i just read a great post from a blogger about reviewing free books from publishers. as someone who is in the publishing industry, and sends out free books to people that will review, i’m curious what others think. do you give more or less credence to a book review if the book was not paid for, but given away by a publisher?
Steve Chalke is a prominent, and often outspoken, Christian leader and social activist based in the UK, and an ordained Baptist minister. He is best known as the founder of Oasis Trust, Faithworks, Stop the Traffik and Church.co.uk. He is the author of numerous books and articles as well as a regular presenter and contributor on television and radio programmes. In 2004 he was awarded an MBE for his services to social inclusion by the Queen.
Steve’s latest book, Different Eyes, has released this month and touches on the subject of ethics, and the Christian’s response to the moral dilemmas of our day. How does a follower of Jesus live distinctively and think Christianly about issues such as war, wealth, and euthanasia?
The week of April 12-17th we will be running a blog tour. Fill out the form here, and if your blog is approved, we will send you a complimentary copy of Different Eyes by Steve Chalke. In return for the book, you will post up a review of the book on your blog and on Amazon.com, that’s it.
Thanks!
it’s been about 5 months since i’ve been around. i am renewing my interest in the blog, and will be bringing new content going forward. later today, i’ll have a post up on how you can get a free book sent to you if you have a blog and are interested in reviewing.
We’ve also been putting much more content on some other channels that you might want to check out:
We also have some fun and interesting ventures coming up in the next few weeks and months, so stay tuned for those.
In April of 2010, the new book from Dave and Jon Ferguson will be releasing to kick off the new Exponential Series at the Exponential Conference. This book is entitled – what else – Exponential. Exponential: How You and Your Friends can Start a Missional Church Movement is the anchor book in the Exponential Series – a partnership between Exponential Network, Leadership Network and Zondervan featuring several signature books each year to tell the reproducing church story, celebrate the diversity of models and approaches God is using to reproduce healthy congregations, and to highlight the innovative practices of healthy reproducing churches.
We are working through the cover design process and would like your help in choosing the cover design. Below are four cover options. Please leave your top choice for cover in the comments section. As a thank you, if you comment and send your mailing address to multisiteroadtrip@zondervan.com I will send you a free pre-release copy of the newest Leadership Network Innovation Series book, A Multi-Site Church Roadtrip (to the first 50 people only).
The voting and free book offer ends Sunday, 20 September. Thanks!
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 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
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.
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:
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.
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.
Smallgroups.com is the hub for the “Sticky Church” blog tour! They havet 18 blogs lined up to tackled the different chapters of Larry Osborne’s book Sticky Church, with each blog author tackling a different chapter. Leave a comment below on how you “slam the back door shut” and you might win a copy of Sticky Church. I’ll pick 5 random commentors this week and send them a copy of the book – so leave your email address or twitter handle as well so i can contact you.
Here is the schedule and the bloggers participating in the project:
August 17
Chapter 1: Sticky Church
Post written by Alan Danielson on AlanDanielson.TV.
Chapter 2: Who Are These Guys?
Post written by Tim Avery on Off the Agenda.
Chapter 3: How I Learned about the Importance and Power of Stickiness
Post written by Todd Rhoades on Monday Morning Insight.
Chapter 4: Why Stickier Churches Are Healthier Churches
Post written by Jesse Phillips on the Catablog.
August 18
Chapter 5: Velcroed for Growth
Post written by Dave Treat on Thinking Small.
Chapter 6: How Small Groups Change Everything
Post written by Reid Smith on 2orMore.
Chapter 7: Still More Ways That Small Groups Change Everything
Post written by Rick Howerton on The Gypsy Road.
Chapter 8: How Sermon-Based Small Groups Made Me a Better Preacher
Post written by Brian Lowery on The Preaching Today Blog.
August 19
Chapter 9: How Sermon-Based Small Groups Made Us a Better Church
Post written by Greg Bowman on Group Life.
Chapter 10: Why Some Groups Jell and Some Don’t
Post written by Mark Howell on Mark Howell Live.
Chapter 11: What Happens When a Sermon-Based Small Group Meets
Post written by Sam O’Neal on Small Group Dynamics.
Chapter 12: Overcoming the Time Crunch
Post written by Heather Zempel on Wineskins for Discipleship.
Chapter 13: Determining Your Primary Purpose
Post written by Kem Meyer on Less Clutter, Less Noise.
August 20
Chapter 14: Entry Points and Escape Routes
Post written by Chad Estes on the Captain’s Blog.
Chapter 16: Finding and Developing Leaders
Post written by Eric Nygren on Returned Sheep.
August 21
Chapter 15: Why Dividing Groups Is a Dumb Idea
Post written by Pat J. Sikora on Why Didn’t You Warn Me?
Chapter 17: Training Leaders
Post written by Caryn Rivadeneira on Gifted for Leadership.
Chapter 19: Before You Start: Five Key Questions
Post written by Zach Nielsen on Take Your Vitamin Z.
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.
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