ZonderFann

this week over 50 bloggers signed up to read and review a multi-site church roadtrip on their blogs.  i’ll be keeping a running tab of these blogs and link their reviews once they are posted.  here are the blogs and if they are linked, they have posted up their reviews.  also, be sure to read and/or download a sample chapter of a multi-site church roadtrip from scribd, here.  you can also pick up a copy of the book from zondervan, here, or at your favorite retailer.

• the book journal
• restoring your faith in God
• journey in the dark
• jay highham
• jd eddings
• pj’s till noon
• this pilgrim land
• can’t catch my breath
• the reservoir
• the underscore
• an ohio reviewing mom
• upfront with john darnell
• the missional community
• big john’s blog
• ponderings by andrea
• ryan guard
• applied youth ministry
• life as experienced
• mission of redemption
• christian book lounge
• truth t-shirt company
• listening to the wind
• r(evolving) thoughts
• following the jesus way
• thoughts of a sojourner
• pastor daniel’s blog
• cooperland
• empowering christian women
• digital circuit reader
• livelifetogether
• will henderson
• something to write about
• broken but saved
• word from the well
• jeff miller’s blog
• mark price
• adventures in phd land
• gospel pimp
• kim’s ponderings
• i’ve been thinking about this
• a short step down from thought-provoking
• sustainable steffanie
• brainwashed
• snidbits
• captain klepto
• ramblings by seth
• luthy madness
• see through

keep checking back as i will post links once bloggers post up their reviews.  also, be sure to read and or download a sample chapter of multi-site church roadtrip here.

this week there are a number of blogs that are reviewing a multi-site church roadtrip, by geoff surratt, greg ligon, and warren bird.  as people post their reviews this week, i’ll link them, but until that time, i wanted to share an interview i had with one of the authors, geoff surratt.  geoff is the pastor of ministries at seacoast church and is also the author of the multi-site church revolution, and ten stupid things that keep churches from growing.  his most recent release is a multi-site church roadtrip and he, greg, and warren profile 15 churches that are exploring “the new normal” of multi-site.  here is the interview:

zonderfann:  before embarking on your “roadtrip”, were you expecting to find more similarities or differences among the multiple churches? what did you actually discover?

geoff surratt:  I expected a great deal of similarity in multisite churches. Early on in the movement it seemed that churches were being attracted to a handful of models and were more or less copying each other. What we found is that multisite is taking a wide range of shapes from rural to internet to international campuses. There is no such thing as a right way to do multisite.

zf:  what do you see as the biggest challenge for the multi-site/multi-venue movement in the next few years?

gs:  I think the biggest challenge is to stay faithful to the vision that God has given for your church. There seems to be a trend to go multisite because that is what all of the larger churches are doing, but that is a mistake. God has a unique vision and mission for each church and it is vital that the leaders stay on the path.

zf: of the fifteen churches you visited and profiled, which one innovation stood out to you exceptionally?

gs:  The innovation closest to my heart came from Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the idea of transforming communities by planting campuses. Rather than just showing up on the weekend and inviting people to come to a service, Healing Place moves into communities 24/7. The offer food, clothing, medical help, and education all given freely in the name of Jesus. This concept is catching on across the country as more and more multisite churches are opening Dream Centers of their own.

zf:  satellite and preaching via the internet, like lifechurch.tv puts out, is a new concept that intrigues many. being in a technology-driven age, this idea has been growing in popularity. what are the benefits and drawbacks to this idea? what should people be aware of before deciding to use this method as their primary way of “church” worship?

gs:  Internet campuses have quickly become a tool that churches across the country are taking advantage. From the very simple streaming of a weekend service to a full service campus such as Lifechurch.tv offers people are connecting virtually with their church and with each other. For some it is a great way to stay connected with their home church and for others it is a great door into church; a place they never really saw themselves going. The key for an internet church, like any church, is that people are actually connecting in life-giving relationships and living as the body of Christ. Just surfing to your church and hanging out watching a preacher on the screen by yourself isn’t living the Christian lifestyle presented in the Bible. But when people really do connect, serve and share amazing life transformation is happening through online churches.

