canada.
• Leaders at some 45,000 churches are “seriously considering adding a worship service at one or more new locations or campuses in the next 2 years.”
• 37% of megachurches reported being multi-site in 2008, up dramatically from 27% in 2005

So multi-site is truly becoming the new normal. In A Multi-site Church Roadtrip, Geoff Surratt, Warren Bird and I take you on a guided tour of issues that arrive when doing multisite ministry and to 14 different multi-site churches where the lessons were learned. We also have a lot of fun as we visit these churches.

In keeping with that sense of fun, Zondervan is sponsoring a roadtrip contest. Here's how it works:

1. Write how your church creatively uses multiple venues in 100 words or less AND/OR send a photograph of a humorous road sign. Feel free to also include an iTunes imix with your favorite 10 roadtrip songs.

2. Email your definition/photo to Zondervan at: [email protected]

3. Include your name and mailing address.

4. The best entries will be posted on the Zondervan blog and the Multi-site Church Revolution blog and 50 select winners will receive a free advance copy of A Multi-site Church Roadtrip. Entries must be submitted by September 10^th to qualify.

AND, you can also pre-order the book on Amazon by clicking here.

Greg Ligon

Leadership Network

[email protected]

twitter - @gregligon

News Release about new multi-site book

Over the River, Through the Woods: On a Church Roadtrip We Go

Newest release in the Leadership Network Innovation Series chronicles a multi-site church road trip

How would you like to take a cross-country roadtrip, touring fifteen of the most innovative multi-site churches in the nation – for under twenty dollars? Thanks to pastors and leaders of Leadership Network, Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon and Warren Bird, you can. At least, you almost can. A Multi-Site Church Roadtrip: Exploring the New Normal (September, 2009), takes readers on a revealing road trip across the United States, exploring the multi-site church movement that’s sweeping the evangelical world. 

A companion to A Multi-Site Church Revolution (Zondervan, 2009), Surratt, Ligon and Bird’s previous collaboration, A Multi-Site Church Roadtrip profiles fifteen multi-site churches. The newest addition to the Leadership Network Innovation Series presents the steep challenges, innovative strategies and expected future plans among today’s thriving multi-site churches.

Traveling from North Coast Church on the West Coast to Community Christian Church in the Midwest, over to Shelter Rock Church on the East Coast and Flamingo Road Church in the South, readers will sight-see multi-site venues of all shapes and sizes, as “one size and one approach still don’t fit all for multi-site.” From an eighty-person congregation at Seacoast Church to LiveChurch.tv’s multiple Internet campuses of 25,500 weekly attendees, A Multi-Site Church Roadtrip illustrates the worth and value of each.

Written with a refreshing blend of the authors’ trademark humor and wit, pastors and church-goers alike will be challenged and motivated by A Multi-Site Church Roadtrip. Dubbed the “new normal” for the modern day church, “multi-site” is a communal concept with a cutting-edge feel. The authors write, “We believe the day is rapidly approaching when few will find it unusual for a church to offer simultaneous worship services in sanctuary, gym and chapel…or even in the original church building, a public school across town, a theater adjacent to the nearby university and the clubhouse of a retirement community.”

Though progressive in their thinking, the authors do not shy away from concerns some have with this development, writing, “The multi-site movement does have critics…[we] want to listen thoughtfully to what certain skeptics have to say.” The authors offer straight-forward, positive and honest insights into their critics’ objections, even choosing to examine and dissect the “best arguments against the multi-site movement.” Addressing the successes and struggles among multi-site churches, A Multi-Site Church Road Trip draws on examples from the various churches, including the one Surratt helps pastor.

Provoking questions, options and models to consider are presented by leading pastors, church leaders and innovators throughout the book. Supplemental discussion questions are provided to probe deeper into this exciting movement in the modern church.

