Learnings @ Leadership Network

Links of Interest for week of June 18, 2010

OK, these are the links that I lingered over this week:

First off, I have to mention this thing Todd Rhoades, our digital sage, did this week to get input for THE NINES coming this September. The response to this pick list has generated almost 18,000 views in 48 hours AND lots of good suggestions AND almost 6800 people giving an opinion. So, if somehow you have missed it, check it here:

http://twtpick.in/4k

From Mariners Church in California, The Tithe Challenge video

http://vimeo.com/12379124

The Summer Hours idea from Tim Schraeder’s blog. How could I implement this idea?

http://www.timschraeder.com/2010/06/14/summer-hours/

Our friends at LCBC (That is a church which used to be known as Lancaster County Bible Church but is now Lives Changed by Christ) have purchased an old Saturn dealer for a new site:

http://www.yorkdispatch.com/business/ci_15300553

A report in a Canadian paper about research Leadership Network did in Europe on Multi Site churches there:

http://www.bibleleague.ca/news-detail-inter.php?id=172

From Brian Profitt’s blog a story about planting churches based on needs, not demographics:

http://preachingunleashed.com/smart-ministry/90-june-2010/172-church-plant-based-on-need-not-demographics

I thought Kevin Miller’s story over at Christianity Today on “No more don’t ask, don’t tell” was thought provoking.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/buildingleaders/ministrystaff/nomoredontask.html?start=1

Also from CT’s site, John Ortberg puts Paul Heibert’s thoughts on bounded and centered sets in layman’s language. We use this concept a lot at Leadership Network and John does a great job here.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/currenttrendscolumns/leadershipweekly/categoryconfusion.html

And a shout out to the editor over there Marshall Shelley for all his great work at producing these articles.

And finally, some thoughts from Evan McBroom’s blog on focusing not on facts and figures but real lives touched:

http://evanmcbroom.typepad.com/evan_mcbroom_the_other/2010/06/facts-figures-are-boring.html

I will have more next week. Send me some if you think I should see them!

 

Dave Travis

Managing Director

Leadership Network

Follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/davetravis

Or on facebook at www.facebook.com/davetravis

Missional Meets Multi-Site

One of the things that excites me about what God is doing is in the interface between missional models for church and multi-site strategies.  In Leadership Network’s interaction with both multi-site churches and externally focused churches, we are seeing more and more overlap.  Multi-site churches are reaching out to their community by using campuses to establish missional presence in neighborhoods.  On the flip side of the coin - externally focused churches are experiencing the “birth” of worshipping campuses in the areas of the city where they are serving the needs of the people they encounter.

I recently had the opportunity to interview two churches that model this growing trend. Two very different churches, each multisite, describe missional ways they’re making a difference in people’s lives in their respective communities. Each church found and met a need, doing so in a way that opens the door to spiritual conversations - one through hurricane relief and another through an aquatics center in partnership with their city.

Check out the podcast of my discussion with David DeGarmo, Multisite Director, Church of the King, in greater New Orleans, LA and Crull Chambless, Executive Pastor, Harvest Church, Billings, MT here.

Is your church engaging missional/multi-site synergies?  If so, or you know of another church that is, share the story via twitter (@gregligon) or email me.

Greg Ligon

Vice President and Publisher

twitter - @gregligon

email – greg.ligon@leadnet.org

Velocity - Day Two - Serious Name Dropping

And yes, I know, I should have taken more photos of the event to share.

I arrived early on Tuesday up at the Velocity Church Planters.com conference in order to check some email. But I sat in instead at Mark Clement’s breakout on Social Networking: Making Twitter, Facebook and all that work for you. It was good.  Mark leads bigpicturemediagroup.net. And no that is not a paid endorsement, I just enjoyed our time together.

Before I go further I will point you over to one of the hosts, Shawn Lovejoy’s blog for a wrap up. Said they had 33 States and 4 countries there for the week. http://www.shawnlovejoy.typepad.com/

Speaking of the other partners there at the conference, I got to chat with some of the various companies and organizations that I always enjoy.

I spoke to Bill Cochenour of Cogun. The day before I mentioned that I had seen him on the back cover (inside) of Seth Godin’s new book. He had no idea. Saw Bill’s brother Jim late on Tuesday. Also talked to some of the other guys from Cogun that are based here in the Atlanta area.

Saw William Vanderbloemen of Faith Search Partners along with a few of the others engaged in that search ministry effort. It was good to talk for a bit with William.

I got to have lunch with Alan Hirsch and he gave me a copy of his new book “Untamed”. He explained the idea to me the night before about how discipleship begins before conversion. I look forward to reading his thoughts. He wrote it with his wife and I realized that I have never met Mrs. Hirsch, only Alan. He said she was currently in Europe doing some work this week.

Brian and Amy Bloye sat down for a few minutes after lunch so we could catch up. They are also planning some good things for church planters in the coming days out at Westridge Church in Dallas.