zf: what are the most important components to keeping a multi-site church thriving?

gs:  The key to any multisite church is leadership. Choosing the right leaders for campus pastors and other ministry leaders will determine the success or failure of a new campus. Beyond leadership and leadership development, the second thing you have to get right is the funding model. How are you going to pay the bills without sinking the ship? And the third component is structure. How are the new campuses going to relate to each other and the leadership of the church. Every multisite church wrestles with these issues on an ongoing basis.

zf: what advice do you have for pastors of one-campus churches that are considering going multi-site or multi-venue? what should they discuss and weigh before taking the plunge?

gs: As we discussed in our first book, The Multi-site Church Revolution, I believe there are three questions any church considering multi-site should answer:

1. What is the driving impetus behind the desire to go multi-site? Is it a to handle growth? To reach a new culture? To go into an area without a life giving church? These are all legitimate reasons to go multisite. What won’t work is to go multisite to get a church to grow. Multisite is not a growth engine. Trying to become multisite without a driving vision is like trying to give birth without being pregnant.
2. How healthy is your church? Are you baptizing new believers? Are you seeing people grow in their faith? Are seeing reproduction of believers? If your church isn’t healthy, then it isn’t a good idea to reproduce your disease.
3. Is your senior leadership on board? Multisite isn’t like adding a new ministry or just starting a new service; multisite needs to be in the DNA of the church leadership. If the senior pastor isn’t leading the charge for adding new campuses then multisite likely will not be successful at your church.

Geoff Surratt first met Larry Osborne, pastor of North Coast Church in Vista California, at a Leadership Network multi-site church event in 2002. Seacoast was just beginning to dive into the world of video teaching and he immediately realized that Larry was the smartest guy on the planet when it came to leveraging technology to expand the Kingdom. And Larry wears really cool shirts. Over the years Larry has become a friend and a mentor both personally and through his books Sticky Church, Ten Dumb Things Christians Believe and A Contrarian’s Guide to Knowing God. Geoff recently had a chance to get Larry’s wisdom on the role of video, technology and more in the future of the multi-site revolution.

You pioneered the concept of the video venue at North Coast. What do you feel are two or three reproducible keys to your success in utilizing video that other churches could reproduce?

I believe a huge part of our success was our decision early on to only use video for teaching. Many things don’t translate well on a screen (for instance music, drama, and the like). But teaching plays well in almost every geographic and demographic setting.

In fact, the biggest shock when we launched our first Video Venue was that it was so readily accepted by virtually every demographic. We thought our older folks would reject it outright. We thought younger generations might find it inauthentic. We assumed churches in the more traditional parts of the country would be highly resistant.

But we were wrong. It played well just about everywhere.

Looking back we should have realized that teaching is uniquely suited for a big screen. It allows people to clearly see facial expressions and non-verbals – which is why most people in a large facility with a video screen end up watching the screen rather than the little person up on the stage.

The other thing that I believe is easily reproducible is our use of differing music styles and ambiances to broaden our demographic outreach. Both Chris Brown (our other teaching pastor) and I are able to reach a far broader demographic (traditionalists, country music fans, and folks with lots of body art) than we could if we had a one-size-fits-all sanctuary.

How important is it for a church using video teaching to have the very best technology available?

I think the need for the quality technology is vastly overrated. You don’t need the latest and greatest in order to succeed. You can’t be so cheap that your venues are cheesy. The video can’t look like a 1980’s VCR.

At North Coast we’ve always made due with less than the best technology simply because we often can’t afford the best. We’re not a rich suburban church. We’re a blue collar church that meets in an old warehouse. If we felt we couldn’t succeed without the best and latest technology, we’d still be saving up to launch our first venue.

We’ve learned that good enough is good enough when it comes to technology. I always tell the churches we consult to buy the best they can afford. There’s no need to hawk the future for cool technology you can’t afford and there’s no reason to hold off launching a new ministry just because everyone else has better equipment.

North Coast has multiple venues with live worship bands at multiple locations and multiple service times. How do you find enough musicians to have that many worship teams?