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Geoff Surratt has been on staff at Seacoast Church since 1996. In 2002, he was tasked with pioneering the multi-site effort at Seacoast and has overseen the launch of 10 new campuses at Seacoast since then. He is currently the Pastor of Ministries, but that could change at any minute. Geoff also worked alongside Greg and Warren at Leadership Network with the Multi-site Church Leadership Communities from 2003 to 2006. Geoff is married to the beautiful and talented Sherry and they have two wonderful children, one lovely daughter-in-law and one mangy dog. Geoff's first solo book, 10 Stupid Things That Keep Churches from Growing (Zondervan), was released in May 2009.

Greg Ligon has been with Leadership Network since 1997. He currently serves as Vice President of Church Innovations and Publisher and oversees several Leadership Community Directors and the organization’s publishing partnerships. He has directed the Multi-Site Churches Leadership Community, the Leadership Training Network, and spearheaded strategic services for the organization. Prior to joining Leadership Network, Greg was responsible for creating and directing the United Methodist Campus Ministry at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He served as associate pastor at First United Methodist Church in Waco, Texas. Greg and his wife, Susan, have two full-throttle boys, Daniel and Andrew.

Warren Bird (PhD, Fordham University) has collaboratively authored nineteen books (including two 100,000 bestsellers, one Gold Medallion winner, and one runner-up for the Gold Medallion), served as associate pastor and senior pastor, taught as regularly contributing faculty at Alliance Theological Seminary, and served on the senior leadership team of three organizations that provide training to pastors. He is currently research director at Leadership Network, overseeing the creation of a wide range of knowledge products designed to resource church leaders. Warren and his wife Michelle live in metro New York City and have two grown children.

About A Multi-Site Church Roadtrip

A Multi-Site Church Roadtrip: Exploring the New Normal

By Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon and Warren Bird

Zondervan

9780310293941

256 Pages

$18.99

PUB DATE: September 2009

Multi-site Kids and the Leadership Pipeline

If we had cataloged all the calls, conversations, emails and blog posts raising questions about multi-site, I am certain two that would rise to the top are:

1.  What do we do with kids?  How does that work in a multi-site environment?
2.  What about leadership development?  How do we secure leaders rapidly enough to meet the needs that the growth catalyzed by our multi-side model demands?

Both great questions and one of the greatest places to get some answers is from Tammy Melchien.  Tammy is the director of Kid's City, Community Christian Church's  children's ministry - now happening on eight campuses.  In this post on her blog, Multi-site Kids, Tammy describes and links you to resources that can help you implement a kid's ministry leadership development pipeline in your church.

What do you do to develop leaders for kid's ministry?

Greg Ligon
Vice President for Church Innovations and Publisher
Leadership Network

Southern Baptist Multi-site Buzz

Jeremy Roberts, Staff Pastor at Prestonwood Baptist, and guest columnist for the Southern Baptist blog - SBC Outpost has seemingly struck a nerve.  An original post on August 7 has already drawn well over 100 comments.  To see what it is all about and to add your two cents go to SBC Outpost.

Many of the comments are related to megachurches so you might also want to check out Beyond Megachurch Myths, the conversation and information regarding our latest book with Jossey Bass.

What's The Big Idea?

This is!

The Big Idea, written by Dave and John Ferguson and Eric Bramlett from Community Christian Church is a great resource that describes one of the primary drivers of thier multi-site model.

I recently asked these guys what was new about what they had to say in this book? 

Here is their response ...

 

The Big Idea does something that no other book does—it goes beyond the theological and philosophical and gives a practical process for churches of any size and style to creatively communicating one Big Idea from the Bible that people are challenged to live out. The Big Idea gives you the big picture by showing you how to create your own one-year big idea plan. The book also gives you a weekly process by giving you the how-to’s for facilitating a productive team meeting.

The Big Idea is also unique in that it shows how the two most important players – the Creative Arts Pastor (Worship Leader) and the Lead Pastor (Senior Pastor) can work together in collaboration and develop better programming than if just one of them were to lead the programming development on their own.

Also, stay tuned to The Big Idea online for continuing conversation on the BIG IDEA.