I forgot to mention on Monday I did a video interview on Church Planter Fashion with Casey Graham of The Change Group. That was unique. I really like the ideas that the Change Group has for helping churches. Find them at www.thechangegroup.tv.

Again, that is not a paid blog post or anything, just me talking about a friend.

Ditto for Will Mancini, founder of Auxano. Yes he wrote a book for us (Church Unique) and now is spreading the clarity message including through their co:lab process. I think he spoke on that at the conference. www.auxano.com He is probably doing a lab near your town soon.

David Putnam, one of the co-founders of Churchplanters.com, caught me up on his latest journey and has now published this on his blog to let others know.http://davidputmanlive.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/my-new-ministry-adventure/

They had a hole in their speaking schedule which opened up time for David, Matt Carter and Darren Patrick to hold forth. Matt and Darren are some of the great leaders and pastors of the Next Generation. Alums of our Next Gen program.

I got to sit in with them for a few minutes backstage with Rick Warren. Rick was a great encourager to them and to the whole crowd that day. Rick spent a little time talking about his dreams for the next decade of his ministry. It’s very exciting. Also got to meet Steve Komanapalli of the Saddleback team on Tuesday. I know lots of the Saddleback team but it was my first time meeting Steve. Rick also told me some great stories about people he has met through twitter. Funny stuff

f. 
 

Saw some Church planters and others that I have known for years there as well. Always good to get updates from folks.

At the very end I worked in a quick hello to Mary Beth Stockdale. I follow her twitter @mbstockdale. She had been at innovation3 last year and I had missed her there and almost missed her Tuesday! She was kind to introduce me to her friend – Aubrey Howell (@simplyaubs) – so that was good to make a quick connect.

I had a late night that night as I did some consulting work with a church via a skype video call so I am using that as an excuse for why this post is so late. More Behind the Scenes over the next few hours.

Dave Travis

Managing Director

Day One At The Velocity/Churchplanters.com conference

Well our team is scattered around the country today. We have some team members out in California at the Recovery Conference. We have teams locked into our Dallas Collaboration Studio for our Missional Renaissance Leadership Community. Beyond the US we have a team in Greece for our European Church Planting Network. Works like our Leadership Communities.

But Sherry Surratt and I are here at the Velocity Church Planting Conference in Cumming, Georgia. Sherry is speaking and I am here just to talk to people. Shawn Lovejoy is lead pastor here and they do a great job hosting and planning this deal. David Putnam, his co conspirator at churchplanter.com came by to harangue me about his new book Detox. I haven't read it yet but it looks great. Shawn is going to be an Aha! speaker next week. http://aha.leadnet.org.

I spoke to Larry Osborne and Chris Mavity of North Coast Church out in California. I recorded a video with Larry about his new book "Sticky Teams" which I will release soon. Chris and I spoke about a conference they are planning out at North Coast about the new book. That will be in the fall at their new building.

Todd Wilson and I met out in the Exponential RV for a few minutes and I got a video from him too. A lot of our team will gather down at Exponential in Orlando this spring. So come find us there.

Hugh Halter, author of our LN Book, Tangible Kingdom, is here speaking.  

And I ran onto Noel Hekkinen and his son Ethan yesterday as well. Ethan is 9 and was the youngest "participant" there.

We had a nice dinner hosted by Shawn and David and their wives at Tam's Backstage in Cumming. This restaurant is in an old Elementary School, probably built during the depression. But it is very nicely done refurbishment.

I was lucky to have Larry Osborne at one elbow and Alan Hirsch at the other with Noel and Ethan across from me. I also got to speak to John Worcester who I haven't seen for years. It was good catch up with what he is doing now in California.

I will share more from Velocity tomorrow.

But it is a great conference to keep in mind for next year!

Dave Travis

Managing Director

The Greenhouse Effect – Seacoast Church and Leadership

Mac Lake from Seacoast Church is fast becoming one of the “go-to-gurus” for leadership development.  I recently interviewed him to get an update on what was new at Seacoast in the area of leadership development.  Take a look at Mac’s explanation of the latest adaptation to their model – introducing a greenhouse culture. 

You can follow Mac via twitter @maclake and also by joining the Leading Multi-site Online Community.

What are you learning about leadership development?

 

 

 

Leadership Network has plans in place to launch a new leadership community focused on leadership development later this year.  If you are interested, contact Linda Stanley via twitter @lindastanley or email her at linda.stanley@leadnet.org

 

Greg Ligon

Leadership Network

twitter - @gregligon

greg.ligon@leadnet.org

Multi-site Churches and Central Support Teams

I recently spent some time with Kevin Penry from LifeChurch.tv   where he was serving as a coach/consultant for eight multi-site churches participating in Leadership Network’s Multi-site JumpStart InnovationLab.  During one of the breaks I asked Kevin to tell me about the greatest challenge for him as the multi-site ministry at LifeChurch.tv had grown over the last several years.  In this video, he shares how he and the central team stay engaged “on-the-ground” as they serve campuses literally around the world.