The secret to our plethora of musicians goes back to a decision we made long before we started our Video Venues. Because we believe the job of a pastor is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12) our worship pastors have always been judged, rewarded, and paid for rising up other worship leaders rather than creating an all-star band.

I find you always get what you measure and reward. So guess what? Since we measure and reward rising up worship leaders, we get worship leaders. And better yet, once we turned the corner, we discovered that musicians draw musicians. So right now I think we have something like 24 adult worship bands to pull from.

In your book Sticky Church you describe the role of sermon based small groups in the life of North Coast. How integral do you think sermon based small groups have been to the growth of North Coast?

Our attendance was about 120 when we started our sermon-based small groups. They haven’t particularly drawn people in, but they have helped to slam our back door shut – and when the back door stays shut, a church tends to grow.

We’re pretty much a word-of-mouth church (we don’t do any marketing or advertising) so closing the back door has been an essential ingredient of our growth. But the biggest advantage has been the way these sermon-based groups have enabled us to get everyone on the same page – and keep them there. That’s made us a much healthier church not just a bigger church.

What did I not ask that I should have?

You didn’t ask why my books are so much better than yours – at least that’s what my mom thinks. Though my wife, Nancy, isn’t so sure.

Other than the comments about Larry’s books being better than mine (they are, but he didn’t have to bring it up) Larry once again stretched my thinking on what is effective and what is good enough in ministry. You can read more of Larry’s insight at his blog or in Multi-site Church Roadtrip.

Geoff Surratt continues the roadtrip by visiting with Dave Ferguson of CCC:

I have stolen more multi-site concepts from Dave Ferguson and Community Christian Church than all other multi-site churches combined. Dave is one of the best thinkers (and practioners) in the world when it comes to church reproduction (the corporate kind, not the diaper kind), so I wanted to get his take on the world of multi-site as we continued our Roadtrip across America.

Q:  In the book we describe the leadership structure at Community Christian. How important is structure to the success of a church using a multi-site strategy?

A:  Our experience at Community and through our NewThing churches is that there are structural shifts when going to two sites; when going to a fourth site and when going to a tenth site.  Because of this we are finding that a lot of churches are going to two sites; not very many churches with three sites and there are a whole lot that are going to four sites and more.  Why?  I think it has to do with structure.  Some churches that go to two sites do not think about structure and find it overwhelming and complicated and stop reproducing sites.  While there are other churches that think through the structural changes that need to be made and continue to reproduce to three sites, four sites and beyond.

Q:  Community Christian does a great job of both planting churches and launching campuses. How do you distinguish between a church planter and a campus pastor?

A:  We really believe the same qualities need to be in place for a campus pastor or church planter.  We want them to be entrepreneurial, have a leadership gift and comfortable relating to all people (churched and un-churched) in their context.  All our NewThing churches are looking to train one leadership resident per site to apprentice and become a campus pastor or church planter.

Q:  You and Jon seem to do an amazing job of leading together. What advice would you give to church leaders who are considering employing family members in their ministry?

A:  They key to family working together is much like any staff working together: good character, great chemistry and genuine competency.  However, (and I’m sure Geoff Surratt will agree with me) it takes a very special and humble leader to allow their brother to be the lead pastor.  Jon (like Geoff at Seacoast) could easily be the lead pastor at this Community or any other church; but instead he uses his extraordinary leadership gifts without getting all the kudos that come with being the lead pastor.  I have more respect for Jon, than any other church leader I know.

Q:  You have been a leader from the very beginning of the multi-site revolution in America. What do you see next on the horizon for multi-site in American churches?

A:  I love this question!  In fact, Jon and I just finished our next book,Exponential:  How You and Your Friends can Start a Missional Church Movementand we talk about this.  So here is what I see on the horizon:

1. More new sites will be launched by sites other than the original site.  In other words we will see new sites reproducing new sites.
2. Sites will be launched not based on the competency of the mother church, but on the strengths and needs of the community where the new site is started.
3. There will be less of the “We use video” vs. “We develop teachers” battle and more multi-site churches will use both video and in-person teaching.
4. A lot more campus pastors will be female and there will be evidence that they are more effective than men in this role which will bring some controversy.
5. Multi-site churches will think in terms of launching a region with multiple sites and not one new site at a time.
6. Online churches ill not just have one site, but they will also have multiple sites!
7. The churches that are effective in reproducing new sites will be the churches that are most effective in reproducing missional communities.

