Carl Thompson wins a copy of The Multi-Site Revolution
Chris Colvin wins a copy of A Multi-Site Roadtrip
Vanessa wins a copy of Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches From Growing
I’ll send you an email to obtain your shipping address and then send you the book, pronto. Thanks very much for reading the Engaging Church blog and for supporting Geoff Surratt!
Best,
- Andrew
This week I caught up with pastor, author, innovator, and Church catalyst, Geoff Surratt. He’s the new Director of the Exponential Conference and along with Todd Wilson and Dave Ferguson is a part of the senior leadership team. The Exponential Conference is the largest gathering of church planters on the planet with an expected attendance of 5,000 this April. Will you be there?
Andrew: Describe your new role at Exponential in two sentences. What are you really going to be doing?
Geoff: In addition to overseeing the Exponential Conference my role includes aggregating, moderating and distributing content for church leaders as well as connecting church planters, church planting networks and church planting partners. Our goal is to catalyze reproducing church movements.
Andrew: When you attend the conference this April, what will you be focused on? Will you be learning how things run and watching the “behind the scenes” organization? In short what will be going through your head, given your new role?
Geoff: My main role at the conference this year is to make sure all of the speakers have all the Diet Coke they can drink. While this may seem trivial, it is really the engine the Exponential runs on. When I’m not pouring liquid manna I will be connecting with leaders and church planters and learning how we can better serve them in the coming year. Connecting with like-minded leaders is the best part of Exponential.
Andrew: The theme of the conference this year is around the idea of God’s leaders being “sifted.” Do you have a story of being sifted?
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.
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:
cubfann: 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.
cf: 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.
cf: 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.
cf: 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.
cf: 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.
cf: 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
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
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!
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
1. Troy, you say in Multi-site Church Road Trip that you and the team at Flamingo Road treat the Internet campus as just another neighborhood that you are trying to reach. How is it like other neighborhoods you reach? How is it different?
It is like other neighborhoods in that people have needs. And that is the doorway we use to help and to gain entrance into the community. Much like the neighborhood I live in people want community and anonymity at the same time. Some hide behind closed garage doors and others behind an alias screen name. In both places there are established “clicks” and social norms, ways in which people relate to one another that are unique to that neighborhood. We have also discovered that just like in a physical neighborhood those who make the effort to become “a part” are much more successful than those who do drive-by evangelism. One of the major differences is cost; it is much less expensive to advertise to the online community than it is to a physical neighborhood. The cost of billboards, direct mail, TV, door hangers etc., are much more expensive than blogs, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. So for the cost of one billboard for one neighborhood in a physical neighborhood you would be able to advertise in multiple online neighborhoods. For example you might blog about skateboarding and put up some pictures for one neighborhood and you might twitter and follow about parenting to a different neighborhood. One of the challenging differences is the level of engagement. A physical neighborhood’s “get together” happens at a specific time in a specific place and while you can do that online, most of the interaction happens at different times depending upon when they are online. It also often happens on Facebook, blog, Twitter etc., while they are also doing something else like watching TV, driving, or talking on the phone. So you can see the challenge to get their total attention–doable just more challenging. Those are just a few of the similarities and differences.
2. What are the qualities that you feel are important for an online campus pastor to possess? How are the same/different than that of an “in person” campus or venue?
I think it’s very easy when looking for an online campus pastor to seek someone technical rather than pastoral. While having some knowledge of technology, Web 2.0, and social media is important, the Internet Campus pastor’s heart must beat for people. They must be pastors first and digerati second. Online pastors deal with real people with very real hearts that want to experience God in a genuine way. Technology is simply a method to help people reach their God-potential–a vehicle to carry people closer to Christ worldwide. The online pastor needs to embrace this and allow the technological side to take care of itself. Online campus pastors and physical campus pastors are identical in purpose with each seeking to connect people with God and each other through various means. I think the primary difference, albeit obvious, is that the online campus must be content with genuine community happening without physical presence. The online campus pastor must purposefully seek out ways to leverage digital means to accomplish what the pastor at a physical campus can do with a handshake or a hug. However, as the lines blur between physical friends and online friends, the differences between these types of campus pastors will continue to diminish.
