The Multi-Site Church Conference first day...

Well, today Gary and I arrived to Naperville, IL at a church named
Community Christian Church in the



"yellow box"

ready to learn more from the Multi-Site Conference put on by the Leadership Network. We registered, attended a preliminary main discussion talk that was a huge Q&A with the Sr. Pastors of the three churches that are putting on this event. It is interesting, and nice to hear the questions that others are asking about multi-site church models. Then Gary and I went to two different breakout sessions and Gary went to one that was titled "getting started with multi-site", and I went to one titled, "Building Distance Campuses".

The three churches and the Sr. Pastors that are putting this stuff on are:

Community Christian Church
North Coast Church
Seacoast Church

The Sr. Pastors

It just so happened that Gary had the Sr. Pastor of North Coast Church an d I had the support staff from the same church...and they both talked about similar things, heh.... but I think my got a little more specific info...but it was good for both of us...now what they are doing might not be directly applicable to what God is laying on our hearts..but this is still a lot of things we can take from them and apply them to The Waters and Florence UMC.

Some specifics that I can share:

• Every multi-site must be flexible and willing to change. The church from the get go and in the very DNA must be flexible to change any way necessary to make sure that the ministry will be effective. (i.e. restructure staffing, worship, leadership development, etc...)
  
• There is a central support system from the "mother church" to all of the campuses, that would provide curriculum, seminars, etc...
• They would not launch another campus unless they had a full time Sr. Pastor, part-time worship leader, and part-time admin assistant.
• They really believe that the different campuses must be regional in their focus.
• They encourage worship at al the locations of the church...so that they all understand they are the same church...just on different campuses.
• Some mistakes they made were that if the campus is more the 20 mins drive from the mother church that it takes a lot more time to develop and launch a a church and that they treat it more like a church plant.
• The risk of going into the red for a little bit of time to get into the black can be worth the risk if you know that the method will work.
• The Campus Pastor is KEY!
• Small groups and community are KEY!
• They use video feeds of the Sr. Pastor preaching at all their locations except the main location (which is recorded live Saturday evening and fed at the same time to three other locations, and then shown via DVD on Sunday mornings for all of their worship services and different locations.
• They use an amazing video series for their children's ministry called KidMo check this stuff out...it is amazing!!!

The last main sessions had a few good quotes:

• "Leaders like it big.....but people like it small" <--a great challenge for all churches and church leaders.
• The new Neighborhood is no longer where people lie it is: 1. Their Job, 2. Their passion (i.e. sports, children's sports, etc...) and 3. Station in Life (i.e. parent, single, grandparent, child, youth, college, etc...) The church must learn to be in the new neighborhood.
• Quality is no longer a luxury....it is an expectation.
• Quality = good enough....NOT excellence! (i.e. if you worship excellence, ten you will miss empowerment of others! When we make excellence key, we stop raising up leaders and start recruiting leaders....good enough will allow for leaders to rise up out of the church and continue a grow of the church instead of the programs. The story he told was that when we make excellence the key we strat to think that bigger is better and we start to have to hire out from all over the nation to fill a role of ministry (i.e. worship leader that can lead 4,000 in worship, instead of giving opportunities for leaders to emerge from the fellowship and lead 40 peopl ein worship and will grow them up! (probably did not do justice on this one..but it made sense, heh.
• Never aim at an age group demographic! Only aim at a mind set of people!
• People can fully allow and express differences and still love each other!
• Worship can be at a different: time, day, style, and location....and it still be the same church! Just do it for a few weeks and everyone will see the truth!

The funny thing is that so far I have not talked to anyone who is looking at doing what we are talking about doing! That is exciting and full of faith. I did talk to one of the directors of the multi-site church aspect of the Leadership Network and he gave me a few names so I hope to find these people and see what they are doing and if we can learn from them...so I am sure you will read more about them in the future....(I think if these are good contacts that this info would be worth the price of admission right there....heh)

Well, Gary is already in bed and I am here typing up this daily recount on this blog...so I need to get some sleep for a VERY long day tomorrow of lectures, Q&A, and then a very long and tiring drive back home! Please KUTPs!!! and know that we love and appreciate all of you!

Hopefully more this week from what we heard tomorrow!

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sorry no movie quote this time...I am so tired, heh!...well OK here is one I have never seen but the quote sure fits well, heh....

Emma Peel: It's late, I'm tired, and I want to go to bed.
Strange Young Man: In that case, how would you like me to tuck you up?
Emma Peel: In that case, how would you like me to break your arm.

-"The Advengers" TV Series 1961-1969