How’s that?
Q:  In your book The Big Idea you describe how every ministry at Community is on the same page. How does the Big Idea work in a multi-site environment?

A:  It was going to multiple sites that caused us to be intentional about implementing the Big Idea.  It was our conclusion that having every campus on the same Big Idea would bring alignment to our vision and mission.   Practically speaking here is how it works: we plan our Big Idea series a year in advance.  Thirteen weeks in advance of the celebration service the teaching team develops and writes a Big Idea “graph” which is a one page summary that gives clear direction and scriptural content.  Ten weeks in advance the teaching team plans the whole message in that series and gives writing assignments.  The following week, nine weeks in advance our creative arts team plans the creative elements such as video, sketches, music, interactive moments, etc… to better accomplish the Big Idea.  This same process is done for all our large group and small groups for adults, students and kids.  It is awesome!

Geoff Surratt

web: www.seacoast.org

blog: www.geoffsurratt.com

twitter: http://twitter.com/geoffsurratt

We are headed to the Pacific Northwest today to hang out with John Bishop at Living Hope Church.  On two different occasions, John and the team at Living Hope have launched five or more campuses on one weekend.  Crazy?  Maybe … but hear from John some fresh insight on the impact it had on Living Hope … and a sneak preview of developing vision.

What was the best thing that happened each of the times that you launched more than two campuses at once?
The best thing that happened by far was a unified mission that had sustainable momentum for the better part of a year.  The second thing we see is that in a large church people can have a tendency to get comfortable, and in getting comfortable they stop serving.    When we launch campuses, we can ask people to step out of their chair, and out of the comfort of this place to go serve. The third thing is that it has been an evangelistic invitational machine each and every time.

What was the biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge was, has been, and still is, to have adequate systems In place to support campuses, to encourage campus pastors, to stay unified as “one church” in multiple locations with unity.

Is there something unique about the DNA of Living Hope that made it work?
Living hope is a highly invitational church.  I really believe we are a dangerous church.  We have multiple stories of people who come to Living Hope and instinctively invite their friends.  That’s what makes living hope the place that it is.  I very rarely have to ask people to invite their friends – they naturally do it every week.

What is new in your multi-site ministry since we last talked?
Having done multi site for over 3 years I just know it works. BIG VISION – I’m making a goal to see 100 new campuses start globally in the next 5 years.  In a climate where people shrink back I believe is the time to step up the most so that’s what we are doing.  Also, since we talked, I have had opportunity for the first time to visit our New Zealand campus.  To travel almost 9000 miles to spend time with leaders, volunteers and to speak to the church was so valuable.  To our knowledge it is the only campus in the country that is not just called Living Hope but uses videos 80 -90% of the time.   Not only does multi site work, it’s working for us in a different culture, in a different country. As I flew home, I just kept thinking to myself ‘ONLY GOD could make this happen.’ The third thing is  “Bigger Vision”   As one church that meets in multiple locations and countries, I trusted God that there would be a point where collectively there would be something bigger than any one campus to unify us in mission and in purpose.   We are excited to be doing our first global crusade, November 2009 in India.  We are anticipating 30-50,000 people per day, and the exciting thing is campus pastors from each country will join me on this crusade.

You can check out all the other tour stops by selecting tour stop from the categories listing in the right sidebar.

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 multisiteroadtrip@zondervan.com 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

Greg Ligon

Twitter – @gregligon

email – greg.ligon@leadnet.org

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

Greg Ligon

Twitter – @gregligon

email – greg.ligon@leadnet.org

You can also get 50% off of A Multi-Site Church Roadtrip, The Multi-Site Church Revolution and the other books in the Leadership Network Innovation Series for 50% off through the end of September by using this code (810053) when you shop on Zondervan.com/ministry.  Visit www.zondervan.com/lnis for more info.

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 on 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 multisiteroadtrip@zondervan.com 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!