 

If your church has launched your first multi-site campus in the last six to eight months, you may be interested in applying to be a part of the next Multi-site JumpStart InnovationLab.  Applications can be requested from julia.burk@leadnet.org or downloaded at Multi-site JumpStart InnovationLab.  

 

Greg Ligon

Leadership Network

twitter – gregligon

email – greg.ligon@leadnet.org

Multi-Site Church Blogger’s Tour

A little over a year ago, Warren Bird, Geoff Surratt and I took a “road trip” as we connected with 15 plus of the leading innovative churches in the multi-site movement.  At each stop we learned about one of the latest innovations in the way multi-site that is being executed in the United States and literally around the world.  We reported on our exploration in our book A Multi-site Church Road Trip.  

 

On December 15, we will be taking a different kind of tour – a tour of 15 or more blogs where we will answer the questions of the following bloggers:

Story in the Making   Ben Arment   http://www.benarment.com

Monday Morning Insight   Todd Rhoades   http://mondaymorninginsight.com/

Mosaic   Eric Bryant   http://ericbryant.org/

Leading from the Second Chair   Mike Bonem http://www.secondchair.blogspot.com/

Observations   Bill Easum   www.billeasum.com

Guiding Christian Leaders   Tom Bandy   http://tgbandy.com/

BullardJournal   George Bullard   http://www.bullardjournal.org/

Consulting, Coaching and Chatter   Bill Tenny-Brittian http://www.billtennybrittian.com/

Women Who Lead   Sherry Surratt   http://www.sherrysurratt.com

LifeChurch.tv (NW OKC Campus)   Scott Williams http://bigisthenewsmall.com/

Granger Community Church (Elkhart Campus)   Jeff Bell http://livewellleadwell.com

Eagle Brook Church (White Bear Lake Canpus)   Don Graffam http://wblbehindthescenes.wordpress.com/

South Bend campus of Grace Community Church   Tim Boucher http://bouchersblog.blogspot.com/

Bay Area Fellowship   Bil Cornelius   http://www.bilcornelius.com/blog

Captain’s Blog   Chad Estes   http://chadestes.com

Please join us on these blogs and here on the Multi-Site Church Road Trip Blog and feel free to ask a question of your own.  Rumor has it that there will be a free copy of the book given to anyone who can stump Geoff Surratt!

@GregLigon – greg.ligon@leadnet.org

@GeoffSurratt – GeoffSurratt@seacoast.org

@WarrenBird - warren.bird@leadnet.org

Releasing for Reproduction

I recently spent a little time with Dave Ferguson from Community Christian Church in Naperville.  If you know Dave and you know Community Christian, you know that they are all about reproduction – leaders, artists, campuses, church plants and networks.  At a recent planning session, they realized that with reference to reproducing campuses, they were stuck. Check out this video to hear how they got unstuck and the amazing results.

Greg Ligon, Vice President and Publisher, Leadership Network
twitter – gregligon and #leadnet

difference between multi-site campus and church plant?

Sometimes things can happen very quickly. After 2 weeks of vision-casting via a 2-week message series, describing what the leadership of Rock Harbor church was discerning for the coming year, attenders were invited to participate in the new multi-site campus launch in South County on the following Sunday!

To be fair, of course there were months of preparation and prayer, manifested in a summer partnership called the South County Project. The launch was also mentioned in the local newspaper, "RockHarbor church launches new South County campus".

As part of its "2+1" campaign, ROCKHARBOR is raising up 2 campuses and sending out 1 church plant in the next 12 months. To communicate this concisely and effectively to the thousands of attenders, here's how ROCKHarbor described the difference between a multi-site campus and a church plant:

"... a ROCKHARBOR campus is the full expression of RH vision and values existing in a specific geographical location. a campus falls under the leadership of RH and is centrally resourced by current RH staff. each campus will be an extension of what people experience at ROCKHARBOR central, but closer to home. a RH campus is not simply a different venue for weekend services, but contains the full spectrum of RH ministries within a geographical region. that means each campus has its own life groups. its own alpha course. its own REGUE. its own serve opportunities, etc. " [via]

"what is a church plant? ... a ROCKHARBOR church plant is an increasingly autonomous community that has received the blessing and affirmation of RH leadership. church plants will be unique to their specific contexts and will have their own elder board and leadership teams. how much a church plant shares the vision and values of RH is up to them." [via]

Question to you: How have you heard and seen church leaders communicate its multi-site strategy to their congregation?

Disclosure: ROCKHARBOR is my home church, and I was present at the launch of ROCKHARBOR South County. Below is my photo essay captured live on Sunday morning. There are also photos at the campus website, www.rhsouthcounty.org.

DJ CHUANG, Leadership Community Director at Leadership Network

The Birds and Bees of Reproduction

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 fro adults, students and kids.  It is awesome!

Geoff Surratt

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

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 fro adults, students and kids.  It is awesome!

Geoff Surratt

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