3. You told me that one of the greatest challenges about an Internet campus is being able to shape the environment for the participant because they can log in from such a diverse set of locations. Is there anything new that you have developed as a part of the campus that helps to address that challenge? If so, what does that look like?
While we can’t control the environment on the guest’s side, we certainly help by being intentional with our own. From the minute you join the Flamingo Road Church Internet campus experience, you are immersed in who we are as a church. We have designed our Internet campus page to be simple, with fewer potential distractions, while still remaining informative, welcoming, and practical. In addition, we believe that the chat experience during service helps in this. Many would argue that chat during services, in fact, causes distractions. We have experienced the opposite. Having our chat operational during the service allows guests to ask questions, seek prayer, and request clarification during the teaching time. We have talked to so many people online that are grateful for the chat feature. They tell us it provides instant answers and better understanding of what they are experiencing. Thus, the environment, however chaotic or varied on the guest’s end, becomes enriched and somewhat of a controllable constant from our side.
Each guest that logs in needs to feel less like they are sitting in front of a laptop and more like they are on the front row worshiping with the world. Through the use of the chat room, simple and concise page elements, and a community forum, guests quickly see themselves as attending church regardless of their particular physical location.
We have also increased our intentionality about how we communicate with the Internet campus. I will from time to time call out what they “might” be doing and ask them to turn off the TV or to stop checking email or come in out of the kitchen in an effort to TEACH them what it means to worship God. This idea came from one of our physical campuses when we were trying to TEACH them what worship was suppose to look like and we had our staff model it.
We are working on a couple of things such as an Internet campus specific pre-teaching that would help them with what it should look like. In a physical campus you might say please turn off your cell phones in the internet campus you might have the slide say, “Have a pad and pencil with you so that when you think of something you need to do you can write it down and NOT be tempted to jump up and do it.” We are also going to be adding a way for them to see others who are attending the Internet campus, while at first they may not be able to communicate with them they WILL be able to see how to worship online by modeling.
4. What is new about the multi-site ministry at Flamingo Road since we last talked?
On the multi-site front, we have started a new campus in Pensacola, Florida. The campus, which started last Easter, meets in a community college theater. The teaching is done via HD video and the campus continues to grow and develop.
We have also started life-development online. On Saturday nights, we have “iKids,” an online ministry for kids and their parents. On Wednesday nights, we have “theRush,” an online ministry for students. If we expect adults to do service online, we can expect it in their families, as well.
We are starting to have breakthrough attendance at some of our campuses and are dreaming about a larger international presence. We have a few places in mind but are waiting on a green light from God (money!) as well as relationships with future campus pastor.
We have spent some time wrestling with the differences between starting a campus small and starting big. The different ways in which you manage a campus depend on its size and the amount of time it needs from me, as the lead pastor.
Our Hallandale campus has proven to us that one of the great ways to bring renewal or rebirth to old and dying churches is through multi-site. Hallandale-FRC (formally First Baptist of Hallandale) had an attendance of 35-50 on the weekend and less than two years later there are 800. A great way for some of the older churches that have had huge impacts in the past to be a part of ministry for the next generation. We are praying for these opportunities.
5. What have I not asked that I should have?
Leadership: there is a huge difference in leading a multi-site church compared to a one-campus church.
Finance: the cost of multi-site and a financial model to have several campuses reaching unchurched people and to staff it.
Theological: there are those who believe that Internet campuses are not biblical.
Live vs. Video: while it may seem small there are huge philosophical differences between the two.
Check out the sidebar on the Multi-site Church Road Trip Blog that lists multisite churches with Internet Campuses.
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
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
Greg Ligon
Twitter – @gregligon
email – greg.ligon@leadnet.org