Greg Ligon

Twitter – @gregligon

email – greg.ligon@leadnet.org

You can also get 50% off of A Multi-Site Church Roadtrip, The Multi-Site Church Revolution and the other books in the Leadership Network Innovation Series for 50% off through the end of September by using this code (810053) when you shop on Zondervan.com/ministry.  Visit www.zondervan.com/lnis for more info.

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 the authors of the upcoming book, A Multi-site Church Roadtrip say, 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. The authors share inside the book that
• 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. Authors Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, and Warren Bird takes readers on a guided tour of issues that arrive when doing multisite ministry and to 14 different multi-site churches and their lessons learned in A Multi-site Church Roadtrip. They also have a good deal of fun as they 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: LNIS@zondervan.com
3. Include your name and mailing address.
4. The best entries will be posted on this 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 10th to qualify.

the next chapter in geoff surratt’s ten stupid things that keep churches from growing is on “favoring discipline over reconciliation”.  talking about church discipline brings up many opinions among both church members and ministers.  we all know that reconciliation is the goal, but when and to what extent do we need to discipline?  geoff tackles these issues in this chapter.  here is the opening story that geoff tells.  how would you counsel pastor bob?

a friend of mine pastors a church of fifty people. he has pastored several churches in the time i have known him and every church eventually averages fifty people. i’m pretty sure he will always pastor a church of fifty people. the interesting thing is that he seldom pastors the same fifty people from year to year, so there is certainly variety. the pattern is almost always the same. my friend, we’ll call him pastor bob, will move to a new church in a new community. he will spend a lot of time getting to know the people in the church; he will visit them in the hospital, officiate at their parents’ funerals, and perform their children’s weddings. pastor bob will invite people in town to his church, and the congregation will begin to grow. everyone loves pastor bob and everyone comments that they have never had a pastor like him. before long pastor bob’s church has grown to sixty, seventy, even eighty people. and then it happens: someone in the congregation has to be confronted. someone is stirring up trouble in the church. an attendee may be spreading rumors about pastor bob, a leader may be living in sin, or a deacon just won’t get with the program. whatever the cause, pastor bob knows what has to be done. he sets up a meeting with the offending member and confronts this individual with his or her misdeed. this meeting seldom goes well; few people like to be confronted with their shortcomings. sometimes the censured members decide to leave the church; sometimes pastor bob asks them to leave the church. when they leave, they take several families with them. soon the church is down to seventy members, then sixty, and finally fifty. pastor bob would love to see his church grow beyond fifty, but he can’t just ignore issues that require church discipline, can he?

geoff writes in the chapter about free passes for everyone, what effective church discipline looks like, and profiles dino rizzo at the end of the chapter on the subject.

how about you?  what situations have you dealt with in the realms of church discipline?  what lessons have you learned?  how does your church handle discipline?  the first 10 commentors who leave a comment between now and next tuesday, 15 june, will get a free copy of geoff’s book, ten stupid things that keep churches from growing.

when i was associate pastor in a little church in northern california i focused primarily on the youth – jr high through college age.  in one six-month period i was needed to preach a half-dozen times.  i needed some great material that would really touch the lives of the small congregation.  i had just finished reading a couple of john ortberg’s first books and aside from adding my own illustrations, used love beyond reason as the content of my messages.  

geoff surratt admits his tendency to do this early on in his ministry in a rural texas church in chapter 7 of ten stupid things that keep churches from growing.  this chapter looks at copying another successful church.  “the problem i ran into was that unchurches harry and saddleback sam didn’t live in huffman, texas; we were surrounded by redneck bubba and unemployed eddie.”  he says “the challenge is when we stop learning and start leaning; when we try to simply copy what we’ve seen in another successful ministry.”

geoff asks 4 questions to his readers to help find the unique niche that God has created you to fill:

• who are you?
• what can’t you stand?
• where is your church?
• who’s not going to your church?

God calls us to lead the specific ministry in the way he has wired us to lead.  who are you called to lead and how do you lead them?  comment below on how you figured out these two questions; i’ll randomly select one commentor and send them a free copy of ten stupid things and a journal with the cartoon of this chapter on the cover.